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Upside Down
Lewis’ comfort zone tweaked
By DAN HINER
NILES
Fans of “Stranger Things” know the Upside Down — a parallel universe where things are similar but noticeably different.
Aberdeen left fielder Craig Lewis entered the Upside Down on Tuesday night.
Lewis and the IronBirds beat the Scrappers 5-3 at Eastwood Field.
Lewis, a Howland High School graduate, knows the ballpark well. But he played center field in high school.
He’s also used to the home dugout, not sitting along the third-base line.
“Other than playing a different position, it’s still the same feel,” Lewis said.
Even his spot in the lineup was different for the game. He hit leadoff for the first time in his professional career.
“I only found out at about 2 [p.m.] that I was leading off today,” Lewis said. “I think my manager [Kevin Bradshaw] kinda hooked me up with that.”
Lewis is hitting .294 (5 for 17) in five games with the IronBirds. He went 0-2 on Tuesday.
His friends and family provided a familiar sight. Lewis said he “can’t put into words” the feeling he had entering the batter’s box and hearing his name announced.
“This is something I’ve been working for my entire career to get to the professional level,” Lewis said. “And getting to play in front of my friends and family in my hometown, it’s been awesome.”
A tight hamstring brought a quick end to Lewis’ night.
He flew out to center field in the third and returned to the dugout. He was replaced by Shayne Fontana.
The lefty battled injuries during his time at Seton Hill. He played 55 games in 2017, but was limited to 14 the following season.
In college, Lewis had hamstring strains in both legs.
“You don’t want any issues to turn into anything big,” Lewis said. “Definitely wasn’t something I wanted to do with everybody coming out to watch me play, but I decided to make the smart decision to mention the tightness to my trainer because I didn’t want it to turn into anything big.”
The IronBirds (26-18) didn’t need Lewis to win.
Aberdeen scored two runs in the top of the third inning to take the lead, and it wasn’t in doubt the rest of the way.
Bryan Lavastida led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored on a Ray Delgado groundout to give the Scrappers (22-22) a 1-0 lead.
Kyle Stowers tied the game at 1 with a leadoff home run over to left field in the second.
A sacrifice fly from Stowers and an RBI double by Andrew Daschbach gave Aberdeen a 3-1 lead in the third. Jean Carmona added an RBI single in the fourth and Ortiz hit a solo homer to left in the fifth.
Johnathan Rodriguez hit solo homers in the sixth and the ninth for the Scrappers.
Scrappers starter Carlos Vargas (3-3) allowed five runs on 10 hits with a walk in 42/3 innings.
“You can tell they’re good hitters,” Scrappers manager Dennis Malave said. “They probably have a little more experience than most hitters in this league. They did a good job of having a plan and executing their plans against Vargas.”
Leonardo Rodriguez (2-2) allowed one run and struck out nine in six innings of relief. Marlon Constante pitched the ninth for his fourth save.