Craig's big blast powers East stars

By SEAN KERNAN
Daytona Beach News Journal

DAYTONA BEACH -- Allen Craig was a favorite to win the Florida State League All-Star Fan Fest's home-run derby Friday night.

The Palm Beach Cardinals slugger shares the FSL lead with 14 homers, but he didn't even make the finals of the home-run exhibition.

Maybe he saved a little something. Check that -- a lot of something -- for Saturday night's all-star game.

Craig's towering two-run homer in the fifth inning snapped a tie at 4 and gave the East a lead it didn't relinquish in an 8-4 victory over the West before a crowd of 4,424 at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

"Home run derby's tough because sometimes you try to do too much and I think I got caught up in that," said Craig, who was presented the Topps Star of Stars award after going 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs. "Tonight it was a game, and we've played a lot of games this year, so you just have to go out and do what you do on a daily basis. It was a 3-1 count and I was looking to drive the ball, and I didn't miss it."

Craig's towering blast off losing pitcher Logan Ondrusek of the Sarasota Reds carried well over the batting cages beyond left field and brought oohs and ahs from the crowd.

Vero Beach Devil Ray Rhyne Hughes followed with a solo blast to right-center field to complete the game-changing rally.

Five Daytona Cubs, including four players who started, participated in the all-star game. Second baseman Matt Matulia had the best showing of all the Cubs, reaching base three times and scoring twice. The second-year pro tripled in the first run in the East's decisive rally in the fifth inning and walked twice.

St. Lucie Mets catcher Drew Butera singled before Matulia stepped up to bat with one out in the fifth.

"I really was going to try to bunt right there, but we had an out already," Matulia said. "So I figured I'd look for something that I could pull. I got in a 2-0 count and the pitch I missed was the same one I ended up hitting. It found a hole down the line and I just kept running hoping they weren't going to throw me out (at third)."

Matulia was the only Cub to play all nine innings.

"The whole game was exciting, just having a chance to be on the field with all these great players," said Matulia, who lives in nearby Eustis and estimated that he had about 30 friends and family at the game.

The East also got a two-run homer from Brevard County Manatees outfielder Cole Gillespie in the second inning.

Once the East took its 7-4 lead in the fifth, its pitchers dominated the West. Four East hurlers combined to strike out five consecutive West batters at one point.

Brevard County's Ben Stanczyk retired the side in order in the sixth, fanning the last batter. Palm Beach's Lou Gregerson whiffed Lakeland's Mike Hernandez and Ryan Roberson on six pitches in the seventh before Vero Beach's Jake McGee struck out the Flying Tigers' Cameron Maybin to end the inning. Jupiter's Todd Doolittle set down Clearwater's Jeremy Slayden on strikes to start the eighth.

Gregerson was understanding about St. Lucie manager Frank Cacciatore's decision to stay with his schedule of pitchers even after the righty struck out two batters with the minimum number of pitches.

"It would have been nice to get one more batter, but everybody gets their chance out here in an all-star game and I got my chance," Gregerson said. "It felt good. I just threw the pitches I normally throw and got it done."

But Gregerson wasn't nearly as excited about his pitching performance as he was about Craig's towering blast.

"I was sitting there in the bullpen and it cleared the batting cages pretty good," said Gregerson, Craig's Cardinals teammate. "He's hit a lot of home runs this year and not one of them has been cheap."