Jones pushes ‘Cats past Yankees in walk-off fashion

TROY, NY — After getting eliminated from playoff contention the night before, the Tri-City ValleyCats were ready to come home for their final home series against the Staten Island Yankees.

The ‘Cats came out strong in the bottom of the first inning with Rodrigo Ayarza scoring off a line drive single from a Chuckie Robinson line drive single.  That hit gave Tri-City a 1 run lead, something they would hold on to all the way until the 6th inning.

With one out, Billy Fleming delivered a line drive single to left field. That brought fellow Yankee Nick Solak home from second, tying the game at one apiece.

In the eighth, the Yankees added two more runs, giving them a 3-1 lead.

With the game on the line, Taylor Jones came up BIG in walkoff fashion. With the bases loaded and no one out Jones stepped up to the plate and delivered a game changing double, scoring Rodrigo Ayarza, Carmen Benedetti and the game winning run Ronnie Dawson.   That single hit gave Tri-City the 4-3 victory.  “It’s always fun, a walkoff win is pretty awesome,” Jones said.

While the Yankees lead the chase for NY-Penn League’s lone wildcard, the ‘Cats find themselves in a unique position. They can’t make the playoffs themselves, but they can still spoil it for another team. “It’s kinda fun to be the bad guy,” Taylor Jones said.  “If you can’t do it yourselves it’s nice to ruin it for someone else,” Jones went onto say.

We’ll see what karma has to say about that when the two teams meet up again tonight (Friday) at “The Joe”, beginning at 7:05pm.