Scrappers cough up lead; Doubledays rally for win

Auburn scored four runs in the eighth inning to win, 6-5.

By PETE MOLLICA

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

NILES — The Mahoning Valley Scrappers finally got their bats untracked, but the pitching fell apart Monday night.

The Scrappers (4-3) had a three-run lead in the eighth inning, but gave up four runs to lose 6-5 to the Auburn Doubledays before 4,221 fans at Eastwood Field.

For seven innings the Scrappers played as well as they could behind the excellent five innings from starting pitcher Mike Eisenberg and two innings of relief from Kyle Landis.

While Eisenberg and Landis kept the Doubledays in check, the Scrappers offense was pounding out 10 hits, including a two-run home run by Todd Martin in the seventh inning that gave the Scrappers a 5-2 lead.

But in the eighth Nathan Bunton came on in relief and after retiring the first batter, hit the next and then gave up three straight singles as the Doubledays closed to within 5-4.

Rough outing

Daniel Morales made his first appearance for the Scrappers in relief of Bunton and threw two wild pitches that allowed Auburn to tie the game and then gave up a sacrifice fly to Adam Calderone to give the Doubledays the lead, which they kept.

“We kind of gave that one away tonight,” said Scrappers manager Tim Laker. “We played very solid for seven innings, then we just couldn’t hold the lead.”

In defense of Morales, Laker added, “It was his first appearance in a professional game and he was nervous. I’m sure his next appearance will be much better.

“We hit the ball very well tonight, which was something that we needed and we got five strong innings from Mike [Eisenberg] and Landis came in and pitched his way out of a pretty good jam in the sixth.”

The Scrappers fell behind early in the second inning as Eisenberg got the first two batters then gave up a single to Leance Soto and balked him to second. J.P. Arencibia then singled home Soto.

Coming back

The Scrappers came right back in the bottom of the inning and scored twice. With one out Juan Valdez and Matt Brown both singled and Fernando Pacheco hit a double to deep center scoring both runners.

The Scrappers blew a big inning in the third when Adam White and Jansy Infante opened with back-to-back singles, but first White got picked off second and then Infante got caught off first. After Beau Mills was hit by a pitch, Todd Martin, who had three hits on the night, doubled to center, scoring Mills.

The Doubledays added a run in the sixth as Landis loaded the bases with nobody out. He allowed a sacrifice fly to Baron Frost, but then pitched his way out of the jam.

The Scrappers got some breathing room in the seventh as White was hit by a pitch to open the inning and after two outs, Martin drilled a shot to right-center for the team’s first home run of the season and a 5-2 lead.

But then came the eighth and the Scrappers could not recover as Doubledays reliever Ronald Lowe set them down in both the eighth and ninth innings.

mollica@vindy.com

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AUBURNSCRAPPERS

abrhbiabrhbi

Mastroianni 2b4110White cf4110

Zeskind lf4110Infante 2b5010

Ebarb dh2110Mills 3b4100

Rodriguez 1b4012Martin dh5133

Stone pr0100Valdes lf4120

Franko 1b0000Brown rf4120

Frost rf 3011Pacheco 1b3012

Santana pr0100Castillo c3000

Calderone cf 3001Thompson ss4000

Soto 3b4110

Arencibia c4011

Sanchez ss4010

Totals32685Totals365105

Auburn010001040—6

Scrappers021000200—5

E—Zeskind (1), Thompson (2), Soto (1). DP—Scrappers 2. Auburn 5, Scrappers 6. 2B—Pacheco (1), Martin (1). HR—Martin (1). SB—Mastroianni (1). CS—Infante (1). SF—Frost, Calderone

IPHRERBBSO

Auburn

Aguirre5 2-383315

Nieves112211

Estanga W, 1-0110000

Lowe S,21 1-300001

Scrappers

Eisenberg531114

Landis211012

Bunton L, 0-11-334400

Morales1 2-310011

WP—Bunton, Morales 2. Balk—Eisenberg. HBP—By Aguirre (Mills), by Nieves (White), by Bunton (Zeskind). Umpires—Home, Tyler Wilsons; Bases, Ben Karis. T—3:04. A—4,221.

HOW THEY SCORED

Doubledays 2nd — Frost flied out (F9), Calderone strikes out swinging. Soto singles up middle. Soto to second on balk. Arencibia singles down third base line, Soto scores. Sanchez strikes out looking. 1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.

Scrappers 2nd — Martin strikes out swinging. Valdez singles to left, to second on error by Zeskind. Brown singles to left, Valdez to third. Pacheco doubles to deep center, Valdez and Brown scoring. Castillo grounds out (6-3), Thompson grounds out (6-3). 2 runs, 3 hits, 1 error, 1 LOB.

Scrappers 3rd — White singles to right. Infante singles to center. White picked off second (1-6), Infante picked off first (1-3-6). Mills hit by a pitch. Martin doubles to left field, Mills scoring. Valdez strikes out looking. 1 run, 3 hits, 0 errors, 1 LOB.

Doubledays 6th — Mastroianni reached on an error by Sanchez. Mastroianni stole second. Zeskind singled to left, Mastroianni to third. Ebarb walked to load bases. Rodriguez popped out (P5), Frost flied out (F8), Mastroianni scoring. Calderone strikes out looking. 1 run, 1 hit, 1 error, 2 LOB.

Scrappers 7th — White was hit by pitch. Infante strikes out looking. Mills flies out (F9). Martin homers to right-center, White scoring. Valdez walks. (Pitching change, Estanga now pitching). Brown infield single, Valdez to second. Pacheco strikes out swinging. 2 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 LOB.

Doubledays 8th — Mastroianni flied out (F9), Zeskind hit by a pitch. Ebarb singles to right, Zeskind to second. Zeskind to third, Ebarb to second on wild pitch. Rodriguez singles to right, Zeskind, Ebarb scoring. Frost singles to right, Rodriguez to second. Santana pinch run for Frost. (Pitching change, Morales now pitching), Stone pinch runs for Rodriguez. Stone to third, Santana to second on wild pitch. Stone scores, Santana to third on wild pitch. Calderone flies out (F7), Santana scoring. Soto strikes out swinging. 4 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 LOB.