AUBURN, NY – Going into Wednesday’s game with the Auburn Doubledays, the Tri-City ValleyCats had dropped 5 straight games and taken a dive in the standings.
The ValleyCats entered the bottom of the ninth inning with a conferrable 3-0 lead, but quickly gave that lead up and almost blew the game. The first two Doubledays walked, and Luis Vitoria doubled to left to make it a 3-1 ballgame. Then a sacrifice fly then made it 3-2, and Alex DeGoti booted a routine grounder to second base that should have ended the ballgame. That knotted the score at three a piece and sent the ballgame into extra innings.
Neither team was able to score a run untill the 12th. With one out, Alex DeGoti and Marcos Almonte both reached base on Auburn fielding errors, putting runners on first and second.
After Miguelangel Sierra was hit by pitch to load the bases, a wild pitch with Bryan De La Cruz at the plate gave the ‘Cats a 4-3 lead. Then the ‘Cats scored one more big insurance run on an RBI gourndout by De La Cruz to make it 5-3. The Doubledays would put 1 run across the plate in the bottom of the 12th, but it wouldn’t be enough as they fell 4-3.
The two teams will battle once again tomorrow at 7:05pm in Auburn.
This win certainly wasn’t pretty, but the ‘Cats will take anything they can get. Thankfully Lowell and Conetaucut both lost tonight, so the ‘Cats will edge up a game in the standings. In no way shape or form are the ValleyCats out of the playoff picture, but they need to continue winning and hoping that some other things go their way.
