‘Cats edge ‘Birds, 4-2
Troy, NY – After taking game one of their current three game series with the Aberdeen IronBirds, the Tri-City ValleyCats were looking to extend their post All-Star game win streak to two on Thursday night at “The Joe”.
In the first inning, both teams went pitch for pitch. Both lead off with a triple and both put one run up on the scoreboard before the inning was over. Cue crickets for the next few innings though, as the excitement seemed to run dry until the top of the 5th.
IronBird Jaylen Ferguson amped things up at the start of the 5th, scoring on a crazy double steal to give them a 2-1 lead. The Ironbirds would only have a brief flirt with the lead though, as the ValleyCats scored two critical runs to give them the lead heading into the sixth. The ValleyCats first run (second of the game) came off a line drive single from leadoff batter Rodrigo Ayarza which scored Connor Goedert, to tie the game at two. The ‘Cats second run (third of the game) came off yet another Aberdeen wild pitch with Bradley Mejia at the plate, which scored Alex De-Goti to give the the ValleyCats their 3-1 lead over the Ironbirds.
The score would remain that way until the bottom of the 8th when the ‘Cats secured an insurance run with Ronnie Dawson bringing Chuckie Robinson home. Tri-City was sitting in the catbird seat with a 4-2 lead heading into the final inning of play.
When all was said and done, the ‘Cats picked up the 4-2 W on 4 runs and 12 hits. “It’s always good to get a W,” said Tri-City manager Lamarr Rogers,“We’ve got some things to.”
The ‘Cats will now look to sweep the IronBirds in game three tonight at “The Joe”, 7:00pm.