Goldeye lose, out of playoffs

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2009 (5905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Goldeyes are done for the season.

The Fish were drilled 8-3 by the Fargo RedHawks in the deciding game of their best-of-five opening round Northern League playoff series last night at Canwest Park.

The result gives Fargo the series 3-2 and means the Goldeyes are eliminated, while the RedHawks will now advance to the Northern League Championship Series to face the Gary SouthShore Railcats, beginning Tuesday in Fargo.

"It’s tough to take," said Goldeyes manager Rick Forney as he watched a jubilant Fargo team douse each other with champagne on the field at Canwest Park. "We had a good team. We were definitely good enough to win a championship.

"They just played a little bit better than we did."

Goldeyes right hander Ace Walker, the league leader in wins this season, had a hard time believing his eyes as he watched the Fargo celebration.

"We all worked too hard for it to end this way," said Walker. "It’s not fair, really. But you sure can’t say we didn’t give it our all, right to the end."

It was a devastating ending for the Goldeyes club, who led the series 1-0 and 2-1 and were ahead 3-2 in the final game, but proved unable to close the deal against a feisty RedHawks team managed by Fargo mainstay Doug Simunic.

"We took our time," said Simunic. "We were patient."

The Goldeyes final undoing came in the top of the sixth inning of Game 5. With the Fish leading by a run, Goldeyes starter Bear Bay began to falter, giving up the tying run before finally getting the hook from Goldeyes manager Rick Forney.

Forney brought former major leaguer Bill Pulsipher out of the bullpen to relieve Bay. Pulsipher inherited a 3-3 tie, two Fargo baserunners and just one out and did his club no favours, giving up a single, intentional walk and then a double in succession before he was yanked with his club now trailing 6-3 and still just one out.

Pulipsher made way for Jordan Stewart, who got Zach Penprase to ground out to short, only to have shortstop Mark Minicozzi overthrow first base to allow two more runners to score.

And with that, what was a 3-2 Goldeyes lead at the start of the sixth inning was suddenly an 8-3 Fargo lead and the end of what just a couple days earlier was looking like it might finally be a championship Goldeyes season for the first time in 15 years.

"It hurts," said Bay, "because I know we’re good enough to win. But you just can’t plan these things out."

Playing with the home field advantage, the Goldeyes controlled their series with Fargo and would have swept them Friday night had it not been for an overthrow to first base by Fish closer Chris Homer in the tenth inning of Game 2 that handed Fargo a win they never deserved.

The miscue sent the series back to Winnipeg tied, instead of the Fish up 2-0, and that proved, in the end, to be exactly the difference.

"I hate to say it," said Forney, "but not being able to record that out in Game 2…It’s just unfortunate. That was a series we should have won in three and wound up losing in five."

There had been exceptionally high hopes for the 2009 edition of the Goldeyes, who appeared to have the perfect marriage of long-ball hitters, a quality infield and reliable starting pitching to win this city what would have been the first league title by one of its three pro sports teams since the Fish won their last Northern League title in 1994.

Those hopes were buoyed when the Fish got off to a red-hot start in May, opening the season at 5-0 and at one point boasting an 11-3 record that gave them the best winning percentage in all of independent baseball.

But the club struggled after the loss of their star shortstop, Wes Long, who went down June 30 with a broken ankle. It was never the same Goldeyes club after that and the club limped into the playoffs after an August that saw them go 13-17.

The RedHawks and Goldeyes have now met nine times in the playoffs over the years and this is the sixth time Fargo has eliminated Winnipeg. It’s also the continuation of a hard luck playoff story for the Goldeyes, who have now made the playoffs in 13 of the last 15 years and come up short of a championship each and every time.

The only Northern League title the Goldeyes have ever won came in their inaugural 1994 season.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca