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Burnette homers; MV tops Tigers
STAFF REPORT
NORWICH, CONN.
Chase Burnette hit a two-run homer and Alex Kaminsky pitched six solid innings to lead the Mahoning Valley Scrappers to an 8-3 win over the Connecticut Tigers in a New York-Penn League baseball game on Monday night.
The victory evened the Scrappers’ record at 9-9 and leveled this series at one win apiece. The rubber match is tonight.
Connecticut, an affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, was relocated from Oneonta, N.Y., prior to this season.
Burnette’s home run, his fourth of the season — he’s now tied for the league lead — was part of a five-run fifth inning for the Scrappers and extended their lead to 7-0.
Carlos Moncrief added a double and single for Mahoning Valley, and he drove in three runs.
His double drove in the Scrappers’ first two runs in the fourth inning — they were both unearned after a Connecticut error earlier in the inning — and Moncrief added a RBI single in the fifth.
Brian Heere finished off the rally with a two-run single that made it 7-0.
Kaminsky (3-1) went the first six innings for the Scrappers, scattering five hits and allowing a pair of runs. He struck out two and walked no one.
Takafumoi Nakamura pitched two scoreless innings in relief, and Nick Kirk gave up one run in the ninth, on a double by Julio Rodriguez, but he struck out the side in the process.
The Scrappers added their final run in the eighth inning. Kevin Rucker led off with a single, went to second on grounder by Heere and scored on Tyler Cannon’s double.
Connecticut got to Kaminsky in the seventh. Londell Taylor led off with a triple and scored on a double by P.J. Polk. Alexander Nunez got the Tigers to within 7-2 with a single that scored Polk. But Kaminsky retired the next three batters.
Scrappers boxscore on B2.