Wild Pitch

With Neal Saffran at the plate, two outs and the bases loaded, Parkville's Larry Reaves threw a wild pitch and host Franklin's Tim Angel scored the game-winning run in the seventh inning as Franklin edged Parkville, 4-3, in a Class 3A North region semifinal yesterday.Dominic Liberto went 3-for-4 and scored two runs for the Indians (16-3).Mike Trott got the win after coming on in relief in the fifth with the Indians trailing 2-1.Franklin will play host to Randallstown at 3:45 p.m. tomorrow in the region final.

Cal Ripken Jr. stopped by The Baltimore Sun this morning as part of the promotional tour for his third children's novel, “Wild Pitch,” which came out today. The book - about a young pitcher who loses his confidence after beaning an opponent - was co-written by Sun columnist Kevin Cowherd. Before leaving on a book signing tour that will include stops in a number of spring training spots (including the Orioles' camp in Sarasota on Thursday), Ripken sat down for a quick Q&A touching on the O's, his color commentary, the late Earl Weaver and his son Ryan.

The box score will tell you that the Orioles got beat last night on a broken-bat hit by John Olerud and a ground-ball single by Tony Fernandez. But in reality, it was Roberto Alomar who stole the game.His leadoff single put the Blue Jays in business in the ninth inning, and the talented second baseman kept them in motion long enough to produce a 2-1 victory. The game's turning point came on a wild pitch that never left the area of home plate."I thought that was the key to the inning," said Paul Molitor, who at the time was in the midst of a tantalizing eight-pitch duel with Ben McDonald.

It could have been one of the more uplifting games of the Orioles' disappointing season, a stirring effort by a makeshift lineup and a patched-together bullpen. Instead, Saturday's 5-4, ninth-inning meltdown loss to the Toronto Blue Jays was just another one that got away in a year of innumerable missed opportunities. This one ended with another implosion by closer Kevin Gregg, who blew his seventh save in 27 chances and third in his past six opportunities. "The guys did an outstanding job. The whole team put together a great effort today.

After nearly nine innings of toe-to-toe baseball yesterday at Poly, it was visiting C. Milton Wright that delivered its own knockout blow.On his first delivery, Mustangs reliever Geoff Hillyard uncorked a wild pitch that rolled to the backstop, scoring Craig Maki with the XTC winning run in a 7-6 Poly victory."

Amanda Strandquist never hesitated.Standing on third with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Strandquist didn't expect Howard pitcher Kelly O'Neill to throw over the glove of catcher Stacey Swiney. But when that happened, on an 0-2 count, Strandquist knew what to do."I saw it and just went," said Strandquist, who raced down the zTC line and scored to give Glenelg a 3-2 victory over the visiting Lions. "You don't have time to think. You just go."The play culminated a hard-fought, well-pitched game between Glenelg's Shana Wyant (seven strikeouts, one walk)

With strong pitching and defense almost always guaranteed among the Anne Arundel County's elite softball teams, the challenge often becomes finding different ways to score runs. Against visiting North County yesterday, Chesapeake brought some aggressive base running to accompany senior pitcher Erin Taylor. Scratching two runs across in the bottom of the third -- highlighted by Lindsay Ries' delayed steal of home -- the No. 5-ranked Cougars came away with a resourceful, error-free win over the No. 4 Knights, 3-1. Taylor, who now has a 4-1 mark that includes wins over No. 2 Glen Burnie and No. 3 Northeast, worked her way out of a first-inning jam, allowing just one run on three hits and then pitching shutout ball the rest of the way. The Cougars broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning, Kristen Bishoff (3-for-4, two runs)

Former big leaguer Calvin Jones uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Brad Tyler to score the winning run last night as the Bowie Baysox nipped the Canton-Akron Indians, 4-3, at Memorial Stadium for their fourth straight victory.Jones entered in the seventh with Tyler on third base via a double and Edgar Alfonzo's sacrifice.With T. R. Lewis at the plate, he fired a pitch under catcher Ryan Martindale and Tyler trotted home easily.A crowd of 5,210 watched Terry Farrar, the Orioles' minor-league pitcher of the month in July, break a personal two-game losing streak with a seven-inning stint.

The Minnesota Twins had this one all wrapped up. Bill Krueger tied the Orioles in knots for seven innings and stopper Rick Aguilera was in to tie up the loose ends. But that was before they fell victim to the curse of Camden Yards.The Orioles have been nearly unbeatable in their new ballpark, and last night they staged a comeback to rival anything that happened during the "Why Not?" season of 1989. They scored four times in the ninth inning off one of the best relievers in the game for a heart-stopping, 5-4 victory.

After nearly nine innings of toe-to-toe baseball yesterday at Poly, it was visiting C. Milton Wright that delivered its own knockout blow.On his first delivery, Mustangs reliever Geoff Hillyard uncorked a wild pitch that rolled to the backstop, scoring Craig Maki with the winning run in a 7-6 Poly victory."

Orioles right-handed reliever David Hernandez was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with a sprained left ankle, meaning that his lone appearance on the mound for new manager Buck Showalter was a rough one in which he could get only one out. "I'm more disappointed more so just because we got a different manager and you kind of want to show him what you are able to do," said Hernandez, who allowed two hits, a walk, a wild pitch and a...

The Orioles had predicted for days that when the offensive breakout finally came, it would be swift and powerful. There would be timely hitting, aggressive base running and patient at-bats. The bottom of the seventh inning had all those elements Saturday night, but the most pleasant sight was the reappearance of an Orioles offense that had been in a deep slumber. Trailing by two runs and having already bungled several scoring chances, the Orioles scored six times in the seventh inning to defeat the Atlanta Braves, 8-4, and break a three-game losing streak before an announced 29,645 at Camden Yards.

I think I speak for all long-suffering Orioles fans when I say to Andy MacPhail and the rest of the big decision-makers for the 2009 season ... Wait. I'm pretty sure I'm not speaking for many of them at all. I might be on an island on this one. But here goes ... Bring Daniel Cabrera back. OK, now here come the long-suffering Orioles fans, all shouting in unison: Sucker! Fair enough. Cabrera really isn't entitled to any more patience from anybody - in the front office, dugout or stands.

CLEVELAND -- The New York Yankees are on the brink of being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight year. Despite Andy Pettitte's outstanding performance, the Yankees lost, 2-1, to the Cleveland Indians in 11 innings last night to fall behind in the best-of-five American League Division Series two games to zero. It was a loss filled with weird phenomena: only three hits by the normally potent Yankees offense, a bizarre infestation of bugs at rocking Jacobs Field from the eighth inning on and the first blown save of rookie phenom Joba Chamberlain's career.

If I read every single unsolicited "must-have" business or management book that gets sent to me, reading would be my full-time job. Bookstores have always had titles such as finding the right parachute or how to win and influence friends and colleagues. But now they're joined by penguins and the latest business executive dishing out advice on bettering your career. So I was pretty amused when I got a news release about a parody on "must-have" office handbooks called Cube Monkeys: A Handbook for Surviving the Office Jungle by editors of CareerBuilder.

With a three-run fourth inning in the midst of another pitching gem from senior Carly Martin, Seton Keough continued to boldly state its case as the area's top-ranked softball team yesterday, coming away with a sturdy 3-0 win over No. 2 Archbishop Spalding. In a rematch of last year's Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship game, the host Gators displayed timely hitting and an ability to get the tough outs to beat the two-time league champion Cavaliers for a second time this spring.

BOWIE -- The Bowie Baysox scored an insurance run in the eighth inning on a wild pitch and held off the Trenton Thunder, 6-5, in a Double-A Eastern League game that marked the return of Dave Dellucci to the minor leagues.Dellucci, sent back to Bowie by the Orioles to make room for Geronimo Berroa, went 1-for-5 and scored a run but was not a major factor offensively."I just need to make a mental note to try to hit the ball to the gaps," said Dellucci. "I don't expect that to take too long."

CLEVELAND -- National League batting leader Larry Walker's at-bat against Seattle left-hander Randy Johnson in the second inning turned into a virtual replay of John Kruk's famous at-bat against Johnson in the 1993 All-Star Game at Camden Yards.Johnson's first pitch sailed far over Walker's head and hit the backstop. Walker, a left-handed hitter who refused to play against the intimidating Johnson in an interleague game last month, turned his batting helmet around, stepped across the plate and took the next pitch right-handed.

The rematch many wanted, especially Mexico, is on. Mexico rode the arm of righthander Ray Gutierrez to a 2-1 victory over the Dominican Republic in the international championship game of the Cal Ripken 12-and-under World Series in Aberdeen yesterday. Mexico will make its fourth consecutive appearance in the World Series final at 5:05 today at Cal Sr.'s Yard against the U.S. champion Hawaii - which edged Mexico, 1-0, last year. The game will be televised live on OLN. Mexico was a back-to-back champion in 2003 and 2004 and runner-up to Hawaii last year after edging the Dominican Republic last year in a game very similar to yesterday's.

His counterpart, Livan Hernandez, threw fastballs consistently in the low to mid-80s, and Hernandez's off-speed stuff was clocked on the stadium radar gun as low as 61 mph. Daniel Cabrera, meanwhile, stood on the mound and was forced into rearing back and pumping fastball after fastball toward the plate. And for most of the afternoon, Cabrera had no idea where that pitch was headed. The Orioles pitcher obviously hates talking about his wildness, and he avoided the topic yesterday, leaving the clubhouse before the media were allowed in. But after a start such as the one he delivered, the questions are inevitable.