The 2016 season hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts for the Tri-City ValleyCats. Coming into Friday night, the ‘Cats were 2-4 on the season and rapidly falling behind the 6-0 Lowell Spinners in the chase for the Stedler Division title. Following a loss in the first game of the three game series on Wednesday night, Tri-City looked to get back on track against the Vermont Lake Monsters.
The ‘Cats got off to a strong and aggressive start in the 1st, stealing 3 bases and scoring 1 run off a Ronnie Dawson RBI single. But the offense went cold after that. Lake Monsters SP Dakota Chalmers pitched shutout ball after the first and went a solid 5+ innings giving up just the run.
Hector Perez had a strong outing going, but was pulled after just 3 innings of work due to the pitch count. Perez only gave up 1 run and received the no-decision. Erasmo Pinales had a very difficult time finding the strike zone in his short relief outing that only lasted 1/3 of an inning. He didn’t give up any hits, instead, 5 base on balls to give Vermont a 2-run lead in the 4th.
It wasn’t until the 7th inning that the ValleyCats got their first extra-base hit. A double, courtesy of Randy Cesar, who would come around to score the only run of the inning. Vermont took the run they gave up back in the 8th. Eventually leading to the score being 4-2 Vermont heading into the bottom half of the 9th.
The ValleyCats would not go down quietly. Back-to-back base hits for Benedetti and Cesar, along with a sacrifice bunt from Chuckie Robinson, put a 9th inning rally in place. But consecutive flyouts to left cut the rally short. And the ValleyCats ultimately lose the series and lose the game, 4-3.
After the game, Manager Lamarr Rogers had an optimistic outlook on the slow start for the ‘Cats. “It’s a process. We’re making some rookie mistakes, and that’s what we expected.” said the first year skipper. The ValleyCats have 15 players on their roster that were drafted by the Astros this year alone. With certainly more to come.
Leaving 8 men on base tonight, Tri-City had their fair share of chances. But the inability to produce clutch hitting when they needed it cost them a victory.
Tri-City is back for the series finale tomorrow night at 7:00. After that, a series on the road against the division leading Lowell Spinners, and a series back home against Williamsport to round out the month of June.
