Staten Island entered Tuesday’s contest against Mahoning Valley with the best record in the McNamara Division.  Conversely, the Scrappers had the best record in the Pinckney Division.  Something had to give as the two best teams faced off in game one of a three-game set.  With a nasty storm brewing, the Yankees took control of a tie game in the eighth inning and got by Mahoning Valley, 7-4.

The Yankees wasted little time scoring the first run of the game, as leadoff hitter Mason Williams homered off of Scrappers starter, Mason Radeke (below).  The next batter, Cito Culver, tripled into the right field corner.  Culver trotted home on a passed ball to increase the Yankee lead to 2-0.

The Scrappers cut the margin in half in the bottom of the first inning.  Tony Wolters scored on a Jordan Smith single.  Smith extended his streak of getting a hit at every home game with the knock.  Smith entered the game leading the league with a .352 batting average.  The Scrappers took a 3-2 lead in the third inning when Wolters and Jake Lowery scored as a result of a Cody Elliott clean single.

The Yankees tied the game in the top of the fourth and took a lead of 4-3 in the fifth.  The Scrappers tied the game back up in the bottom of the fifth.  Alex Lavisky doubled and scored when Todd Hankins hit what looked like a routine fly that was dropped by the center fielder.  Lavisky, hustling with two outs, scored easily from second on the gift.

At that point, pitching and defense kicked in for both teams.  Nate Striz threw a couple of scoreless innings before Staten Island got to him in the eighth inning.  A sacrifice fly by Ben Gamel put the Yankees ahead 5-4.  Striz then threw to first to keep the baserunner, Culver, honest, but Lowery mishandled the throw allowing the Yankees shortstop a path all the way to third base.  Grant Sides relieved Striz with two out in the eighth.  Angelo Gumbs greeted Sides with a triple on a 1-0 count to deep center for an RBI and a 6-4 Staten Island lead.

Mason Williams was tough on Scrappers pitchers all night.  The Yankees center fielder ended the game 3-5 with a HR and 2 RBI.

Striz took the loss for Mahoning Valley (26-19), and Fred Lewis picked up the win for Staten Island (33-11).

After the game, Scrappers Manager, David Wallace, talked about playing the team with the best record.  “It does make a difference when they [Staten Island] have some second and third year players.  However, we just focus on getting better as individuals and as a team without worrying about who is on their team.  They definitely made it happen, you can’t give them extra opportunities and we did tonight.  They gave us some opportunities too, and we were unable to take advantage of them.”

On Glee night, modeled after the hit TV show, which incidentally is Wallace’s favorite program, I had to ask if he was paying more attention to the between-innings themed entertainment than he usually would.  “I heard and saw some stuff on the scoreboard, but have to admit I was pretty disappointed in some of the singing that I heard tonight.  It looked like they were having a really good time with it.”