One Game Short

By Pete Mollica | September 17, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

Scrappers lose NYPL championship

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers fall 5-2 to the Staten Island Yankees Wednesday, September 16, 2009 at Eastwood Field.

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

NILES — Mahoning Valley Scrappers manager Travis Fryman called his team a bunch of overachievers this season, but those overachievers just couldn’t pull out a victory in Wednesday’s New York-Penn League championship series with the Staten Island Yankees at Eastwood Field.

With a crowd of just under 2,000 looking on the Scrappers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but then ran into the pitching arm of Yankees’ reliever Ben Watkins who shutdown the Scrappers as his teammates rallied for a 5-2 victory and their fifth New York-Penn League championship.

“It’s been a great season for these kids, a bunch of overachievers, who just kept plugging away all year long,” said Fryman. “I told them it’s not the way you want the season to end, but that they had nothing to be ashamed of.

“I said from the start that Staten Island had the best talent in our league this season and [Ben] Watkins was just outstanding against us tonight,” he added.

After the Scrappers jumped on Yankees starter Jose Ramirez for two runs and three hits in the second inning, Watkins came on in the fourth and Mahoning Valley would get just one single off him in five innings of relief as he picked up his first playoff victory.

Scrappers’ designated hitter Greg Folgia summed it up best after the game.

“We scored first and usually the team that scores first in this kind of game has the advantage, but then their pitching got hot and our hitting went cold and that was the ball game,” Folgia said.

“It’s been a great season and I’ve had so much fun playing with this great bunch of guys,” he said. “I’m sorry to see it end.”

Fryman said that for a lot of his players the season is far from over.

“A lot of these guys will be heading to winter ball, which for a lot of them begins in a day or two and I’ll be seeing a lot of them there,” he said.

The Scrappers, who have been in the New York-Penn League championship series four times with only one title (2004) to show for it, jumped out to the early lead on the Yankees in the second inning.

Ben Carlson got an infield single that dribbled in front of the plate, in between two outs, but then the Scrappers unloaded. First it was Rafael Vera who hit a shot into the gap in right-center field for a triple that scored Carlson and then Chun Chen, the hero of Tuesday’s 11th inning victory, followed with a double down the left field line to score Vera.

But that was it offensively for the Scrappers the rest of the way. They got just one hit off Watkins over the five innings he pitched, while Graham Stoneburner came on and retired the Scrappers in order in the ninth.

Staten Island, in the meantime, just plugged away, scoring one run in the fifth inning and Neil Medchill’s double and an RBI single by Zoilo Almonte.

They tied the score in the seventh when Kyle Higashiokia doubled home Almonte, who led off the inning with a single and then broke open the contest in the eighth.

The Yankees had three hits in the inning, but scored their first run after Jimmy Paredes doubled to lead off and advanced to third on a fly out by Luke Murton. Then Medchill hit a high bouncer behind the mound and Scrappers reliever Austin Adams fielded it then tried to get Paredes at home, but was late. Almonte then doubled (his third hit of the game) down the left field line plating the final two runs.

Mahoning Valley starter Clayton Cook pitched very well over the first five innings. He retired the Yankees in order over the first four innings with the help of a couple of big double plays before running into a little trouble in the fifth.

mollica@vindy.com