Bridgewater and Koeneman Lead Orange Juice to Game One Victory

Austin Bridgewater pitched eight shutout innings giving up five hits to lead Orange Juice to a game one victory.  Bridgewater, who struck out four and walked three, ran into trouble in the 8th inning.  After a leadoff single by Wes Dozier, and a Lance Rorex ground out, Walker Bullington got on by an error.  With runners on first and third, Bridgewater got Lucas Mohon to ground into a double play to end the threat. 

Equally impressive was Blue Bomber starter Robby Thigpen.  Thigpen took a no-hitter into the sixth, when Zach Long got on with a broken bat single.  Kyle Koeneman would then hit the first pitch over the right center wall to give the Juice a 2-0 lead.  Thigpen went 71/3 allowing only 2 hits while striking out eight. 

In the 9th, Lance Reed would lead off with a walk for the Blue Bombers.  After two groundouts, Evan Patterson would beat out an infield single that scored Reed with the first run for the Bombers.  Patterson would soon be thrown out at third after stealing second and trying to advance to third.  Mike Mullen pitched the ninth for the Juice to pick up the save.

Game 2 Starters- Blue Bombers- Lucas Watson             Orange Juice- Ryan Fillers

Orange Juice Leaders

Austin Bridgewater- Winning pitcher- 8 IP- 5 Hits- 4 K's

Kyle Koeneman- 1-3 HR- 2 RBI's

Blue Bombers Leaders

Robby Thigpen- 7 1/3- 2 Hits- 2 Runs- 8 K's- 1 BB

Tyler Cuming- 1 2/3- 0 Hits

Evan Patterson- 3-3- 2B- 2 HBP- 1 RBI

Game 1 Winning Pitcher Austin Bridgewater- "Hit my spots today, fastball was located well.  I was able to make big pitches when I had to"   On tomorrow's game- "It will be close game like today"

Winning Skipper Mills Rogers- "Classic matchup between Thigpen and Bridgewater.  They have battled against each other all fall.  The home run was big for us.  With Ryan Fillers pitching, we have a lot of confidence"

Losing Skipper Brandon Turner- "We played with them the whole game.  Not able to get sacrifice bunts down early hurt a little bit.  Today's game should give us confidence that we can win the series"