‘Cats bats lead them to victory as Beer debuts in season opener

TROY — Friday night marked an important night for the Tri-City ValleyCats and first-round pick Seth Beer, earning a blowout win against the Vermont Lake Monsters to the tune of 11-1, highlighted by a home run from Beer.

The Lake Monsters struck in the top of the first inning with a sacrifice fly from Payton Squier, but the ValleyCats were able to escape the frame with one run and no hits allowed. This would be Vermont’s sole run of the game, as they were only able to get four hits on the board against effective pitching by Tri-City.

However, the ValleyCats were hot from the start as Luis Encarnacion, cousin of major leaguer Edwin Encarnacion, launched a home run to left center field to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. From there, the ‘Cats never looked back.

Encarnacion followed up his blast with a two-run double in the third inning which drove in Beer in addition to teammate Jeremy Pena. Pena was chosen in the third round of the 2018 MLB Draft by the Houston Astros, and he would go on to have an impressive professional debut as well as Beer.

A solo shot off the bat of Kyle Davis provided Tri-City with a 5-1 lead heading into the fifth inning, where Beer would make his mark on the game. For his first career professional hit, Beer launched a home run to left field which scored Pena and made his debut one to remember. He would later pick up his second hit with a late double to right field off of Jaimito Lebron. Beer’s home run brought the ValleyCats’ lead to 7-1, and it would only grow from there.

”For me, there was a little bit of nervousness leading into the game,” Beer had to say on his professional debut. “But I was just super happy and excited to be out there. It’s a dream come true. I was just trying to go out there and have fun like a kid”.

Following a Pena RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, Vermont reliever Chris Kohler proceeded to walk home two batters before being taken out in favor of Lebron. Lebron allowed one more to cross home plate by way of a wild pitch, but then got out of the inning although his team was down 11-1.

It was a tale of two starters in the contest, with ValleyCats starter Chad Donato looking very sharp while Lake Monsters starter Rafael Kelly struggled mightily on opening night. Donato went 6 and 2/3 allowing one unearned run and three hits, striking out six and picking up the win. Kelly, on the other hand, was pulled after 4 and 2/3 with five earned runs conceded and only three strikeouts to his name while being charged with the loss.

This was the type of game that the ValleyCats were looking to open their season with, and also the type of game the Lake Monsters were surely dreading. This brings the ValleyCats to a 1-0 start whereas the Lake Monsters will be 0-1.

”I don’t know if I could really ask for much more on the first night” ValleyCats manager Jason Bell said on his team’s opening night performance. “Everybody talks about The Joe, and the whole Houston Astros organization, everybody talks about how great the fans are, the community and everything. We all felt that right away from the very start”.

Game two of the three-game set will take place at Joe Bruno Stadium at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Juan Robles is slated to make his season debut on the mound for the ValleyCats, where he will likely face off against Vermont right-hander Jose Mora.