| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Tucson 7, Fresno 5
Friday August 22, 2003FRESNO, Calif. (AP) The Tucson Sidewinders defeated the Fresno Grizzlies 7-5 Thursday.
In the eighth inning, the Sidewinders' Tim Olson struck out, threw his bat, and slammed down his helmet while arguing with home plate umpire Scott Higgins.
Next, Grizzlies reliever Manny Aybar argued with Higgins after the top of the eighth. He threw his mitt down, walked into the dugout, grabbed a folding chair and threw it onto the field.
Guillermo Rodriguez led off the bottom of the inning; after he popped up, he too argued with Higgins, then slammed his bat on the railing in the dugout.
Higgins confirmed that all three players were ejected for ``things they said.''
The Sidewinders got on the scoreboard first, taking a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on Mike Bell's sacrifice fly. They came back with a three-run fifth inning: Luis Terrero knocked in two runs with a triple to right center-field, and he scored on Chad Tracy's single.
One key error by the Tucson Sidewinders allowed the Grizzlies to stay in the game: With the bases loaded in the seventh, Cody Ransom hit what appeared to be a routine flyout. But the ball bounced out of left-fielder Danny Ramirez's glove, allowing three runs to score and giving the Grizzlies a 5-4 lead.
But Doug DeVore hit a bases-clearing double in the eighth to give the Sidewinders a 7-5 lead that proved to be the game-winner.
Ricky Bottalico improved to 2-2 for Tucson, allowing two hits and no earned runs in 1 1/3 innings.
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