Saturday, May 30: Away vs. Hazleton

Outlaws 4     Hazleton 1

   Jon Mandile (2-0) pitched a complete game 4-hitter and Justin Rodriguez drove in 2 runs as the Outlaws won their third straight with a 4-1 win against Hazleton.

   In a game which shaped up to be a pitching duel, Mandile limited Hazleton to only 1 run on 4 hits, striking out 6 and walking none.

  The Outlaws got on the scoreboard first in the top of the 3rd.  A one-out walk to Joe Abuiso was followed by an infield drag bunt by Donnie Pietrafesa.  The ball was thrown away allowing Abuiso to score all the way from first and putting Pietrafesa on 2nd. 

  Pietrafesa stole 3rd and scored on Rodriguez's slow roller in the infield.  Rodriguez was out, but the Outlaws were up 2-0.

   Mandile was cruising along until the 4th inning.  The leadoff hitter smashed what appeared to be a solo homerun to left-center.  The umpires got together and ruled the hit a double. 

   An infield single to 2nd baseman Bryan Boesenberg, who tried to get the runner going to third put runners on 2nd and 3rd with none out. 

   Facing his first stiff test of the afternoon, Mandile got the next batter to groundout to the shortstop.  However the runners advanced and Hazleton cut the margin to 2-1.

   The next batter lifted a fly ball to left fielder Dylan Denninger.  However, the runner and on 3rd did not go back to tag-up.  A big base-running error kept the score at 2-1.  Mandile escaped the inning by getting some more defensive help from Denninger who made a nice running play in foul territory to end the inning.

   The game remained 2-1 until the top of the 7th inning when the Outlaws put 2 insurance runs on board.  Taylor Weinman led-off the inning with a walk and was sacrificed to 2nd by Joe Abuiso.  Pietrafesa followed with a base hit up the middle allowing Weinman to score giving the Outlaws a 3-1 lead. 

   Justin Rodriguez then hit a slow roller to the first baseman who fielded the ball and made the out himself at first.  However, Pietrafesa was running hard from 2nd and hustled around to score ahead of the throw from the first baseman.  This gave the Outlaws a 4-1 lead.

   Mandile shut down Hazleton 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 7th for his first complete game victory of 2009.  This was Mandile's third complete game of his Outlaws career. 

   The Outlaws improve to 3-0.

PM:  002 000 2 -- 4

HZ:   000 100 0 -- 1

Pitchers:  Mandile (CG) and Abuiso.

WP: Mandile (2-0)

Hitting leaders: 

Donnie Pietrafesa: 2-4, 2 runs scored, 3 stolen bases.

Justin Rodriguez:  2 rbi's