Lucas’ slam leads Scrappers to rout of ’Dogs

July 18, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

NILES

Simeon Lucas’ six-RBI night helped the streaky Scrappers remain atop the New York-Penn League’s Pinckney Division standings with Monday’s 11-5 victory over Batavia at Eastwood Field.

“Six RBIs? Probably in high school,” Lucas replied when asked about his big night. “I’m not a big stat guy, I really don’t like to pay attention to that. It puts expectations on your shoulders and you just want to have fun in baseball.”

Lucas’s big blow was his seventh-inning grand slam off Muckdogs reliever Josh Alberius that extended the Scrappers’ lead to 8-3. The homer was part of a seven-run rally.

“We’ve been really focusing on doing your job, not trying to do too much,” the Scrappers first baseman said. “Lately, we’ve been struggling a little bit with it as a team. My approach in that situation was to hit a line drive into the gap.”

Instead, he hit it over the right-field bullpen.

“He’s been swinging it really well lately so I was kind of excited when he came up to bat with the bases loaded,” Scrappers manager Luke Carlin said. “There was no doubt when he hit it — it landed on the other side of that building.”

The Scrappers (16-11), who recently weathered three-game and four-game losing streaks, won their third straight despite committing five errors. Two wild pitches on consecutive tosses also let in a run back when the game was tight.

Seventeen hits can forgive just about anything. Tyler Friis, Will Benson and Clark Scolamiero each had three.

Two of Benson’s hits came in the seventh inning. The Scrappers trailed 3-2 before sending 11 men to the plate.

“We just started hitting line drives and guys kept it going,” Benson said.

Benson led off the frame with a single. After Jason Rodriguez singled, Jonathan Laureano bunted for a hit to load the bases. Scolamiero’s infield hit to deep shortstop tied the game. A wild pitch by Alberius put the Scrappers ahead.

With first base open, Nolan Jones was intentionally walked to bring Lucas to the plate.

“He took a good pitch for a ball and the next pitch he got the pitch he wanted and he hit it deep,” Benson said. “It was funny because one of my teammates called the home run right before the at-bat started and I was like, ‘I’m feeling it, too.’”

Scrappers starter Francisco Perez went five innings, allowing six hits and three runs.

“I thought he was OK today,” Carlin said. “He used his breaking ball a lot more, which was nice to see. That’s something he’s trying to develop. It showed flashes of being good today.”

Two Perez wild pitches helped the Muckdogs take a 1-0 lead in the third inning. With two outs, Sam Castro and J.C. Millan singled. Perez had Ben Fisher facing an 0-2 count when his next pitch bounced off catcher Rodriguez’s leg, advancing both runners. It happened again on the next pitch, allowing Castro to race home for a 1-0 lead.

In the fifth inning with the Scrappers ahead 2-1, two errors by left fielder Oscar Gonzalez on the same play helped the Muckdogs regain the lead.

David Gauntt and Harrison White led off the fifth inning with singles. Jhonny Santos singled to shallow left where Gonzalez bobbled the ball then threw wildly to home as Gauntt scored. White took third and Santos second on the throw. White scored on Castro’s groundout for a 3-2 lead.

The errors weren’t costly.

“They came alive tonight,” Carlin said of his batters. “They took some quality swings and stayed in the zone for the most part.”