Posts Tagged ‘Jake Lowery’

Connecticut escaped Niles with a win and avoided being swept by the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, posting a 7-4 win at Eastwood Field.  The Tigers strung together good things in a row during a couple of different innings.  The Tigers got three hits from Curt Casali, including a monstrous home run, and a couple of doubles from Colin Kaline in the win.  The Scrappers kept battling back, but ultimately dug a hole too deep to climb out of.

“Our goal is to win the series and we went for a sweep tonight”, commented Scrappers Manager David Wallace.  “Both teams played hard and we just made one more mistake than they did.  They capitalized on it like good teams do.”

For the Scrappers, Jordan Smith (below) stayed hot collecting a couple more hits and knocking in the first two Scrapper runs.  Smith extended his hitting streak to eleven games with the hits.

Wallace talked about Smith and the productivity he has been putting out.  “Jordan has put together good at-bats for us all year.  He works hard and prepares himself.  He doesn’t try to do too much, but when the situation calls for it, he opens it up a little bit and lets it fly.  When he gets down in a two-strike count, he is one of the best at battling and getting the barrel on the ball.”

The Scrappers scored a pair of runs in the first when KC Serna and Tony Wolters consecutively walked on four pitches each.  After both runners moved up a bag, Smith laced a single for the 2-0 Scrappers lead.

Scrappers starter Will Roberts, making his first start of the year pitched two innings.  The decision was premeditated by the coaching staff to give Roberts two innings or roughly 40 pitches in his debut.  Danny Jimenez relieved Roberts to start the third and took the tough loss, exiting the game down only one run.

In the sixth inning, the Tigers got back-to-back doubles from Zach Maggard and Kaline to take a 3-2 lead.  In the bottom half of the inning, the Scrappers reclaimed the lead Evan Frazar singled to knock in Jake Lowery and then Cody Elliott drew a base on balls with the sacks full forcing home Alex Lavisky to go ahead 4-3.

The Scrappers lost the lead when PJ Polk laid down a perfect bunt up the first base line that was errantly thrown into right field.  Jason King then doubled to knock in two with a bases-loaded double.  Jason Holm then hit a sacrifice fly to right to put the Tigers in front 6-4.  They would add a run in the ninth.  New Scrapper Henry Dunn was giving chase to a ball that was hit to the right-center field wall.  Dunn had a nasty collision with the fence and stayed down for a minute but eventually popped up and stayed in the game.  Eugenio Suarez ended up with a triple on the great effort by Dunn.  Suarez would trot in on a sac fly by King to give the Tigers a 7-4 lead.

The Scrappers hit the road for a three-game set with Jamestown.  Bryson Myles is almost ready to return from a pulled hamstring injury that has kept him out of action all week.   Aaron Siliga, who rolled an ankle, should also be ready to roll within the next couple of days.

Scrapper fans got a little treat at Eastwood Field Wednesday.  Indians Prospect, Jeanmar Gomez, made a start in preparation to join the Indians after the break.  Gomez is rumored to be taking the place of Mitch Talbot in the Indians rotation.  Talbot is having arm problems and has been placed on the DL.  Gomez pitched four innings but did not factor into the decision as the Scrappers won, 2-1, to take the series opener against Connecticut.

“I felt good, I tried to work on all of my pitches”, remarked Gomez after the game.  “There is a lot of good energy with these players here, and that’s a good think for the organization.  They play hard and do the best that they can.  I told them that they have to learn something every day while they are here, make the effort to pick something new up every chance you get.“

Manager David Wallace didn’t see Gomez as a distraction, but rather a benefit, to his club.  “It’s a great thing, these guys got to see the way that Jeanmar prepared for his start.  They see the way he went out there and attacked the hitters with his fastball.  He is not Fausto Carmona with fantastic stuff, but to his credit, he knows how to pitch.  I’ll be interested to see what this team took from it.”

Gomez threw hard in his four innings of work.  He gave up five hits and one earned run while striking out three Tigers.  Gomez’s appearance will not live up to an Asdrubal Cabrera rehab appearance last season, but it is always nice when the big club sends the talent to Niles for a day, and the crowd of 2,611 surely appreciated their chance to watch the hard-throwing pitcher. Gomez, below with Scrappers catcher Alex Lavisky, is on the cusp of bigger things, very soon.

The Tigers were not intimidated by Gomez as they plated the first run of the game in the fourth.  Patrick Leyland, son of Jim Leyland, singled home Jeff Holm off of Gomez to put Connecticut ahead 1-0.

The Scrappers tied the game in the bottom of the fifth.  Cody Elliott singled and moved to third when Tony Wolters singled.  Elliott would trot home from third when Jake Lowery singled to pick up his eleventh RBI of the season.

Joseph Colon, who usually starts games for the Scrappers, entered the game to start the fifth and pitched very well.  Colon worked five scoreless innings in picking up the win in relief of Gomez.

New Scrapper, Evan Frazar singled to start the ninth.  Elliott bunted Frazar to second and then the new guy showed his wheels taking third.  KC Serna (above) knocked Frazar in with a clean single over the second baseman’s head to give the Scrappers the nice win.

Serna has embraced the hero role a lot lately and Wallace thinks it can get contagious.  “We preach quality at-bats whether we are up five or down five.  Be a better hitter with two strikes and make contact.  These guys are doing a good job battling right now.”

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers have enjoyed winning the majority of the one-run games they have played so far this year.  Heading into Friday, the Scrappers were 4-3 in those close games.  The Scrappers were also 9-4 at home on the season.  The statistic that wasn’t positive was the extra-innings record, which sat at 1-2.  The Scrappers changed that when Jerrud Sabourin, who had been flashing glove all season, came through with the bat to give the Scrappers a dramatic 4-3 win in 10 innings.

Sabourin reflected on his heroics.  “It felt great to be able to help the team.  My average is not as high as some of the guys, so the other team figures they can throw fastballs by me, so it kind of worked to my advantage and I am very happy with the results.”

Scrapper Skipper, David Wallace, discussed Sabourin’s progress after the game.  “Jerrud has been very good for us the last couple of weeks.  he got off to a little bit of a rough start, but has really been stinging the ball lately.  He has not had as much success as he deserves because he has been hitting a lot of balls hard, but right at people.”

Williamsport put the first run on the scoreboard in their first at-bat. Kyrell Hudson walked on four pitches.  Patrick Murray then singled in Hudson with two outs to give the Crosscutters the 1-0 lead.

Mahoning Valley tallied a run to tie the game in the third.  Cody Elliott reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on a fielders choice, and marched home on a Mike Nesseth wild pitch.  Jake Lowery (above) made it a 2-1 Scrappers lead by starting the fourth inning with his fourth home run of the season.

The Crosscutters added a run in the fifth inning to tie the game.  Kelly Dugan‘s sacrifice fly plated Bob Stumpo.  In the very next inning, Williamsport took a 3-2 lead when Asche singled home Harold Martinez from second base.

The Scrapper bats went numb, and hitless, after Lowery’s homer in the fourth inning until Todd Hankins started the home half of the seventh inning with a single.  Jerrud Sabourin (below) ripped a double into the right-cnter gap to tie the game.  Sabourin was mowed down trying to score from third.  Bryson Myles walked and stole second. When Stumpo, the Crosscutters catcher, fired the ball to second and it leaked out, Sabourin broke for home but Williamsport executed a good throw and tag to force the out.

Scrappers relief pitcher Nate Striz entered the tie game in the eighth. Striz kept the Crosscutters scoreless the rest of the game to earn the win.  The home team threatened in the bottom of the eighth.  Alex Lavisky drew a leadoff walk.  KC Serna was inserted to pinch run for Lavisky and trotted to second on a wild pitch.   Serna got to third on a Jordan Smith single, but was erased on a grounder hit to third by John Barr.  Smith and Barr moved up a base on Bryan Morgado‘s wild pitch.  Hankins was walked to load the bases.  Sabourin and Elliott then struck out to let Morgado off of the hook.

Credit the Scrappers for hustling.  If the 2011 version of this team has a dynamic, so far, it has to be hustle.  They run every ground ball out, they are on second base while a fly out they just hit is being caught, and, most obvious, they can steal some bases.  David Wallace said that his guys would play with respect for the game, and in 2011, he has not been a liar yet.

In the bottom of the tenth, Smith and Barr received one out walks. Sabourin, who tied the game, then struck out with an out and the bases loaded in the eighth,  was the hero with a single driving home Smith in the tenth.  Sabourin, who was 2-4 on the night, displayed some great clutch hitting during a very entertaining and competitive baseball game.

“It was a satisfying win for us tonight”, remarked Wallace.  “It is fun to win those types of games. I like the wins that we can kind of coast through because it is not as stressful.  Winning like this tonight with the good crowd into it, guys coming up in big situations and coming through, all make it a very satisfying win for us.”

The Scrappers head to the road for three more with these Crosscutters in Williamsport starting tomorrow before having a day off on Tuesday and returning to Eastwood Field on Wednesday for a three-game home stand against Connecticut.

On Superhero night at Eastwood Field, Jordan Smith did his best Spiderman by flashing some good webbing at third.  Bryson Myles and KC Serna played the role of Flash with their blinding speed on the basepaths, and Williamsport represented The Legion of Doom. In fictitious circles, good [Mahoning Valley] triumphed over evil [Williamsport] as the Scrappers posted a 8-2 win at home in front of 4,629 fans.

The Scrappers struck early for three first-inning runs off of Williamsport starter, Adam Morgan.  Bryson Myles led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a groundout.  Jake Lowery reached on an error setting the stage for red-hot Jordan Smith.  Smith (below) responded by doubling to get Myles home giving the Scrappers a 1-0 lead.  John Barr then singled to knock in Lowery and Smith to increase the first-inning lead to 3-0.

The Crosscutters responded in the third scoring two of their own when Kelly Dugan and Taylor Black raced home on Maikel Franco‘s double.  Scrapper starter, Joseph Colon, was able to buckle down and escape further harm in the inning.  All-in-all, Colon pitched a good game going five innings, giving up five hits, and exiting with a two-run lead.

Mahoning Valley got a run back in the bottom of the fifth.  Cody Elliott singled to left, moved to second on a wild pitch and kept running when the catcher’s throw sailed into center field.  KC Serna singled to left to drive home Elliott and put the Scrappers ahead 4-2.

The Scrappers bullpen did well to preserve the lead.  Enosil Tejeda, who started the sixth inning for the Scrappers threw three scoreless innings and looked very sharp.  Will Krasne pitched the ninth in a non-save situation for the Scrappers.

In the eighth, Todd Hankins hit a broken bat slow-roller down the third base line.  Serna came in from third and Smith was able to score from second when the Crosscutters third baseman, Harold Martinez, threw the ball past the first baseman.  With runners on second and third, Williamsport reliever Austin Wright uncorked a wild pitch.  Barr scored easily from third, but more impressively, Hankins sprinted all the way around from second and scored to make it 8-2 in favor of the Scrappers.

” We played a good, clean, defensive game tonight.  We have been kicking it around a little bit lately,” remarked David Wallace after the win.  “We grabbed the momentum and kept it tonight.  Our guys showed a lot of heart tonight by going hard and running everything out. It is exactly what we want to see and we are happy they are a part of this organization, it is exactly what we want to see.”

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers experienced their first three-game losing streak of the season.  Williamsport rolled into town and handed the Scrappers a 5-2 setback.  Situational hitting was not the forte of the home team as they struggled to get hits at key moments of the game and the bullpen faltered for the third straight game.

In the bottom of the first inning, Jake Lowery gave the Scrappers a 1-0 lead when he crushed a pitch over the right field wall.  The home run was Lowery’s third of the season, leading the team.  The fourth round draft pick out of James Madison recently traveled to Texas to receive the Johnny Bench Award last week.

The Crosscutters roared back  in the top of the second with one swing of the bat from Patrick Murray who homered to deep left to tie the game at a run apiece.  Williamsport would get another run in the top of the fifth off of Scrappers starter Mason Radeke.  Maikel Franco doubled home Francisco Diaz to give the Crosscutters a 2-1 lead.

Jordan Smith (above) made it a tie game at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning when he hit a single to center that scored Bryson Myles from third base with two outs.  Myles reached base on a single and maneuvered his way around to third base with his usual chaos-raising aggressiveness.

A seemingly controversial ground rule double by Cody Asche gave Williamsport a 3-2 lead in eighth.  Asche hit a blooper off of reliever Tony Dischler down the right field line that looked like it dropped foul and then hopped the fence after it deflected off of Scrappers LF John Barr.  Scrappers Manager, David Wallace, came out to discuss the series of events with the home plate umpire, but nothing changed and Williamsport was ahead.

“I wasn’t really disputing the call, I just wanted to be clear on the ruling”, commented the friendly Wallace.  “That ball hit off of Barr’s glove and did land fair and then bounce out, and by rule, that is a double, he had it right. I’m not planning on getting thrown out, I think some guys here have a pool on it. I’m not scared to get thrown out, and these umpires are out here learning on the job just like the rest of us.”

Dischler took the tough loss in relief for Mahoning Valley.  Juary Gomez picked up the win for Williamsport.  Ramon Cespedes gave up two runs in relief for the Scrappers in the ninth.  Ryan Duke pitched the ninth inning to notch the save for the Crosscutters.

The Crosscutters and Scrappers will get it on again Thursday at Eastwood Field.  This is the first “Buck Night” of the season, and a very large crowd is expected.  Friday is the finale of the three game series and the fans will be treated to a great display of fireworks when the game ends.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers got an uncharacteristically bad night from the pitching staff in an 8-3 loss to Batavia.  The Scrappers unloaded three wild pitches, walked seven, and hit two batters.  Combine that with three Scrapper errors, all adding up to result in most of Batavias scoring.  An energetic crowd of 3,102 saw the Muckdogs bat through their order five times.

Batavia put a three spot up in the top of the first inning off of Scrappers starter Joseph Colon.  Four consecutive hits and a bases loaded walk to Nick Martini put the home team into an unwanted early hole.

The Scrappers answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the first.  Bryson Myles stayed hot with a leadoff single and moved to second on a Tony Wolters sacrifice bunt.  Jake Lowery then stepped in and drilled an RBI double scoring Myles from second to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Jeremy Patton trotted home with another run for the Muckdogs in the third on a fielders choice.  Colon was struggling with his control throughout his 81 pitch effort.  The Scrappers hurler would get yanked after 3 2/3 innings and seems like he is either off or extremely effective with no mediocrity in four home starts.

Trailing 4-1, one swing of the bat brought the Scrappers a run closer in the sixth inning.  Wolters (above) connected for a home run to right-center that almost hit the scoreboard.  The inning would not end until Mahoning Valley added another run when Lowery was plated by an Alex Lavisky ground rule double to left that one-hopped the wall to make it a 4-3 Muckdogs lead.  Lowery walked earlier in the frame.

Joey Bergman led off the seventh for Batavia and hit a clean single to right.  The ball was misplayed by Myles in right  and got by him allowing Bergman to scamper to third base.  Scrapper reliever Nate Stitz uncorked a wild pitch allowing Bergman a free pass home to increase the Batavia lead to 5-3.

“It’s all a part of the process”, commented Scrapper manager David Wallace after the game.  “These guys will put this one behind them and get back at it tomorrow.”

The Scrappers left a pair of runners on in the eighth and were too far behind to catch up in the ninth.  These two teams will play the second half of the mini two-game series on Sunday.  First pitch at Eastwood Field is set for 5:05 p.m.

It took eleven innings to decide a winner in the Mahoning Valley Scrappers game against the Batavia Muckdogs.  In the end, it was the Scrappers who were victorious.  An eleventh inning bases-loaded walk to new Scrapper Jordan Smith proved to be the winning margin as the Scrappers prevailed, 4-3.

The Scrappers got the party started in the fourth inning when Aaron Siliga (below) hit a bomb over the right field bullpen to put Mahoning Valley ahead 1-0.  It marked the second night in a row that the Scrappers homered.

Meanwhile, Scrappers Opening Day starter Joseph Colon had  much stronger performance on the mound.  Colon went a strong five innings only surrendering one hit  while recording four strikeouts and walking two.

Drew Rucinski relieved Colon to start the sixth and got into early trouble loading the bases with nobody out.  Nick Martini hit a grounder to short that got a Muckdogs run across to tie the game.  David Medina stepped in with two out and delivered a clean single up the middle to give Batavia a 2-1 lead.

The two runs Batavia scored in the sixth ended a 15 inning scoreless drought.

Mahoning Valley would claw back with a run in the seventh to tie the game.  Todd Hankins singled, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch.  The next batter, Casey Serna, walked to put runners on first and third with nobody out.  With Serna moving toward second, Cody Elliott took the pitch right where the second baseman would have been covering if not moving toward second to cover the bag. Hankins trotted home and the game was tied at two runs apiece.  Later in the inning, Serna tried to score on a ball that got by the catcher but was thrown out at the plate.

Manager David Wallace (above) tried a magic trick to hypnotize the Batavia third baseman, Jeremy Patton, but was unsuccessful.  Patton knocked home a run in the eighth inning to give the Muckdogs a 3-2 lead.

Mahoning Valley would not go away though.  In the bottom of the eighth, newcomer Jordan Smith recorded his first RBI as a Scrapper with his second hit of the game scoring Jake Lowery.  Interesting that the new guy has the current Scrapper GM’s [Jordan Taylor] first name and the former Scrapper GM’s [Dave Smith] last name.  Regardless, he tied the game with the single and played a solid third base for Mahoning Valley.

In the 11th inning, Serna hit a leadoff single between third and short.  Kevin Fontanez hit a ball that the shortstop booted putting runners on first and second with nobody out.  Bryson Myles bunted the runners to second and third with one out.  Lowery was then intentionally walked to load the bases setting the stage for Jordan Smith with two outs.  Taking the at-bat to a full count, Smith took ball four to complete his welcome to Niles show as the Scrappers improved to 4-2.

After the game, Wallace commented on his team not quitting.  “The maturity of these guys is coming out.  They kept their heads in the game and played hard.  We are always preaching good, quality at-bats.  We tell them to be selective and wait for their pitch.  In the last inning, that was the second time we had seen that particular pitcher,  and he struggled with his command a little bit the first time, so we wanted to really be selective on the pitches we took swings at.”

With a serious threat of rain on the radar, the Eastwood Field grounds crew and the Scrappers employees peeled the tarp off and got the game started right on time.  The Mahoning Valley Scrappers had a rough time with different elements, notably fundamentals.  Batavia trailed 1-0 in the first inning but roared back to beat the Scrappers, 10-7, thanks to 6 errors committed by the home team.

The Scrappers wasted little time getting on the scoreboard.  Cody Elliott recorded a double on a check swing and advanced to third when Tony Wolters singled.  Elliott scored when Jake Lowery (above) grounded out to second and avoided being a double play victim by hustling to first.  The RBI was the fourth in two games for Lowery.

Batavia evened the score in the top of the second aided by two walks off of Scrappers starter Rob Nixon.  Virgil Hill made Nixon pay with a clean RBI single to tie the game.  In the top of the third, Batavia tacked on another run when Romulo Ruiz tripled to the base of the left-centerfield wall.  Ruiz got home on a wild pitch to give the Muckdogs the lead.  In the fourth, Kevin Moscatel hit a home run to left field to increase the Muckdogs lead to 3-1.  Back-to-back doubles by Mike O’Neill and Jeremy Patton created another run later in the fourth inning for Batavia.

Aaron Siliga and Casey Serna hit back-to-back singles to start the fourth inning for the Scrappers.  Siliga scored from second when Batavia could not complete a double play at first base and the ball trickled past first baseman David Medina, to make it 6-2.

Bryson Myles cut the Batavia lead to 6-3 with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the fifth to bring the Scrappers back to striking distance.  It was the first home run hit by a Scrapper player this season. In the top half of the sixth, unfortunately, Cesar Valera answered with his own long bomb to keep the Scrappers at a four-run deficit with the score at 7-3.  Medina hit the third home run of the game for Batavia to atone for his error and give the visitors a 9-3 lead.

The Scrappers got two more runs back in the seventh when Alex Lavisky hit a two-run double driving in Wolters and Lowery to make the score 9-5.  Batavia added to their lead in the eighth though and the Scrappers would not get closer than a 10-7 deficit.  It should be noted that Kyle Petter struck out three Muckdogs in the top of the ninth.

Nixon took the loss for the Scrappers (2-2) and Jose Almarante got the win for Batavia (2-2).  These two teams will hook up for two more games on Tuesday (Buck Night) and Wednesday.

After the game, Mahoning Valley Skipper, David Wallace, was optimistic with good reason.  “In the two losses, the thing that I see is that these guys do not give up.  I can take losing if the effort is there, and it was tonight.  We had a chance to come back and win in the late innings and stayed in the game overcoming the six errors.  We made some mistakes, but it is still very early in the season and we are going to be ok.”