TriValley game vs. Diamondbacks on 4/6/2003

We settled for a 12-12 tie with the D'Backs on Sunday. The good news is that we came from 3 runs down in the ninth inning to get the tie. The bad news is we let an earlier lead slip away.

The D'Backs jumped on Denny Brown for 4 in the top of the first. This didn't make Denny happy, even though it was 3 runs better than last week. We got one back in the bottom. Randy Cobb walked, stole second, advanced to third on the throw into center, and scored on Tom Squier's sacrifice fly.

We traded single runs in the second. Pete Barnhardt doubled and scored on Brian May's single. Jim Gardner and Denny singled in the inning. Frank Bower scored on Sandy Spier's groundout.

We tied the score with a three-run third. Phil Montes led off with a single and stole second. Randy walked. With two out, Jim lined a double over the left fielder's head to drive in two. Jim scored when Frank beat the throw after a bobble on his grounder.

The D'backs took back the lead in the fifth. Three singles started the inning, but Denny escaped a big inning when Phil picked off a runner at third, limiting the bad guys to only one run.

We took our first lead with a three-run sixth. Zach Jones and Jim led off with base hits. Art White bunted them up to second and third. Denny put us ahead with a base hit. Art, running for Denny, stole second and third and scored on Sandy's infield hit.

Our lead was shortlived. Pete Barnhardt got things started again. After a two-out RBI double, Denny turned it over to Zach. Zach gave up a couple of hits, and got a K to get out of the inning. But not before they got 3 runs to take a 9-8 lead.

We came right back and tied it up in the bottom of the 7th. Phil walked, stole second, and scored on Randy's base hit. Pete Barnhardt relieved Carl Paz and prevented any further damage.

The D'Backs responded right away too. They scored three big runs in the top of the eighth. Pete Barnhardt's double, his fifth hit of the day, was the big blow. We contributed a couple of errors to keep the inning alive.

Pete shut us out in the bottom of the eighth, and Zach shut them out in the top of the ninth. So we went into the bottom of the ninth down 12-9.

Bill Jones drew a lead-off walk. Sal stroked a single. With two outs, Tom Squier hit a shot to right center that drove in Bill and put runners on second and third. Zach then hit a drive over the center-fielder's head for a triple that tied the score 12-12. After an intentional walk to Jim, Pete got Art to ground out to third and save the tie.

The umps then called the game on time limit.