June 11: Bay Has Another Strong Start, Goldeyes Win Eighth-Straight at Home

Even on a rare night when the bats aren’t booming, the Goldeyes get a great pitching performance and win again.

Bear Bay (4-0) went six-plus innings and allowed two runs on eight hits, newcomer Tim Layden cleaned things up in the seventh, Jordan Stewart threw a scoreless eighth and Matt Davis put the game away in the ninth to record his league-leading seventh save, as the Goldeyes beat Gary 3-2 at Canwest Park on Wednesday.

With the win, the Goldeyes won their sixth-straight, eighth in a row at home and improved to 18-5 on the season. They remain in first place in the Northern League, three games ahead of second-place Schaumburg.

“That was the best I’ve felt all year in terms of my strength,” Bay said. “All year I’ve had good command and good location but I just didn’t feel strong. Tonight my location wasn’t as good as I’d like and I didn’t have the location I want on my curveball, but I really felt strong.

“And I didn’t expect it to be that good. I had a 30-pitch first inning and thought, this is going to be a long night. But I just got stronger. It was a good night.”

Offensively, it was an odd night for the Fish. The team scored three runs in the first and then had only one hit the rest of the way. Dee Brown hit a two-run homer to make the score 3-0 and that’s all Bay and the bullpen needed. Interestingly, because of the pitching, the Goldeyes won their first game this season in which they scored three-or-fewer runs.

“Honestly, with this team, I never worry about what I have to do,” Bay said. “I just go out and pitch the best I can. Sometimes you score, sometimes you don’t, but I don’t worry about it. With this team, you kind of expect a lot of hits and a lot of runs. Getting three runs in the first inning made my job a little easier.”

While it’s never really easy, this year’s Goldeyes team has made it look easy since the pre-season ended. In fact, there is a feeling in the clubhouse that this team could do great things this season.

“We believe we’re a good team,” Bay said. “During the baseball lessons I give in the off-season, I tell kids that if they believe in themselves, if they believe they can win, they can go out and win no matter how good people think the opponent might be.

“This team believes in itself. It believes it can win every night. If it continues to believe in itself, there is no telling what it can accomplish.”