Scrappers lose to Tigers in series finale
By Tom Williams
Niles
For the second straight night, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers took the lead with a sixth-inning rally.
But this time, the comeback wouldn’t last as the Connecticut Tigers avoided a three-game sweep on Friday by rallying for a 7-4 victory at Eastwood Field.
“Tonight was a tough loss,” said Jordan Smith whose two-run single in the first inning gave the Scrappers an early lead. “We played well as a team, we came back from a deficit.
“Sometimes it’s roller coaster, you don’t really know what you’re going to get,” Smith said.
The Scrappers (16-12) remain tied with the Jamestown Jammers atop the Pinckney Division standings, one game ahead of the Auburn Doubledays.
After taking a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning, the Scrappers quickly surrendered three runs. Two hit-batsmen, a bunt single and an error loaded the bases for the Tigers.
Jason King’s single to right brought in two runs and Jeff Holm’s sacrifice fly scored Eugenio Suarez.
The Tigers added an insurance run in the seventh inning when Suarez tripled and scored on King’s sacrifice fly.
“We tried to come out and sweep them, but both teams played hard,” Scrappers manager Dave Wallace said. “We just seemed to make one more mistake and they capitalized on it.”
Will Roberts, the Cleveland Indians’ fifth-round pick in the June draft, made his professional debut. After giving up a lead-off single to Chad Wright, Roberts retired the next three Tigers.
However, Roberts didn’t get out of the second inning after two walks and a single loaded the bases.
“We knew he was only going to go around two innings or somewhere around 40 pitches,” Wallace said. “it wasn’t a performance thing. Next start, we’ll bump that up.”
Reliever Danny Jiminez (1-1) retired Wright on a flyout to KC Serna. He pitched four more innings and started the seventh with a 4-3 lead.
But Jiminez hit Wright then gave up a bunt single by PJ Polk. Both scored on King’s single.
The seventh-inning collapse wiped out the Scrappers’ rally that saw them overcome a 3-2 deficit. The Scrappers converted four hits and a bases-loaded walk into two runs.
After Jake Lowery and Smith singled, Tigers shortstop Suarez bobbled an infield single by Alex Lavinsky to load the bases.
Evan Frazar hit the ball deep into the hole at shortstop, prompting a late throw to first by Suarez as Lowery tied the game.
With two outs, Cody Elliott laid off a 3-1 pitch by Tigers reliever Melvin Mercedes to bring home Smith with the go-ahead run.
“We find ourselves in the hole a lot,” said Lavisky, who took a night off behind the plate to serve as designated hitter. “We’ve won a lot of close games, extra-inning games, but I think we’ve got to do a better job of finishing games.
“We always start off early and then go cold for a little bit,” Lavisky said. “It’s definitely something we have to work on as a team.”
Extra-base hits proved costly. Curt Casali’s solo homer in the fourth inning sliced the Scrappers’ lead to 2-1.
Consecutive RBI doubles put the Tigers ahead 3-2 two innings later. After Casali blooped a two-out single into right field, Zach Maggard doubled to right-center field to tie the game. Colin Kaline stroked the ball into the right-field corner to put the Tigers ahead.