Power Outage: Coyotes’ Steed gets no support in 4-0 loss

EDINBURG — Amid all of the Edinburg Coyotes’ recent starting pitching troubles, the most puzzling is Bric Steed.

Steed, who was the league ERA champion last season, began 2007 with a 5-0 record, and the Coyotes were 8-0 when he started. But Steed had not won a game in more than one month, losing five in row as his ERA bloated to 7.12.

He needed to shake out of his slump in a hurry Saturday because he was going up against arguably the league’s best pitcher in Alexandria’s Adam Cox.

Steed was up for the challenge as the southpaw — for at least one night — looked like his old self, but Cox was too much for the Coyotes’ offense, leading the Aces to a 4-0 victory at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.

“I think part of the problem is that some of our guys are comfortable about being in this losing streak,” Coyotes manager Vince Moore said. “I am not happy being in this losing streak we are on. I want to get out of it, but some of these guys are not doing what they need to do to get out of it.

“As a coaching staff we could talk to these guys until we are blue in the face, but if they don’t go out and perform it doesn’t matter until they want to do something about it.”

The first-place Aces improve to 14-4 in the second half. The last-place Coyotes (4-13) are 9 1/2 games behind and have lost 11 of their last 12 games.

Steed (5-6), who has now lost six in a row, allowed two earned runs and struck out five in 5 2/3 solid innings. It was all for naught.

“I have been working hard every day,” Steed said. “I have been preparing every day to help me get out of my slump. I finally went out there and gave my team a chance to win.

“Even though I did well, it is still tough because we lost.”

For the second straight game the Coyotes were shut out. Cox (10-2) scattered four hits in seven innings, striking out seven and retiring 15 of the last 17 batters he faced.

“I think I could have done better,” Cox said. “I think I was able to settle down and battle back after a shaky start.

“I think I did all right, but I have had better.”

The best chance for Edinburg to score was after back-to-back singles to begin the second inning, but a strikeout and a double play silenced that threat.

“You have to give credit to Cox,” Moore said. “He is a good pitcher, but we shouldn’t go two games without scoring. He saw our weaknesses and went after them.

“We didn’t make adjustments. When you do that, you make a good pitcher look even better.”

Alexandria’s first strike on offense was in the fifth on an RBI double by Palmer Karr that plated Bryan Sabatella to give the Aces a 1-0 lead.

With the bases loaded in the sixth, reliever Andy Noonan’s wild pitch allowed Evan Cherry to score to put Alexandria up 2-0.

The Aces took a 4-0 lead in the seventh on a two-run shot to right by Karr (2-for-5, 3 RBIs, one run).

NOTES: Rodney Medina was taken out of the game in the sixth inning with a sore right forearm that made it difficult for him to swing his bat. He was hit by a pitch in the first inning. Â… The only Coyotes hitter to have more than two hits was catcher Luis Espinosa (2-for-3).

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Peter Rasmussen covers the Edinburg Coyotes for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448.