Bumstead Soars, Bears Roll

By Mark Krulish on July 20, 2008

NEWARK – Thirteen days ago, the Newark Bears played their final game of the first half of the Atlantic League season with the division on the line. Newark’s ace Pat Stanley was on the mound and the offense had been rolling. Stanley gave up all the runs in a 6-1 loss and ever since that day, the Bears have been in a tailspin.

Fast forward to Saturday night and it was quite a different story. Mike Bumstead took the mound as the last Newark Bears pitcher to record a win and played the role of the stopper once again. Bumstead went the distance in the Bears 12-3 win over the Camden Riversharks.

The game did not begin well for Bumstead or the Bears. Nick Jackson led off the game with a solo home run for Camden and Sheldon Fulse added another one in the top of the third to give the Riversharks a 2-0 lead.

However, everywhere in between and after, Bumstead was completely dominant. Camden hitters took a lot of bad swings against Bumstead’s curveball, which was sharp the entire evening. He struck out 11 batters in his nine innings of work, a new personal high for him.

Newark’s offense broke loose in the third inning when Keith Reed hit a triple over Jackson’s head in center field. Vic Gutierrez and Ramon Castro scored on that drive to tie the game at 2.

Ruben Mateo, back for another tour of duty with Newark, hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning to put the Bears ahead. Raul Gonzalez, another recent newcomer with major-league experience, hit a three-run bomb in the fifth to stretch the lead further.

The rest of Newark’s offensive explosion was highlighted by catcher Scott Knazek’s two-run triple in the bottom of the seventh.

Saturday night was also “Lima Time” at Riverfront Stadium. Former major-leaguer Jose Lima was Camden’s starter for the night. Much like his time in the majors, he was tagged for seven earned runs in five innings of work.

Bumstead, however, was the star of the show. He only suffered one more blemish when he gave up a third solo home run in the seventh to L.J. Biernbaum. But, the game was far out of reach at that point. He completed his nine innings in just 108 pitches and two hours and 32 minutes.

A lot of positives came from tonight’s game for the struggling club. Newark had lost six in a row, including a sweeping at the hands of the Bridgeport Bluefish just before the all-star break. Gonzalez went three-for-four and scored three times in the contest. He and Mateo are hoping to fill the huge offensive void left by the departures of Cory Aldridge and Val Majewski.

For Bumstead, it was his tenth win of the season, which leads the Atlantic League. It is also another new career-high for the young right-hander.

The Bears finish their three game series with Camden on Sunday at 1:35. Benito Baez is the scheduled starter for Newark.

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