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