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BY KEVIN THOMAS
MaineToday Media, Inc. 04/04/2008

MaineToday Media, Inc.

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- The game was nearly canceled because of problems with the infield dirt.

Then the power went out.

What else could go wrong in the Portland Sea Dogs season-opening game at New Britain Stadium?

For the Sea Dogs, not much. Bubba Bell singled in the winning run in the eighth inning, and Portland added two insurance runs in the ninth, giving the Sea Dogs a 3-0 victory Thursday night.

Jose Vaquedano (1-0) recorded the win with 11/3 innings of relief. Hunter Jones and Beau Vaughan both pitched out of jams in the later innings.

Most encouraging for the Sea Dogs was starter Justin Masterson. He pitched four strong innings, allowing three hits, two of them infield singles. Masterson had his sinker working, inducing seven groundouts, while striking out three. He walked none, throwing 53 pitches, 36 for strikes.

"The sinker was doing real good," Masterson said. "The slider was okay. Threw a couple of change-ups in there. I was real happy."

The Sea Dogs cut Masterson's outing short because of the delay. During the first inning, umpires asked for the lights to be turned on. Instead, the scoreboard went blank as New Britain Stadium lost its power.

After the inning, with darkness coming, the umpires stopped play. Technicians were called and, after a 27-minute delay, play resumed. The power outage followed some pre-game drama when the umpires considered if the infield was suitable for play. The dirt around the bases had been recently dug out and was very soft.

"If this wasn't an opener, we wouldn't play," Sea Dogs manager Arnie Beyeler said.

But they did play and the dirt was not a big issue. And while Masterson cruised, New Britain starter Ryan Mullins matched him, throwing a two-hit shutout over five innings.

Daniel Haigwood relieved Masterson and got into trouble in the fifth. Haigwood loaded the bases on a single and two walks. He got out of the jam, getting shortstop prospect Trevor Plouffe to watch a wicked curve for strike three.

The Sea Dogs threatened in the sixth when Iggy Suarez singled and reached third with one out. But Suarez was easily thrown out, trying to score on Bell's soft grounder to third.

"I was anxious and reached for an outside fastball, which was not what I was looking for," Bell said.

"In my next AB, I told myself not to get too geared up, and stay patient."

In the eighth, Sean Danielson began a two-out rally off reliever Armando Gabino (0-1) with a double to right center. Tony Granadillo drew his third walk of the night.

Bell came up and, this time, looked for an outside fastball. It came and Bell lined a single off the out-stretched glove of Plouffe, into left field. Danielson raced home.

Vaquedano, the side-armer, relieved Haigwood with two outs in the sixth and looked strong for 11/3 innings.

But in the bottom of the eighth, Plouffe reached on Suarez"s error at short. Then Vaquedano hit Brock Peterson. Jones entered and both runners advanced on his wild pitch.

Jones got three outs on two grounders - Plouffe was thrown out at home by Granadillo, the third baseman -- and a soft liner to second. Boston scored two in the ninth on doubles by Zach Daeges and Jay Johnson, and Suarez's third single of the game.

Jones walked two batters with two outs in the ninth. Vaughan entered and got the save when Plouffe popped out to short.

"We pitched (well), got some clutch hits and played pretty good defense," Beyeler said.

NOTES: In the third inning, New Britain's Felix Molina got a good jump on his steal attempt, by new Sea Dogs catcher mark Wagner fired a strike to second base for the out ... The paid attendance was announced at 5,289. The actual attendance was less than half of that.

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