Leathers leads Panner comeback
June 17, 2001, Daily News-Miner

By RICHARD LARSON

Todd Leathers punctuated a stunning Alaska Goldpanners rally not once, but twice.

Leathers belted a three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to cap a seven-run rally by the Panners in the inning, then finished off an amazing 8-7 come-from-behind win over the Ukiah, Calif., Valley Dons with a long single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

In the eighth inning, Leathers ripped the first pitch he saw from Ukiah relief pitcher Paul Beaudreau over the left-field fence, dramatically tying the game in front of a frenzied Growden Memorial Park crowd.

"Everything he was throwing was hard," said Leathers, who plays college baseball for Winthrop University in South Carolina. "He hung a curveball up and I hit it well."

It was the first home run of the season for the Panners.

"It was an outstanding time for it," Goldpanners field manager Chris Jones said. "Leathers has been hitting the ball hard all year, but I know his (batting) average was pretty bad coming into tonight. It was a great time for him to bust out of it.

"He really is one of our better hitters and we expect him to do a lot for us this year," Jones added.

Leathers followed the eighth-inning home run with a two-out hit to center field that hung in the air, but managed to just get over the head of Ukiah center fielder Pat Breen.

"I didn't think I got that ball very well," Leathers said. "I guess he was playing in a little too far and couldn't quite get back to it."

The hit scored Lance Dawkins from third with the winning run. Dawkins led off the inning with a double and, after Tony Perez walked, Marc Tugwell sacrificed the runners to second and third. Henry Logan, who came into the game at the start of the ninth, struck out Tom Carrow for the second out of the inning before Leathers delivered the game-winning hit.

The Panners appeared listless through the first 7[1/2] innings of play, trailing 7-0 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, but they turned an apparent one-sided defeat into a thrilling win in quick fashion.

Ukiah starting pitcher Ivan Ramirez handcuffed the Panners through the first seven innings, needing just 59 pitches to get to the eighth. He allowed just three singles and four total base runners before running into trouble.

Matt Rebout started the Panners' rally with a lead-off single. Jason Lopez followed a walk to Eric Kitchen with an RBI single to put the Panners on the board. After a fielder's choice by Dawkins, Perez walked to load the bases with one out.

Tugwell was hit by a pitch to drive in one run and chase Ramirez from the game. Beaudreau entered and was greeted by a two-run double from Carrow before Leathers hit his gigantic blast to tie the score.

"Hitting is contagious; if one person goes, the whole team goes," Leathers said. "It was great we got hit after hit after hit. They just kept coming. We had a countless number of clutch hits tonight."

The win moved the Panners to 3-5 on the season and will be remembered anytime the team trails late in a game the rest of the year.

"This is a game we definitely will point back to whenever we are down in the eighth or ninth," Jones said. "Obviously, we can say we've done it before. We came back from seven runs down."

Staring at a seven-run deficit, Jones wasn't expecting his team to come all the way back to win.

"We were just hoping to get a couple of guys on base and scratch across a couple runs," Jones said.

Travis Soppe started the game for the Panners and struggled with his location early on, but managed to hold Ukiah (1-6) to two runs in the first six innings. Soppe walked four and allowed four hits, but he got help from a caught stealing in the first, a big strikeout to end the second, a double-play ball to end the third and a picked-off runner to end the fourth.

He settled into a groove to set down the side in order in the fifth and sixth before Ukiah, with help from two Panner errors, scored three runs in the seventh to take a 5-0 lead.

Greg Russell relieved Soppe and allowed two runs in the eight before striking out four of the last five batters he faced to end the game.

PANNER NUGGETS: While the Goldpanners used the wooden bats they are required to play with in the Alaska Baseball League, Ukiah used aluminum bats in the contest. ... The Goldpanners committed three errors in the game. They have made at least one error in every contest this season and have made three or more errors three times in eight games. ... Ramirez retired the first 11 Goldpanners he faced before giving up a pair of two-out singles in the fourth inning. ... After starting the season with five losses, the Panners have now won three straight. ... The Panners have scored 29 runs in their last three games. They scored a total of three runs in their first three games.

June 17, 2001, Daily News-Miner