[ArquimedezPozo]

Casselman Puts A Pin in Champions, Wins 2-1

The sellout crowd at Ottawa’s RCGT Ballpark saw an outstanding pitching performance from James Devanney go for naught today, as Nick Casselman and the Terrapins eked out a 2-1 victory for their 70th win of the season. The victory keeps Baltimore ahead of a surging Detroit club, while Ottawa remains firmly in the Conference’s vast middle.

Though the result was a tight pitcher’s duel, it looked at first like Baltimore was going to open things up. Jimmy Stroud led off with a triple, and Tony Posada drove him in with a sacrifice fly to put Baltimore ahead before Devanney had recorded his second out. But Devanney got likely MVP Omar Juarez to ground to short, and Nick Green popped to end it.

While Casselman put up zeros, Devanney ran into more trouble in the third. Another triple, this one by CF Jimmy Stroud, set up a two-out scoring chance. Posada delivered an RBI double into the right-center gap to make it 2-0 Baltimore.

Ottawa struck back in the fourth: Omar Arredondo singled with one out, bringing John Pickett to the plate. Pickett battled, running the count full and fouling a couple off before driving the eighth pitch from Casselman all the way to the wall. It one-hopped and took a strange bounce, squirting past Jimmy Stroud in center. Arredondo scored, and Pickett slid safely into third with a triple of his own, tying it up.

From that point forward, Casselman and Devanney worked through jams. The fifth was clean for both pitchers, but baserunners marred the next two - hits, walks, hit batsmen, error, even a wild pitch. In each case, though, the scoreboard remained the same.

Casselman was pulled with the lead after the seventh, replaced by Justin Wiggins, with the closer Eric Cool getting the night off. Wiggins nearly let the lead slip away in the eighth, as Paul Street singled into center then took second on a wild pitch. A sacrifice fly from Noah Roberts put him on third with two down for Arredondo, again. The Ottawa 2B hit Wiggins’ 2-2 offering hard, a bullet to the right side. But Juarez slid, stabbed it, and tossed to first to save a run and end the threat.

Though Devanney finished the ninth without incident, Ottawa couldn’t get things going against Wiggins: Pickett walked, and went to second on a groundout, but stayed there as Danny Cervantes lifted a shallow fly to right that ended it.