NEW YORK-PENN LEAGUE

A sticky situation

Jammers ace shuts down surging Spikes for second time

Guy Cipriano

UNIVERSITY PARK — The theme of State College Spikes hitting coach Brandon Moore's pregame meeting with position players Sunday revolved around Jamestown starter Sandy Rosario.

Craig Houtz

State College Spikes' Ty Summerlin turns the double play against Jamestown Jammers' Rand Smith in the 1st inning on Sunday, August 2, 2009.

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“B-Mo came in and said, ‘I’m not going to lie to you. He’s their best guy,’” left fielder Pat Irvine said.

Rosario then used a seven-inning forum to show why he’s one of top pitchers in short-season baseball.

Rosario pitched seven scoreless innings to lead the Jammers past the Spikes 7-0 at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. The soon-to-be 24-year-old right-hander allowed five singles and struck out six.

The hit total might seem meager, but it represented progress. Rosario held the Spikes (22-22) to two hits in five scoreless innings on July 11.

“He pitched a hell of a game,” Spikes manager Gary Robinson said. “I like the fact we made good passes at him all night. When he had to make a pitch, he made it.”

Robinson loaded his lineup with seven left-handed hitters, including shortstop Brock Holt, who lined Rosario’s second pitch of the game into left-center for a single. Holt singled after watching a 95 mph fastball zoom across the plate.

Ty Summerlin also hit an infield single in the first. But after Rosario walked Aaron Baker, David Rubin-stein bounced into an inning-ending double play, stranding Holt at third. No other Spike would touch that base.

“Anytime you get guys on base and can’t score against a pitcher like we saw tonight it’s disappointing,” Baker said.

So who is Sandy Rosario? And why is he still in the New York-Penn League? And how does he make comfortable summer evenings miserable for opponents?

Rosario was prepared to quickly move through the Florida Marlins’ farm system until undergoing two arm surgeries that limited him to just 91/ 3 innings at full-season Greensboro from 2007-08. His only full season

in North America — Rosario spent his first two professional seasons with the Marlins’ entry in the Dominican Summer League — was 2006, when he went 3-2 with a 2.25 in the rookie Gulf Coast League.

The Marlins sent Rosario to Jamestown this season to regain his health and feel for pitching. They have gradually increased his workload, and he needed just 77 pitches to work into the seventh inning for the first time. The outing lowered Rosario’s ERA to 1.70 through 421/ 3 innings.

“He’s very capable and he’s showing it,” Jamestown manager Andy Haines said. “He has really come on the last three weeks. We have his pitch count up, so he’s finally able to go deep into games. He’s kind of taken off when that happens. He’s an older guy and he’s doing what he should be doing in this league.”

Rosario possesses more than experience.

His fastball touches 95, and Rosario’s final pitch Sunday was a 93 mph heater that Andy Vasquez took for a third strike.

No pitch causes more fits for younger hitters than Rosario’s slider, which touches the high-80s. Rosario struck four Spikes looking at the pitch.

“It’s a harder slider with a late break,” said Irvine, who singled off Rosario in the seventh. “You don’t see a lot of them in college, especially ones that go for strikes.”

Robinson, a former scout, said the slider worked better in the later innings, when Rosario’s fastball was clocked between 91-93. Rosario mixed his fastball and slider with a well-located changeup.

“He can throw all of his pitches for strikes at any location at any time,” Baker said. “When you see a guy like that, it’s really tough to be able to sit on one pitch. You have to see the ball and react to it. We just weren’t able to do that.”

The Spikes didn’t receive a respite once Rosario left the game. Jamestown reliever Arquimedes Caminero used a fastball that touched 97 to pitch a scoreless eighth and ninth. Caminero entered Sunday with 39 strikeouts in 20 innings. Caminero allowed two hits and didn’t have a strikeout Sunday.

The Jammers gave Rosario and Caminero ample run support by scoring five off Ricardo Paulino in the fourth. Irvine and Ty Summerlin, who had two infield singles, were the only Spikes to reach base during the final eight innings.

“I need for the people who read the paper to know that I’m satisfied with what we did offensively,” Robinson said. “We pretty much got shutdown. We couldn’t take a chance to manufacture because you couldn’t waste an out. We didn’t have any momentum in this ballgame after the fourth inning.”

Jason Erickson replaced Paulino in the fifth and held the Jammer lead at 5-0 by pitching four scoreless innings. The Jammers added two more runs off Teddy Fallon in the ninth.