SNAKES SEASON ENDS WITH LOSS TO GOLDEYES

The Calgary Vipers closed out their 2006 Northern League season on Sunday afternoon with a 10-4 loss to the Winnipeg Goldeyes in front of 2,944 fans at Foothills Stadium. The crowd was the third largest in Calgary Vipers history.

Calgary finishes the season with a 42-54 record after putting together a 23-25 second half record to go along with the 19-29 mark put up in the first half.

Starting pitcher Tom Lyons (1-8) took the loss for the Vipers on Sunday afternoon after allowing five runs, four earned, on six hits in two innings of work. Five different relievers saw action over the final seven innings of the game.

Tony Evans (5-3) earned the win for the Goldeyes, tossing seven complete innings, giving up four runs on seven hits while striking out three.

Winnipeg got the scoring started in the top of the first inning as they tagged Lyons for three runs. Fehlandt Lentini doubled and Amos Ramon walked before Will Smith drove in the first run of the game with an RBI double down the left field line.

A sacrifice fly by Matt Mann then brought in Smith to make it 2-0 and an RBI single from Corey Stang scored David Gates to put Winnipeg up by three.

Darryl Brinkley doubled to lead off the bottom of the first for Calgary and advanced to third on a Sharnol Adriana fly out before Carlos Duncan drew a walk to put runners on the corners. The Vipers then pulled off a double-steal that saw Duncan move up to second and Brinkley come home to make it 3-1.

The Goldeyes made it 5-1 in the top of the second when Lentini singled home Ryan Hamilton before coming around to score on a throwing error by Vipers catcher Brandon Rogers.

Adriana made it 5-2 in the bottom of the third when he slugged his third homerun of the season over the left-field wall.

Winnipeg’s offence kept coming in the fourth inning, scoring three runs off Vipers reliever Brad Rogers. A two-run single by Lentini and an RBI double by Ramon keyed the Goldeyes attack.

The Winnipeg lead went to 9-1 in the top of the fifth when Stang came around to score on a base-hit up the middle by Goldeyes catcher Onix Mercado.

Brinkley scored for the second time in the game in the bottom of the fifth when he picked up his second double of the game and scored on an RBI single by Nelson Castro.

Will Smith tucked a ball just inside the right-field foul pole in the top of the sixth for his fourth homer of the season to make it 10-3.

Brandon Rogers then led off the bottom of the sixth with a double and advanced to third on a groundout by Drew Miller before scoring the final run of the game on a Shaun Ashman groundball that was misplayed at first base.

The pitchers then took over and kept the game scoreless over the final three innings preserving the Goldeyes win and putting the finishing touches on the Vipers season.

Winnipeg (25-23) will now prepare for the Northern League playoffs while the Vipers (25-23) will begin looking forward to the 2007 season.