Panners Mow Down Foresters
June 21, 2000, Daily News-Miner

By DEAN LICHTERMAN

Andrew Davidson and Brian Felten found their zones Tuesday night.

The Alaska Goldpanners' pitching duo combined to strike out 16 hitters in a 4-1 victory over the Santa Barbara Foresters at Growden Memorial Park.

"I didn't want to jinx myself. I am real superstitious about things like that. I just wanted to come in the dugout, sit in the same spot that I was sitting before and do the same thing that I have been doing," Davidson said. "It is all about repetition. I was just in a zone today."

Felten fanned four in the first three innings before being pulled when he reached his preset 40-pitch limit. Davidson struck out 12 over the next six innings.

"We are setting up our rotation for Friday when we start conference," Goldpanners manager Dan Cowgill said.

Davidson got the win, allowing the Foresters' only run (earned) on two hits and one walk.

"I felt good today," Davidson said. "All of my pitches were working."

His pitches were working so well that Davidson allowed only four baserunners. Goldpanners pitchers retired the side in order in the first, second, seventh and eighth innings. Santa Barbara advanced only two runners to third.

The Foresters led 1-0 in the top of the fourth when Steve Gatenbein stole home.

Greg Sain tied it at 1-1 in a hurry by drilling the first pitch in the Goldpanners fourth over the outfield wall. He repeated the act in the sixth to put the Panners in front 2-1.

"I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just something that was over the plate," Sain said. "As you can see he did pretty well with me on the other two at bats by striking me out. I figured my best chance was to get ahead of him early before he got ahead of me."

The Panners scored two insurance runs in the eighth with RBI singles from Nate Sickler and Kaulana Kuhaulua. Kuhaulua drove in Sickler, but was injured rounding first.

Davidson struck out the Foresters' Louis Lamoure for the final out.

The Panners collected seven hits. Sain was the only Panner to finish with multiple hits.

"I thought we had some good at bats off a good pitcher. We hit seven or eight balls that aren't recorded as hits, but we had good at bats. We were pretty focused," Cowgill said. "We played both sides of the diamond pretty good, offensively and defensively."

Matt Rainer took the loss for Foresters, working seven plus innings, giving up three runs on five hits while walking six and hitting three.

The teams play again tonight in the annual
Midnight Sun Game starting at 10:30 p.m.

PANNER NUGGETS--Sain upped his home run total to three, matching his total for all of last season when he led the team. ... Kuhaulua reached first twice after being hit by pitches. The Panners have been hit 12 times so far this season. ... Felten has an earned run average of 0.00 after nine innings ... Sickler's hit was his first this season. ... Tuesday was Foresters coach Bill Pintard's birthday

July 4, 2000, Daily News-Miner