August 25: Harrison Gets His Pitch As Goldeyes Beat JackHammers

Vince Harrison was sitting dead red. And he now owes Joliet starter Luke O’Loughlin a note of thanks.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth on Monday night, O’Loughlin threw Harrison a belt-high fastball with his first pitch and the Winnipeg third baseman hit a monster grand slam home run over the left field fence. With that, the Goldeyes had enough runs to beat the Jackhammers 5-3 at Canwest Park and pick up their 51st win of the season, matching their total for all of 2008.

“I was sitting on a fastball,” Harrison said. “He (O’Loughlin) fell behind Diaz and he walked West. I just figured he’d try to throw a strike on his first pitch.”

Well, in fairness, he did.

With Harrison’s grand slam, the Goldeyes had enough runs for Bill Pulsipher, who threw eight solid innings, allowing only three runs on seven hits to improve to 4-1 since joining the Goldeyes in early August. He also had eight strikeouts and one walk and earned a standing ovation from the 5,422 in attendance at the downtown ballpark.

For Harrison, it was his fourth home run since joining the Goldeyes just eight games ago. He now has 10 runs batted in since coming to Winnipeg from Joliet and, with a three-for-four night on Monday, he’s batting .296 since arriving.

Of course, following his first seven games, he was hitting just .217. This is Harrison’s third team this season and he’s hitting .322 overall, but in every other situation this season, he’s started slowly with his new club.

“I wish there was an answer to that one,” Harrison said with a grin. “The main thing for me right now is to finish strong and help this team win a championship. I’m very fortunate now, coming to a team that has some pretty great hitters right through the line-up. For the first time in a while, I have some protection. From now until the end of the season, I need to take advantage of that and just try to help this team win.”

He’ll get another chance tonight at 7:00 when the Fish and Hammers play Game 2 of this three-game series at Canwest Park.