APPY LEAGUE: Bristol, Pulaski split doubleheader

Staring down a middle linebacker of the Fighting Irish has prepared Kevan Smith for about anything, and Sunday night at DeVault Stadium the Bristol White Sox catcher demonstrated his mettle in heroic fashion.

A first-year professional baseball player with a gridiron background, Smith blasted the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the fifth inning for a home run to lift the BriSox to a 7-6 win over Pulaski in the first game of an Appalachian League doubleheader.

Pulaski responded back with a 5-2 win in Game 2, scoring in each of the final three innings to snap a nine-game losing streak in a contest that ended after 11 p.m.

Smith’s shot to right center, off freshly-inserted left-hander Kyle Hunter, erased a five-run Pulaski fourth and broke a 6-6 deadlock.

“First pitch I saw from the guy,” said Smith, a powerful 23-year-old from Cranberry Township, Pa.  “He gave me about eight pitches to look at from the on-deck circle and I was able to get my timing down on him.

“I knew he was going to give me a first-pitch fastball because that’s what guys usually do when they come out of the ’pen. So I had my timing down and he gave me my perfect pitch out and away, and I got extended and managed to hit it out.

“It put us up a run and made me feel better about the game after that brutal five-run inning they laid on us.”

Bristol, getting RBI hits from Rangel Ravelo, Brad Salgado, Michael Johnson and Drew Thompson, had hung up its own five-run inning in the second to grab a 6-1 lead, chasing Pulaski starter Jose Valdivia. And until the Mariner fourth, White Sox starter Ethan Icard had cruised along with a one-hitter, but the right-hander ran into trouble in the form of Jose Hernandez.

Hernandez, who had homered in the second inning, changed the game with one swing, cracking a grand slam home run in the fourth to make it a 6-5 game. Jamal Austin later stroked a one-out single to tie the game and end the evening for Icard.

Brett Merkley was summoned from the Bristol bullpen and promptly put out the fire. In fact, Merkley retired all eight of the batters he faced to gain the win, giving way in the seventh to reliable closer Bryan Blough.

In the meantime, Smith produced the game-winning hit.

“I changed my swing just the other day,” said Smith, who also had an RBI-single before hitting his third homer of the season. “My hitting coach [Greg Briley] came in and pretty much told me to stop looking pretty and start using my size and swing the bat like I know how.

“I've always been a big average guy and always liked hitting doubles to the gaps, but hitting with more power is an aspect of my game that I hope to improve upon.”

Smith, a 6-foot-4, 240-pounder who played Big East Conference football for the Pittsburgh Panthers, looks like a power hitter.

“I was scheduled to be drafted for baseball out of high school but I instead chose to accept a football scholarship and play quarterback at Pitt,” said Smith, a seventh-round draft choice last month. “So I did that for three years and totally shut baseball out of my life during this time, but along about then I started thinking about baseball again.

“I tried to play both there one year but my football coach at the time, Dave Wannstedt, told me I had to pick one over the other, so I chose baseball. So I got to play three years of football and three years of baseball at the Division I level, which is pretty cool.”

There is no doubt football helped Smith become a man.

“Definitely,” he said. “Playing at Michigan State and at Notre Dame in front of crowds of 90,000, it certainly helps a fella mature.

“And then I come here and I’m like, this is like cardboard fans to me now. It’s just like high school, or playing in your back yard, if you know what I mean.

“But I feel blessed with every opportunity the White Sox give me. I plan to keep working my butt off and prove to them that I am a good investment, and hopefully I’ll be in their future plans down the road.”