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Sports

Tuesday, Jun. 30, 2009

Perfect pitcher lifts Nuts to win

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Sooner or later, Joey Williamson will be the losing pitcher in a professional baseball game.

It will come as a starter, or perhaps in long relief, or maybe in short relief -- he's pitched in all three roles in 74 appearances over his three seasons in the Colorado organization.

But so far, the University of Notre Dame product is perfect.

By pitching five innings in a spot start in Modesto's 5-1 victory over San Jose on Monday, Williamson is 8-0 this season.

Add that to a 5-0 record in 18 games in Tri-City and Casper in 2007 and a 4-0 record in 2008 in Asheville, and the righthander from Florida has started his pro career with a 17-0 record.

Yes, that's impressive. But it's also somewhat of a fluke -- one of those baseball numbers that just creeps up on players.

"It's going to come to an end, but all I can do is go out and give it everything I have every time I go out there," Williamson said. "I'm not unrealistic enough to think it's never going to end, but it's fun as long as it lasts.

"The offense has picked me up a few times after I've given up the lead, and I've been the guy in the right spot a few times, coming in during the fifth inning when we already had the lead."

Williamson said that talking about the streak would not jinx it, and manager Jerry Weinstein wasn't even aware his multi-purpose arm had such a streak going for him.

"That's good," Weinstein said. "We should start him again tomorrow. He's a very valuable guy, plus he's a great person to have on the team with a lot of good qualities."

Modestotook a 1-0 lead in the third inning against Paul Oseguera (0-3,) when Hector Gomez -- in his first action since May 27 (groin strain) -- reached on an infield single and scored on a triple by Jay Cox.

The Giants tied the game in the fifth on their first two hits off Williamson when Darren Ford's two-out double was followed by Tyler Graham's single to center.

But Modesto immediately answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to put Williamson in line for the win.

Michael Mitchell drew a one-out walk and scampered to third on a single by Charlie Blackmon. Mitchell scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, and Cox drew a two-out walk.

Matt Repec greeted reliever T.J. Brewer with a two-run double to right-center, ending a streak for the Nuts as unimpressive as Williamson's run is impressive, another one of those creepy baseball numbers.

Repec's hit snapped a zero-for-33 slide for the Nuts against the Giants with runners in scoring position -- Modesto's first hit in that situation in its last four games against San Jose.

The Nuts came through again in the sixth when Mitchell's two-out single scored Radames Nazario from second with the fifth run.

Ching Lung-Lo took over from Williamson in the sixth and allowed two hits in 2º innings, and Matt Reynolds finished up by allowing only an infield single in getting the last four outs.

"The key to the game is that Williamson gave up five very competitive innings," Weinstein said. "Low gave us strong innings and then Matt was Matt." And that was that.

Bee staff writer Brian VanderBeek can be reached at bvanderbeek@modbee.com or 578-2300.