LATE COMEBACKS HIGHLIGHT SUNDAY’S ACTION
A six-run bottom of the 8th for Windy City, two runs in the top of the 8th for New York plus a walk-off victory for Lake Erie highlighted the conclusion of season-opening series on Sunday.
In Lake Erie, Trois-Rivières took a 1-run lead into the ninth of a back-and-forth game. The Crushers' Bryant Flete started the inning with a single to left. Kokko Figueiredo and Jarrod Watkins then followed with back-to-back bunt base hits to load the bases. Danny Perez brought in the tying run on a RBI groundout to second. Rodney Tennie ended the game on a ground ball to first base, which was fielded by Rodney Kelly. Figueiredo broke for the plate on the play and beat Kelly's throw from first base to win the game.
At Windy City, Québec took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the eights before the ThunderBolt offense exploded. Jace Mercer drew a leadoff walk and Dan Robinson followed with a long home run. Manny Garcia, representing the tying run, hit a double and Rob Weissheier's RBI single scored the tying run. Jairus Richards was hit by a pitch to put two on with two out and back-to-back singles from Brynn Martinez and Payton Robertson brought home three more runs to give the ThunderBolts a 7-4 win.
New Jersey trailed Evansville 8-4 on Saturday night when the game was suspended due to heavy rain. When the Jackals returned on Sunday, they promptly scored four times to tie the game. With Todd Isaacs starting on first base, a Santiago Chirino single advanced Isaacs to third, followed by a swinging bunt from Alfredo Marte to make it 8-5. Dalton Combs lifted a fly ball to left that initially appeared to be caught, but the ball evaded capture by Evansville's Jeffrey Baez, scoring Chirino. A Justin Wylie double and a Jason Agresti single knotted the score at 8. In the top of the sixth, the Jackals took the lead for good, utilizing a Marte RBI smash hit that was ruled an error and a passed ball with Josh Rehwaldt at third to give them a 10-8 lead. Evansville responded with a run in the bottom of the 7th as the final scoring of the game.
The Otters rebounded during the regularly scheduled game in Evansville. The first five innings had starting pitchers Hayden Shenefield and Ryan O'Reilly kept the Otters and Jackals from scoring. Evansville got to Shenefield in the 6th, with
a leadoff single from Miles Gordon and a walk from Jeffery Baez. Juan Perez entered the game for New Jersey. Following an intentional walk of Steven Sensley, Elijah MacNamee drove the game's first run in. Two batters later, with two outs, George Callil earned an RBI the hard way, via a hit by pitch, and the Otters' lead grew to two. Andy Armstrong followed with a two-run single, giving Evansville their winning margin.
The Gateway Grizzlies' offense remained hot as they completed a sweep of Empire State. The Grizzlies offense went to work in the second inning when Jackson Pritchard drove in the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. In the bottom of the third inning, Andrew Penner tripled and scored on a passed ball to make it 2-0, with Trevor Achenbach and Isaac Benard following Penner with back-to-back solo home runs to make it 4-0.
Later, in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Grizzlies capitalized on two hit-by-pitches and a walk. Jay Prather ripped an RBI single for a 5-0 lead. With one out and the bases still loaded, the game paused due to a rain delay which lasted just under an hour. Once the skies cleared, Jackson Pritchard connected for Gateway's first grand slam of 2022 to blow the lead up to 9-0. A sixth inning, two-run double by Tyler Hill put the Greys on the board before the Grizzlies responded with three runs in the bottom half for the final 12-2 margin.
After dropping the first two games in Sussex County, Schaumburg utilized an all-around team effort to knock off the Miners 11-5. Alec Craig led off the game with a walk and scored from second base on a Clint Hardy sacrifice fly as the Boomers took the lead for the first time in the series. Schaumburg busted the game open behind five runs in the second, all of which scored on homers. Matt Bottcher led off with a solo shot, the first homer of the season for the team. William Salas blasted a two-out two-run homer to score Nick Oddo and the inning was capped with a two-run homer from Chase Dawson to bounce the Sussex County starter. Schaumburg went on to score in three other innings en route to the win.
In Joliet, the Slammers took the finale of the three-game series, shutting out the Ottawa Titans 9-0 on Sunday afternoon. Joliet plated four runs in the 5th inning, starting with a Matt Burch sacrifice fly. Three batters later, Scott Holzwasser roped a bases-clearing double to make the score 4-0. The Slammers added two more runs in the sixth followed by three in the eighth for a 9-0 victory. Cole Cook earned the victory with six dominant innings, over which he surrendered only two hits and did not walk anyone while striking out five.
In the day's final game, New York scored twice in the 8th inning to knock off Washington 5-4. A leadoff double placed Max Smith on second to start the frame. After the next two batters were retired, an intentional walk to Tucker Nathans brought up Jake MacKenzie. MacKenzie laced a triple to right field to plate the tying and go-ahead runs. With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Washington loaded the bases on three consecutive walks before Leudeny Pineda struck out Wagner Lagrange to end the game.
Following Monday's off-day, new series start on Tuesday featuring the home opener for the Tri-City ValleyCats with Lake Erie making the trip to Joseph L. Bruno Stadium. The other series feature Sussex County hosting Washington, Schaumburg traveling to New York, Empire State in Evansville, New Jersey at Florence, Ottawa facing Windy City, Québec in Joliet, and Trois-Rivières at Gateway.
