Posts Tagged ‘Ben Carlson’

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers returned to Niles to open a four-game homestand.  The Scrappers got a great start from Vidal Nuno and held off Batavia to take a 2-1 verdict and remain in first place in the New York Penn League for the 28th day in a row.

Ben Carlson (pictured) hit a bomb over everything and into the right field parking lot to give the Scrappers a 1-0 lead.  Jason Smit then walked and stole second.  Smit scored the Scrappers second run when Jordan Henry hit into an apparent double play, but, Batavia shortstop Ryan Jackson floated his throw over the head of the first baseman allowing Smit to score from second.

Cory Burns had a shaky ninth giving up a run on a bases loaded double play.  Burns was able to escape without further harm to preserve the victory for Nuno and garner a save.

“We weren’t expecting to get that many inning out of him [Nuno] tonight.  We put him in the rotation, he has a spot there now.  We have to work on building his pitch count”, said Scrappers Manager Travis Fryman.

Ben Carlson talked about his long home run after the game, “I had two strikes on me and was actually looking to go the other way.  He [Batavia starter Chris Corrogan] came inside for the first time all night and I just kind of reacted and hit it good enough to go out.”

The Scrappers continue the weekend homestand tonight at Eastwood Field.

Smit-O-Meter:  1-2, BB, SB (7), R, Currently Batting .286

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers improved to 2-1 on their current road venture with a 2-0 victory over the Auburn Doubledays.  The Scrappers upped their 2009 record against the Doubledays to 4-0. 

The pitching on the road trip has been outstanding to this point.  Preston Guilmet went six strong innings and recorded five strikeouts while allowing just four Doubleday hits.  Guido Fonseca, Nick Kirk, and Tyler Sturdevant worked an inning each.  Sturdevant struck out the side in the ninth inning to earn his first save of the season.

The Scrappers posted both of their runs in the second inning.  Ben Carlson (pictured) singled to left and scored on Jason Smit’s 2-run homer to left.

The Scrappers wrap up the series and the road trip tonight at 7:05 and can be heard on AM-1390 with Marc Means calling the game.  The Scrappers return home to open a four-game homestand against Batavia and Auburn starting with Fireworks Friday.

Smit-O-Meter:  1-4, HR (1), 2 RBI (22), Currently Hitting .284

There was no shortage of power, walks, errors, or hits.  The fireworks were supposed to start after the game, but there were plenty of explosions before the game ended.  The Mahoning Valley Scrappers and Oneonta Tigers played a long contest which started fifteen minutes late due to rain.  In the end, the Scrappers came away with a 10-8 victory.

Tigers starting pitcher Jeff Gerbe only lasted two-thirds of an inning as the Scrappers loaded the bases on a walk and two hit batters.  A Kyle Bellows groundout to short drove home Jordan Henry.  A Greg Folgia groundout plated Kyle Smith.  Ben Carlson then drilled one toward the pitcher that deflected into left field driving in Bellows and giving the Scrappers the early 3-0 lead.

Oneonta scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game at 3 apiece.  In the bottom of the fifth,  Juan Aponte homered to reclaim the Scrapper lead at 4-3.  Henry later singled, stole second, and scored on a Smith double pushing the lead to 5-3 in favor of Mahoning Valley.  Bellows then homered to left to push the lead to 7-3.  Rafael Vera got in on the action and drove home Folgia making it 8-3.

The Tigers tacked on a couple of runs in the sixth cutting the Scrapper lead to 8-5.  Guido Fonseca came in to pitch with the bases loaded with just one out and got out of trouble with an inning-ending double play minimizing the Tigers potential threat.

Oneonta clawed back into the game tying the score at 8 runs each on a two-run double from John Murrian.

The Scrappers took a 9-8 lead in the bottom of the eighth when Henry scored again on an error from the Tigers shortstop, Jim Gulliver.  Jason Smit stole second and scored on another Gulliver error to close the scoring at 10-8.

Bellows spoke about the Scrappers being a team that got two home runs in the game, but only have eight for the entire season.  ” It’s great to hit home runs, but we’re pretty much a small ball team.  It just feels good to win.”

Travis Fryman was mostly pleased with his team.  “We need to continue working on consistency.  It was nice to put the losing streak behind us against a hot team.  Oneonta and Staten Island are probably the two hottest teams in the league, so it felt good to get the win tonight.  I like winning the first game of the series.”

Smit-O-Meter:  0-4, Run Scored, SB (5), HBP, Currently Hitting .299

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers are happy to see Staten Island go home, especially Yankee prospect Neil Medchill.  Medchill homered for the third consecutive game helping the Yankees complete a three-game sweep of the Scrappers.

Medchill put Staten Island on the scoreboard in the second inning with a two-run bomb to deep right field.  “I thought he [Clayton Cook] was going to throw a change-up, he ended up coming with a fastball inside and I just reacted to it”, said Medchill after the game. 

The Scrappers got it going in the third as Jordan Henry and Kyle Smith singled to start the inning.  Henry scored on a Jason Smit sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 2-1.  A Ben Carlson single scored Smith to tie the game.   Chun Chen scored on a Kyle Bellows fielders choice coupled with a throwing error to give the Scrappers  a 3-2 lead. 

The Scrappers added a run in the fourth as Tim Palincsar doubled and later scored on a Kyle Smith double-play groundout to up the Mahoning Valley lead to 4-2.

In the sixth, Scrapper-killer Medchill doubled and scored as SS Kyle Smith mishandled a throw that would have ended the inning.

With the score at 4-4, Staten Island struck in the top of the eighth when Luke Merton delivered with an RBI single to give the Yankees the lead for good at 5-4.

“It’s frustrating getting beat by a team’s seven, eight, and nine hitters, and they have been coming through the whole series.  It [this series] gave me a feel for where we are at as a club”, remarked Scrappers Manager Travis Fryman after the game.

Smit-O-Meter:  1-4, 3B (4), RBI (14),   Currently batting: .311

On a very busy night at Eastwood Field, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers completed a sweep of the Auburn Doubledays, winning 4-3 in 14 innings.  The four hour and twenty-four minute marathon was the longest in Niles since the Scrappers beat Staten Island, 3-2, on August 6 of 2005.

Kelly Pavlik was at the park signing copies of his book alongside authors David Lee Morgan, Jr. and Greg Gulas.  Pavlik also threw out the ceremonial first pitch (above).  The weather was perfect for the big crowd to enjoy “Buck Night”, as well as an appearance from the Cavs dancers.  There was something going on everywhere before the game started.

Once the game started, Auburn jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Yan Gomes double.  In the top of the sixth, Auburn tacked on another run as Jimmy Gonzales drove in Welington Ramirez with a bases-loaded RBI single with one out.  Scrapper reliever Jose Urena pitched himself out of the bases-loaded one out jam to keep the score at 2-0 in favor of the Doubledays.

In the bottom of the sixth, Mahoning Valley got on the board as Jordan Henry singled and advanced to second on Lurvin Basabe’s walk.  Jason Smit found the hole between short and third scoring the speedy Henry cutting the lead to 2-1.  After Ben Carlson walked to load the bases, Chun Chen was hit by a pitch forcing in the tying run to knot the contest at two apiece.

In the tenth inning, Auburn got a run when Welington Ramirez singled home Brad Glenn.  The Scrappers tied the game in the bottom of the tenth as Ben Carlson led off with a single.  Carlson was then lifted for pinch runner Kyle Bellows, who stole second base.  Chen came through again with an RBI double that scored Bellows tying the game at 3-3.

In the bottom of the 14th inning, Rafael Vera delivered with a two-out, two-strike RBI single that would score Chen lifting the Scrappers to their fourth straight victory.

After the game, Coach Travis Fryman commented  on the long game.  ” I don’t have a lot of answers for that ball game, I really don’t.  I thought it was a very poorly played game, but a very gutsy game.  Both teams played hard for 14 innings.  We had many opportunities to win that game and it should not have went 14 innings.”

Fryman was also very praiseworthy of his catcher, Chun Chen.  “Fourteen innings to catch, three steals, three or four hits, it was a very gutsy effort on his part.”

A new feature here will be the Smit-O-Meter, tracking the nightly efforts of Scrapper Jason Smit, one of the most charismatic athletes I have ever met.

The 7-9-09 Smit-O Meter:  3-7 with an RBI (10), currently batting .325.

Marty Popham (on mound in picture) seems to get better every start and the statistics are backing him up.  Popham threw a career-high 7 innings, struck out a career-high 9 batters and only walked one in leading the Mahoning Valley Scrappers to a 6-1 victory over the Auburn Doubledays.   

Popham threw 89 pitches before giving way to reliever Austin Adams.  Adams kept the no-hit bid alive but after a couple of Scrapper errors, Doubledays LF Chris Hopkins singled with two outs in the ninth inning.  There has never been a no-no thrown at Cafaro Field.  The Scrappers recorded a no-hitter in 2007, but that was in Vermont.

A vocal audience of 3,903 enjoyed one of the best pitching performances in Scrapper history.

Mahoning Valley wasted little time getting on the board in the first inning as Jordan Henry walked and would later score on a Brian Justice wild pitch for a 1-0 lead.

In the third, Kyle Bellows, who walked three times in the game, reached via the free pass with two outs.   Greg Folgia delivered with an RBI double, scoring Bellows,  to double the Scrappers lead to 2-0.

Back-to-back singles by Henry and Kyle Smith set the stage for Jason Smit’s RBI double in the sixth.  Ben Carlson’s sac fly plated Smith to push the lead to 4-0.

In the bottom of the seventh, Lurvin Basabe’s double to left scored Folgia.  Besabe came home to make it 6-0 on Jordan’s third single of the night.

Marty Popham was throwing a perfect game into the seventh inning.  His walk to Eric Eiland squashed perfection possibilities, but he did leave with a no-hitter still intact.  After the game, Popham commented on his effort, “I had everything going for me tonight – all of the pitches, good catching behind the plate, and great defense in the field.  Going seven almost perfect, it was a hell of an outing.  I haven’t started since college, when I first got drafted they put me in the bullpen for the whole year and I just started coming back as a starter.”

Coach Travis Fryman praised the performance that Popham had, ” Two in a row, back-to-back performances that we expect from Marty.  At this level the guys are on pitch limits, obviously your not going to see an individual throw a no-hitter.  To get seven innings, frankly, this early in the year is a testament to how efficient he was from inning-to-inning.”