Spinners complete sweep of ‘Cats

TROY, NY –– After taking nearly the entire game for either team to score a single run on Saturday, the Lowell Spinners and Tri-City ValleyCats wasted no time in throwing runs on the scoreboard Sunday evening at “The Joe”.

In the top of the first inning, the Spinners stunned the crowed of 4,875 when Chris Madera and Tyler Hill both scored to put Lowell up 2-0, not even 15 minutes into the ball game.

In the bottom of the first, the ‘Cats made things interesting as Carmen Benedetti and Brauly Mejia managed to get on base with 2 outs, only to get stranded before reaching home.

The Spinners struck again in the top of the third when Jerry Downs went yard to tack three more runs on the board for Lowell.  An inning and a half  later (bottom of the 4th), Taylor Jones matched Jerry Downs, delivering his own three run blast to set “The Joe” on fire.

With a score of 5-3 entering the 5th, the Spinners lost no time adding two more runs in the top half of the inning. The ‘Cats did manage to fire back with Rodrigo Ayarza delivering a solo shot in the bottom of the inning.

After adding individual runs in the 6th and 9th, the Spinners had a controlling lead (9-4) as the ‘Cats were down to their final three outs in the bottom of the ninth. After Ayarza and Benedetti were retired back to back to lead off the inning, the ‘Cats were down to their final out. When so many teams might have thrown in the towel, the ‘Cats didn’t. Gaining comeback momentum, the magic started off when Brauly Mejia was walked, and then reached second on a pass ball.  From there, Ronnie Dawson doubled to score Mejia, while putting  himself in scoring position.  The next batter, Taylor Jones, would pat his stat line one more time as he singled to score Dawson.  If a comeback from being down 5 runs with 1 out remaining in the ninth sounded too good to be true, it was.  The ‘Cats fell by a final score of 9 to 6.  Put quite succinctly by manager Lamarr Rogers, ”We didn’t get it done.”

The ValleyCats will now hit the road for three games to take on the Vermont Lake Monsters, before returning to “The Joe” for their final home series of the season starting this Thursday.