Norwich - While the opening night crowd of 3,569 at Dodd Stadium was getting its first look at the 2011 version of the Connecticut Tigers, the fans were probably not wanting to meet the entire Tigers pitching staff in one night.

The Tigers lost Monday amid all the red, white and blue bunting hanging from the sky boxes and with a freshly painted team logo behind home plate. And despite a well-pitched series to open the season over the weekend in Lowell, this one required more than a few trips to the mound for first-year manager Andrew Graham.

The Tri-City ValleyCats smacked 14 hits off five Connecticut pitchers to beat the Tigers 11-2, scoring 10 unanswered runs after the Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the second inning on a two-run homer by catcher Zach Maggard.

Tiger pitchers Matt Crouse, Ryan Woolley, Clemente Mendoza, Drew Gagnier and Nick Avila combined to walk eight, striking out only three.

"It's not a good home opener, but it's part of baseball," said Graham, whose staff was also handcuffed by Crouse's 50-pitch limit in what was his first professional outing. "The way to win is not to let it happen too often.

"You can never win with eight walks; walks will kill you."

Up 3-2, Tri-City scored four times in the fourth inning to take a 7-2 lead, getting a leadoff double into the right field corner from Kellen Kiilsgaard, loading the bases, the scoring on an error and a ground ball to first base by Andrew Muren. The last two runs scored on a two-run double by Matt Duffy to almost the same spot as Kiilsgaard's.

The ValleyCats added two in the fifth on a two-run single past the third-base bag by Justin Gominsky and one in the sixth when Duffy led off with a single and scored. The Tigers helped the ValleyCats by committing errors in three straight innings, all contributing to runs.

Crouse, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound left-hander, left with the game tied 2-2 after 2 2/3 innings. He left in favor of Woolley with runners on base, however, and was tagged with another run and the loss when shortstop Javier Azcona mishandled a soft chopper.

Crouse was drafted by the Tigers in the 24th round this season following his junior year at Ole Miss, where he was 7-4 with 62 strikeouts and 19 walks in 89 2/3 innings.

Graham said that in Crouse's next outing, he'll have a pitch count of 70-75.

"He's got a good fastball in him. He's got good presence on the mound," Graham said of what he liked from Crouse in his brief appearance.

Tonight, another Tigers lefty, Tyler Barrett, will also make his first professional appearance when the team (2-2) meets Tri-City in the second of a three-game series at Dodd (7:05 p.m.)

A 20th-round draft pick out of Lewis-Clark State in Idaho, Barrett will be matched up with Tri-City righty Nick Tropeano.

"It's just tough," Maggard said of handling the pitching staff Monday. "I've only caught these guys once … I try to do my best to help them. I thought they worked through it. This was just a little bump in the road."

v.fulkerson@theday.com