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By ED GONSER Special to Times Leader
Saturday, April 16, 2005     Page: 1B

Clay Condrey will not be marking down his second start of the season as one
for the memories.
   
Syracuse roughed up the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre starter as the Red Barons
dropped their second consecutive game in a 9-4 loss to the SkyChiefs Friday at
Alliance Bank Stadium.
    John-Ford Griffin knocked in five runs including a three-run homer while
Andy Dominique hit a two-run shot and Aaron Hill and Eric Crozier added solo
shots that turned the game into a nightmare.
   
“Syracuse scored on us early and we couldn’t get back when we were down
that far,” said Red Barons manager Gene Lamont. “They had good pitching but we
did claw back and couldn’t get the hit we needed that would have pulled us
close.”
   
Griffin ripped a two-run single to right in a five-run fourth inning that
broke open a 1-1 game.
   
Dominique and Crozier went back-to-back with homers later in the inning.
Dominique hit a two-run homer to left while Crozier smacked a solo shot that
just hook fair around the left-field foul pole.
   
Griffin clubbed his three-run homer in the fifth into the Syracuse (5-4)
bullpen beyond the left field fence. You couldn’t blame Condrey (1-1) if he
winced after that pitch to Griffin.
   
“When he hit it I thought it was over the railroad tracks.” Condrey said.
It was a bit of an exaggeration by Condrey because the tracks that go by the
field are more than 200 feet beyond the 350-foot left field fence.
   
“Condrey is a veteran guy that knows how to pitch. He just left some balls
out over the plate,” said Syracuse manager Marty Pevey. “He was able to change
his speeds early and was down in the zone. Then he started to elevate the ball
and when you do that it doesn’t matter what kind of pitch you throw you’re
going to get hurt.”
   
Mark Budzinski doubled and scored in the first on a single by Ryan Howard.
Budzinski singled home Shane Victorino after Victorino doubled, scoring John
Castellano in the seventh.
   
The Red Barons (6-3) had a chance to do some damage in the eighth but only
managed one run when Victorino was hit by a pitch with bases loaded. Buzz
Hannahan, who earlier had two singles and a walk, struck out to end the
inning.
   
Hannahan had one of the best at-bats of the season in the second inning
when he fouled off a ball bag full of pitches before hitting a single to left.
   
“I’m seeing the ball pretty good right now,” Hannahan said. “We did battle
back and it will give us incentive for tomorrow.”
   
“This whole team will give you quality at-bats almost every time,”
Budzinski said. “We all come up to the plate battling.”
   
Robinson Tejeda (0-0, 1.50 ERA) will try to get the Red Barons back on the
winning path and Chris Baker (1-0, 0.00 ERA) will try to keep the SkyChiefs
moving in the right direction today at 2 PM in the second game of the
four-game series.
   
Notes: Syracuse wore Montreal Royals throwback jerseys in honor of Jackie
Robinson Day, which was celebrated in ballparks across the country. Montreal
was the Triple-A team for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the franchise was sold to
the City of Syracuse in 1961 after the Dodgers left for Los Angeles. “It’s
great to see all the teams in baseball pay tribute to Jackie Robinson,” said
Red Barons first baseman Ryan Howard. “Without him I’m sure I wouldn’t be here
today. If it wasn’t for him getting into the game and changing it to the way
it is today I probably wouldn’t be here.”