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Fowl Ball! Weekly report on the DUCKS Long Island Ducks manager Dave Lapoint has to be wondering where this level of play was a few weeks ago during the first half division race. Long Island was unable to win the big games down the stretch, but have now rebounded to win eight of their first eleven in the second half to take an early three game lead atop the North Division standings. Many of the things the team was doing wrong a few weeks ago they are now doing right, but the biggest difference of all has been a noticeable improvement in the starting pitching. "Our starters have been much better, they are throwing strikes consistently and as a result their pitch counts have been down," says Dave Lapoint, "There have been quite a few times already in the second half where we have only thrown just a little bit over 100 pitches over an entire game." This has allowed the starters to remain in the game and go deep into the late innings more often; something that Dave Lapoint specifically said had needed to happen if they were to compete in the second half. One particular decision by Lapoint, moving veteran lefty Ed Yarnall from the bullpen into the starting rotation, seems to have helped change the fortunes of the entire pitching staff. "Since Ed got here a month and a half ago, he has pitched well and earned himself a spot in the rotation," Dave Lapoint says, "We knew he could pitch but he is showing us just how truly good he is and now he has become one of the anchors of our staff." The 31-year old Yarnall, a former Yankee, is excited about being moved into the starting rotation. "Most of my career I have been a starter so obviously I am more comfortable in that role," says Yarnall, "Being a reliever is good too because you can get out there just about everyday, but I have to say that I prefer the routine of preparing for the particular day when I know I will be starting." So far the move has paid off for both the manager and player, as Yarnall had two great outings this week. The Louisiana native picked up the win in his first start of the week, but surprisingly his best performance to date came over the weekend in a game his team actually lost. In the series opener against the Somerset Patriots, Yarnall tossed a complete game but received little run support as the Ducks came up short by a final score of 3-2. It was the first complete game pitched this season by the Ducks, who prior to Sunday afternoon were the only team in the Atlantic League that had not yet pulled off the feat. "Nowa- days it is really tough to do, with pitch counts and there being set-up guys and closers," says Yarnall, "But as a starting pitcher it is something you want to do; finish what you start, that is always your goal. So it was definitely nice to be able to pitch the whole game, I just wish the end result was different." In the game, Yarnall allowed eight hits and three runs (only two of which were earned) over the nine innings, while striking out five Somerset batters. Unfortunately, Long Island's offense could not get anything going for most of the night and managed to score only two runs in the game. "We have been putting up a lot of runs recently so we were due at some point to have a slow night offensively," Yarnall states, "The only thing I can control is my job and that is to keep the team in the game and give us a chance to win; I felt like I did that today." In fact, the only time that Yarnall ran into any trouble was during the fourth and fifth innings when Somerset scored all three of their runs, but manager Dave Lapoint says at no point during the entire game did he ever even consider taking Yarnall out. "In the ninth inning I had [Mark] Watson warming up just in case because Ed's pitch total was getting up there," says Lapoint, "But otherwise there was nobody up in the bullpen at all tonight because, except for those two innings, Ed was in total control the whole game." The Ducks best chance to change the outcome of the game was in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases with nobody out. However, they were only able to come away with one run in the frame thanks to some great pitching and defense by Somerset. On the night, Long Island's top four players in the batting order went a combined 0-for-15, but Dave Lapoint is not concerned about the poor offensive performance. "We got in at 5 o'clock in the morning on the bus ride from Lancaster and it looked like we were still asleep through the first part of the game," Lapoint says, "The guys played hard but that was about all we had. Let's face it, you're not going to win every game so the important thing is we fought but just came up short."
What might be of slight concern is that the Ducks have now lost two games in a row against tougher competition than they were facing during their big winning streak in the opening week of the second half. Yet Dave Lapoint insists he is not worried about his team being overconfident, especially with the increased difficulty of the upcoming schedule. "No, not worried at all because these guys are truly professional out there," says the manager, "They just go about their business, there are no speeches, no rah-rah or any of that type of stuff. With this group, you just give them their bats and balls and let them go play." Pitcher Ed Yarnall agrees, pointing out that there are too many veterans and too much talent on this team for there to be any kind of letdown. "The big thing in baseball is chemistry and even though I have only been here for five or six weeks, I can see this is a good mix of guys," Yarnall says, "Everybody gets along and even though it is a loose clubhouse and we all want to have fun, once we get on the field we take these games seriously. With that being said, we know that we are going to have to step up our game to beat the top teams in the league but I am confident in our ability to do so."
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