BRIDGEWATER — Try telling J.R. Hopf that 11 days doesn’t make a baseball season.
The unlikely slugger continued the best power surge of his career Sunday night by hitting two home runs to lift the Somerset Patriots to a 5-2 victory against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs in front of 5,899 at TD Bank Ballpark.
Hopf, who went homer-less in his first 102 at-bats this season, has smashed five in 19 at-bats since Aug. 19 to match a career high set in 57 games between Single-A and Triple-A for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2007.
“Let’s hope he keeps breaking that (record) all the time,” Patriots manager Sparky Lyle quipped.
The Patriots (27-24, 63-58) maintained a one-game lead atop the Freedom Division by prevailing for the eighth time in 10 games and taking the rubber game of the series from the Atlantic League’s winningest team.
Hopf homered in the second inning against starter John Koronka, who issued seven walks in 4 2/3 innings and was fortunate to escape with only four runs on his ledger.
All nine Patriots’ starters reached base at least once by the fourth inning despite a total of four hits off Koronka (0-3).
On the other hand, Bill Pulsipher was plain old effective.
Pulsipher (4-1) scattered five hits, struck out six and walked one. The former major leaguer left after six innings with a 4-1 lead, marking the sixth time in eight starts since his acquisition that he has allowed two runs or fewer.
Ben Grezlovski, who helped recruit Pulsipher to the Patriots, kept the lead in tact through a precarious seventh. The first two batters homered and doubled, respectively, but the submariner induced a ground-ball double play with runners on the corners and one out.
Jeff Kennard’s turn to come up big came in the eighth.
The Blue Crabs (30-18, 71-47) loaded the bases on three consecutive two-out singles but Kennard struck out Ben Harrison swinging on a pitch diving out of the strike zone.
Hopf furthered the momentum swing with a home run to center field in the bottom half of the frame.
Scott Williamson brought the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth but struck out the side to notch his seventh save.
Josh Pressley hit one of the longest home runs in the 12-history of TD Bank Ballpark but the Patriots lost 5-3 to the Blue Crabs. Pressley’s sixth-inning blast was estimated at 430-450 feet. Losing pitcher Brian Adams gave up four runs in six innings.
The homestand continues as Somerset’s Josh Miller (11-8, 3.54) faces Camden at 7 p.m.
Posted in Uncategorized on August 30, 2010 by Ryan Dunleavy.