Q-C continues to swing away

By Jon Gremmels | Sunday, August 06, 2006 | Comments(0)

Keith Mitchell has had to replace some big sticks in the lineup with Colby Rasmus, Randy Roth and others getting promoted by the St. Louis organization this season. The Swing of the Quad-Cities offense

hasn’t seemed to miss a beat.

The Swing lead the Midwest League with a .271 batting average and knocked around 11 hits Saturday night in a 6-2 win against Clinton at John O’Donnell Stadium.

“The big thing for us is the guys who came in are producing right away,” Mitchell said.

Jon Jay, Mark Hamilton and Tyler Greene — three relative newcomers who fill the 3-4-5 spots in the batting order — made key contributions in the win that kept the Swing in first place in the West Division standings. Jay went 4-for-5, stole a base and scored three runs; Hamilton had a pair of RBIs; and Greene added three hits in the win.

“We’ve come in and tried to contribute any way we can,” Jay said. “We’ve got to keep doing it from now to the end of the season.”

Jay was in the middle of things in all three innings in which the Swing scored.

The second-round draft pick this June from the University of Miami led off a two-run fourth with an opposite-field, line-drive single to left field; drove in a run with a single in the three-run fifth; and opened the seventh with a single and scored the final run on a wild pitch after a walk to Hamilton and a single by Greene loaded the bases with one out.

“My teammates do a great job ahead of me creating situations,” Jay said of coming up in the fifth with runners on second and third and one out. His single scored Daryl Jones, the No. 9 hitter who went 2-for-4. Jay then stole second base and moved to third while Shane Robinson scored on a wild pitch by Glen Swanson. Jay used his speed again to increase the Swing’s lead to 5-1 when Hamilton hit a tapper toward third base that resulted in an error.

“As long as the pitchers can keep us in the game we have a chance with the hitting we have,” Mitchell said.

Pitching was the lone concern Saturday. Starter Adam Ottavino (1-1) walked six batters in 51/3 innings but still came away with the win. After stellar relief performances from Victor Moreno and Jonathan Mikrut, Chris Perez made things interesting in the ninth by walking the bases loaded before striking out John Whittleman to end the game with the tying run at the plate.

Jon Gremmels can be contacted at (563) 383-2294 or at jgremmels@qctimes.com.

 

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