CLOSE GAMES AROUND THE LEAGUE AS VALLEYCATS HAVE SECOND STRAIGHT WALK-OFF WIN
Windy City vs Tri-City
The Tri-City ValleyCats (6-2) defeated the Windy City Thunderbolts(3-6) Saturday night with their second straight Walk-Off win with a final score of 7- 6. The ThunderBolts poured it on ValleyCats starter Troy Cruz early, striking for three runs in the second, with RBI hits from Peyton Isaacson and Jake Boone, with Issacson coming home to score on a balk. Windy City would strike for three more in the third, with a three run homer off the bat of Manny Garcia. Tri-City would start their comeback in the home half of the fifth inning, with four ValleyCats runners coming home on RBI hits from Brantley Bell, Jesus Lujano, and Juan Santana.The work from relievers Aneudy Acosta, Jake Dexter, and Adam Hofacket silenced Windy City's bats after the third inning, as the visitors only recorded three hits over the remainder of the game. Juan Silverio would tie the game on a mammoth two-run home run over the left field wall, plating Jesus Lujano. After a fantastic defensive effort from Manny Garcia, making a diving play putting the fire out early on in the inning, the heat was turned back on when Jonah Girand launched a two out double off the wall in center field. Brantley Bell reached base, giving Lujano the chance to play hero once again. Lujano launched a 3-2 fastball from Neal Abbatiello into the left center field gap, allowing Girand to come around and score, capping off the seven run comeback.
Joliet vs New York
The Slammers (3-6) and Boulders (4-5) split a double-header with the Boulders winning the first game 6-2 and the Slammers winning the second game 7-5. Joliet starter Cole Cook allowed only one hit over five-plus innings as the Slammers earned a split of their doubleheader with New York. Kaleb Honea and Trevor Charpie finished off the one-hitter by combining to toss the final 1 2/3 innings. Matt McGarry's two-run single in the top of the sixth off Jayce Vancena, New York's fourth pitcher of the game, snapped a 5-5 tie and provided the Slammers with the winning runs. The Boulders took advantage of five Joliet errors to score their runs in the nightcap. The only New York hit came off the bat of Tucker Nathans, a third inning single. Three Slammers' errors led to two New York runs in the first inning, while two more miscues helped open the door for three Boulders' runs in the third. Gabriel Garcia and Chris Kwitzer had an RBI each for New York in the third inning. Trailing 2-0 in the third, Joliet pushed across four runs - three coming on a Luke Mangieri three-run home run, his second long ball of the season. The Boulders answered with three runs in the bottom of the third to grab a 5-4 lead, but Joliet answered with a sacrifice fly by Carson Maxwell in the fifth that knotted the game at 5-5. Cook went 5 1/3 innings and allowed only one earned run, walked four and struck out six. He improved to 2-0 on the year. Charpie recorded his first save. Vancena was tagged with the loss in his first decision of the season with the game ending by a score of 7-5. Behind three home runs, the Boulders took the opening game of the double-header, 6-2.Tucker Nathans' third home run of the season, a two-run 400-foot plus blast to right-center staked New York to a 2-0 first inning lead. Carson Maxwell's first homer of the year cut the Joliet deficit to 2-1 in the second; and the Slammers leveled the game at 2-2 on an RBI single in the fourth inning off the bat of Kyle Jacobson. Boulders' starter Willie Rios pitched in and out of trouble over his four innings of work, allowing eight hits but getting a pair of double play grounders to limit the damage. Rios allowed two runs, walked two and struck out three. Dylan Smith followed Rios to the mound and pitched a perfect fifth inning, picking up the win - his first of the season against no losses. Austin Kaplan made his season debut for the Boulders and tossed two scoreless innings to close out the win.
Sussex County vs Lake Erie
Saturday night's game between the Sussex County Miners(6-2) and Lake Erie Crushers(3-4) at Mercy Health Stadium has been postponed due to the threat of thunderstorms across the area. The game will be made up as part of a double header on Sunday, May 22. A pair of seven inning games are scheduled
Gateway vs New Jersey
The Grizzlies (6-1) defeated the Jackals (4-1) Saturday night with a final score of 13-8. The Gateway Grizzlies scored four runs in the top of the first inning and scored runs in each of the first four frames overall on Saturday night against the New Jersey Jackals, leaping out to a 10-0 lead and an eventual 13-8 victory at Yogi Berra Stadium to improve to 6-1 on the season in the series opener. An error by the Jackals' shortstop allowed Andrew Penner to reach leading off the game, and after Trevor Achenbach singled, Isaac Benard brought in the game's first run with an RBI single to make it 1-0. Two batters later, Jay Prather stepped up, and bashed a three-run home run on the first pitch from Jackals' starter Hayden Shenefield (0-2), making it 4-0 Grizzlies.The offense would not let up in the subsequent innings. In the second, Gateway scored three runs with two outs on a bases-loaded walk by Peter Zimmermann and a two-run double by Prather, giving him five RBIs on the day and making the score 7-0. Penner then picked up his first RBIs of the season on a two-run single in the third inning to make the score 9-0, and Clint Freeman's sacrifice fly in the fourth pushed the advantage out to 10-0. Steven Ridings held the Jackals' offense down until the fifth, when a pair of home runs by Trevor Abrams and Dalton Combs plated five runs and sliced the Grizzlies' lead in half, but Gateway would respond by getting two of those runs back in the next inning. Jose Rosario's RBI groundout increased the lead to 11-5, and Abdiel Diaz came up clutch with a two-out RBI single to make it 12-5. Zimmermann capped the scoring for the Grizzlies with a solo home run in the eighth, and despite a three-run home run in the ninth inning by Alfredo Marte, the Jackals could not get closer than five runs as Gateway took the first game of their long road trip.Prather reached base all five times he came up to the plate in the game, going 3-for-3 with a homer, two doubles, three runs scored, and a career-high five RBIs. Penner, Achenbach, and Jackson Pritchard also had multi-hit games for the Grizzlies, who finished with 14 hits as a team while each starting player amassed at least one.
Ottawa vs Florence
The Ottawa Titans (5-3) defeated the Florence Y'alls (2-5) Saturday night with a final score of 6-5. The Y'alls immediately cut into the first inning deficit with two runs in the bottom of the first. With two men on base, Harrison DiNicola singled up the middle. The ball got past Zimmerman in center field, both runners scored (the trail runner on the error), but DiNicola was gunned down at the plate trying to score on his hit. The score stayed at 5-2 until Florence got back on the board in the sixth inning. With runners on the corners, Ray Zuberer stole second and Brain Leef broke for home and beat the throw from shortstop with a slide to pull within two runs. The Ottawa run in the seventh stretched the lead back to three but was again answered by the Y'alls. Anthony Brocato ripped a RBI-single to left field to plate a run, and one inning later AJ Bumpass drove home a run off the right field wall to make it a 6-5 score. Leef was stranded at third to end the inning, representing what would have been the tying run. Kevin Escorcia slammed the door shut facing the top of the Florence order in the ninth inning by striking out the side for his first save of the season. Martinez takes the loss for Florence, though he only allowed one more run after the early implosion and ended up with nine strikeouts. At one point, Martinez retired 11 consecutive batters. Chris Burica allowed one earned run in five innings in his start for Ottawa.
Trois-Rivières vs Schaumburg
The Schaumburg Boomers (5-3) defeated the Trois-Rivières Aigles (2-6) Saturday night with a final score of 12-9.After falling behind 3-0 in the first by virtue of a homer from Carlos Martinez, the Boomers were able to open a 6-3 lead. Braxton Davidson connected on a solo homer in the second, his fourth of the year, before the team was able to score five runs in the third. Matt Bottcher drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game and a Cris Ruiz sacrifice fly put the Boomers ahead. Nick Oddo added a two-run double. The visitors were able to tie the game with three two-out runs in the sixth.The back-and-forth contest saw Trois Rivieres take a 7-6 lead in the top of the sixth before Alec Craig lifted a two-run homer to right in the bottom of the inning to put the Boomers back in front. L.P. Pelletier connected on a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the eighth before the Boomers rallied with four in the bottom of the inning. Davidson tied the game with a single to plate William Salas and Bottcher lifted a sacrifice fly to hand the Boomers the lead. Two more runs scored on an error to account for the final. Trois-Rivieres totaled 15 hits in the defeat and issued 10 walks while hitting three batters. The Boomers collected eight hits but scored 12 runs. Salas and Davidson notched two apiece. Craig, Davidson, Bottcher and Oddo all drove home two. Shumpei Yoshikawa worked five innings in his second start. Jake Joyce earned the win with 1.1 innings, striking out two in the ninth.
Empire State vs Washington
The Washington Wild Things (4-4) defeated the Empire State Greys (0-8) Saturday night with a final score of 3-2. The Wild Things went up in the bottom of the first with Wagner Lagrange's sacrifice fly bringing in leadoff man Cole Brannen for the first run of the night. The Greys eventually responded with an RBI single from Jordan Scott batting in Liam McArthur in the top of the third inning. The starting pitchers dueled through the next couple innings keeping the score tied at 1-1. Nick Beardsley finished the night with one earned run, five strikeouts, and allowed seven hits in five innings.Wild Things' reliever Micky Foytik entered the game in the sixth and recorded two scoreless innings. Teammate Christian James took his spot on the mound in the eighth inning. Willie Estrada from the Greys hit a solo shot allowing the Greys to take a 2-1 lead. Washington's Andrew Czech walked to start the bottom of the eighth. Czech advanced to third on a wild pitch putting him into scoring position. With a 1-0 count and one out, Ramon Osuna homered over the left field wall bringing the score to 3-2 Wild Things. Lukas Young closed the game out for the Wild Things and earned his first save.
Quebec vs Evansville
The Quebec Capitales (5-3) defeated the Evansville Otters (5-3) Saturday night with a final score of 8-6 in an eight inning game that was called due to the rain. The Otters opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first inning, which started with four straight singles. After all nine hitters had an opportunity at the plate, the Otters' advantage sat at 4-0. Quebec also committed three errors in the opening stanza of the game.Designated hitter Zach Biermann, first baseman Steven Sensley and center fielder Miles Gordon all drove in runs in the opening frame.The Capitales answered in the second, as left fielder Pedro Gonzales grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring center fielder Jonathan Lacroix from third.Quebec grabbed one more run in the third, this time on a solo home run from first baseman Josh McAdams, bringing the score to 4-2.The Otters grabbed their two-run lead once again in the bottom of the third, as catcher Justin Felix hit his second two-run home run of the season. The score held even as the first batch of rain rolled in. In the top of the fifth, the Capitales made their push. Without recording an out, Ryan O'Reilly had loaded the bases. O'Reilly hit catcher Jeffry Parra next, bringing in a single run. One batter later, third basemen T.J. White hit a grand slam, giving the Capitales a 7-6 lead they would never surrender. Quebec added one final run in the top half of the sixth on an RBI single from White. The next front of rain pushed in midway through the eighth and after the final out, the umpires called for a rain delay. After about 40 minutes of delay, the game was called, declaring the final score 8-6 in eight innings.
