Chavez, Jones lead ‘Cats past Black Bears

MORGANTOWN – The Tri-City ValleyCats (11-11) defeated the West Virginia Black Bears (10-12) Saturday night, reaching .500 for the first time since June 20 with a 4-3 win.

Enrique Chavez (W, 1-0) out-dueled James Marvel (L, 1-3), striking out three in five scoreless innings. Hector Perez allowed all three runs for the ‘Cats, before Nick Hernandez earned his first save, closing out the 9th inning.

The ‘Cats scored one run in each of innings 4-7. In the top of the 4th, Taylor Jones doubled (8) on a line drive to left field, scoring Spencer Johnson. In the 5th, Stephen Wrenn singled on a bunt ground ball to pitcher Neil Kozikowski. Brauly Mejia scored, and with the single, Wrenn extended his on-base streak to 21 games.

Ronnie Dawson walked to lead off the 6th inning, and promptly stole second and third, his 6th and 7th stolen bases of the season. Jones singled on a ground ball to center field, and Dawson scored. Alex DeGoti, batting out of the second spot in the order for the first time this season, hit a ground-rule double, scoring Mejia.

West Virginia scored one run in the 7th on an RBI single from Stephen Alemais. Nick King kicked off the bottom of the 9th with an infield single. Ty Moore walked, prompting Tri-City manager Lamarr Rogers to pull Perez. Hernandez allowed a double to Jordan George on a line drive to right field, scoring Nick King and Moore, but struck out the side to end the game.

The ‘Cats and Black Bears will face off in Game 3 of this three game set tomorrow night, July 10, with first pitch scheduled for 4:05 p.m.LHP Austin Nicely will get the start for the ‘Cats, before the team heads to Mahoning Valley for three games.