On a day when it was announced that one of the Vancouver Canadians representatives in the NWL All-Star side would be Matt Sulentic - a guy who doesn’t play for us anymore - the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes turned out against a C’s team that was playing for precious little more than pride, and successfully beat that pride out of them with a 19-3 demolition job that will still hurt next season.

Sure, the Volcs are running away with the NWL West just as the C’s are slumping their way to 3rd, but if anyone expected a shellacking like this, in our own house, I’m damned if I heard their predictions.

Scott ‘Real’ Deal may well find his NFTN nickname changed to ‘Raw’ with his 4.2 innings of 9 run (6 earned) ball, but hey, you can cope with a rough start from a starter, especially when he’s performed well for most of the season.

But when you call on Kevin ‘Wild’ Bunch to stop the bleeding and he gives up 6 more earned runs in a ‘Bunch Drunk’ 1.2 inning spell, well, put down the glasses and call a cab, because the game is over.

Down 15 runs to 3 when Shane ‘Pasta’ Presutti came in for Bunch Drunk in the 7th, you might have hoped that the damage was done and the C’s could maybe score a few more runs and get some respectability for the home fans, but no such luck, as Pasta surpassed both Deal and Bunch in ineptitude, giving up 4 earned runs (including a homer) in just two outs.

In the end, it was up to The Commissioner, Derrick Gordon, to end the shame, with two scoreless innings that included a K and no walks.

With the bat, Corny Cobb continued to shine a light for the C’s in the lead-off spot with a 2-4 night with a double, while Alex Valdez continued his strong, silent resurgence, echoing Cobb’s stats while earning 2 RBIs on the night.

Jermaine Mitchell lowered his average with a 1–3 night (he’s now hitting .353), and Prowling Greg Dowling went 1-4 with an RBI.

On the Salem-Keizer end, catcher Adam ‘Multi-Hitter’ Witter hit for the cycle.

Just to rub salt in.

You can’t always win, especially when the other team is starting a guy like Adam Cowart, who has a 9-0, 0.86 record (for God’s sake, just promote the kid already!), but holy cow, when your pitching implodes like this, you can’t help but get annoyed, especially when you’re playing in front of a decent crowd of 3700 people.

Double fitness training for the pitchers tomorrow, I’m thinking.

If that happens, one guy not likely to be doing stairclimbs in section 4 will be Scott ‘Say No’ Moore, who got promoted to Kane County earlier in the week. What a shock.

Wednesday’s game starts at 1pm - Yes, that’s right, it’s a NOOOOOOOOONER! Be there of be considered a closet Spokane fan.

Note:

August 29, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Salem-Keizer 3 0 3 0 3 0 10 0 0 19 16 1 Vancouver 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 8 2 box | log W: A. Cowart (10-0, 0.80); L: S. Deal (7-4, 3.30) HR: SKV: A. Witter (15).