Whitecaps shut out for 14th time this season

Tue, Aug 19, 2008    to del.icio.us

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — For the third time in the last five games the Whitecaps were shutout as South Bend prevailed 3-0.

It was a 1-0 game until Jo Jo Batten hit a two-run homer off reliever Orlando Perdomo with two out in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Whitecaps' starting pitcher Mauricio Robles allowed just four hits and one run — all of them in the first two innings.

He pitched seven innings total and took the loss to fall to 4-3.

At one point, Robles retired 13 batters in a row.

Bryan Henry made a spot start for South Bend and pitched five innings to earn the victory. Jeff Dietz threw two innings while Daniel Schlereth and Clay Zavada each pitched an inning to combine for the shutout.

West Michigan out-hit the Silver Hawks, 6-5. After South Bend took a 1-0 lead in the first when Derrick Walker drove in Batten with a base hit, the Whitecaps left the tying run in scoring position in each the second, third and fourth innings.

Joe Tucker was 2-for-4 for the Whitecaps.

South Bend will win the season series. They are 13-10 against the Whitecaps with one meeting to go. This comes after the Whitecaps swept a four-game series in South Bend to open the season, including a 15-2 victory on opening night, April 3.

It was the 14th time this season that West Michigan has been shutout.