Both Tacoma and Wisconsin kicked off their championship series yesterday:
Tacoma dropped game 1 to Nashville, 8-6. This wasn't Bobby Livingston at his best. He allowed five homers in five innings, including back-to-back-to-back solo shots in the bottom of the fourth. Try as the Rainiers might to get enough offense (they had three homers of their own, after all), Livingston and Cha Baek just put the team in too big of a hole. If there's good news, it's that pretty much the entire Rainier bullpen is rested for tonight's contest. Tacoma had 15 hits in all, three apiece for Shin-soo Choo and Aaron Rifkin. Justin Leone, Fat Lazy Catcher, and TJ Bohn all went yard. Notables:
Livingston: 5 IP, 8 H, 6 ER, 5 K, 5 HR
Leone: 1-4, 1 HR
FLC: 2-5, 1 HR
Bohn: 2-4, 1 HR
Choo: 3-4, 1 2B, 1 BB
Rifkin: 3-5
Nunez: 2-4
Cabrera: 1-4
Rivera: 1-4
Wisconsin also lost, falling 6-4 to South Bend. Mark Lowe made it through six innings, but he probably shouldn't have, given that he allowed 11 hits and put his team in a 5-1 hole before the end of the third. The T'Rats tried to come all the way back, getting a homer from Matt Tuiasosopo in the fourth and an RBI single by Mike Wilson in the sixth, but they wouldn't get another baserunner all game, sealing the loss. Wilson and Brent Johnson each had three knocks, and Tuiasosopo's homer was the big hit of the day. Notables:
Lowe: 6 IP, 11 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 2 HR
Lockwood: 2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
Tuiasosopo: 1-4, 1 HR
Johnson: 3-5
Wilson: 3-5
Clement: 0-4
Womack: 1-3
Hubbard: 1-5
Coming up:
Tacoma: Foppert (5pm PDT, don't miss the Gamecast)
Wisconsin: Jensen (5pm PDT)