Strong pitching can’t push ‘Cats past the other New York Yankees

STATEN ISLAND, NY – The Staten Island Yankees (9-2) hold the best record in the New York-Penn League, and despite a valiant effort from their bullpen, the Tri-City ValleyCats could not hand the forgotten borough boys their first home loss of the season Sunday, falling 2-1 in Shaolin.

The ValleyCats fired the first shot early, off a solo home run from catcher Abraham Toro-Hernandez in the top of the first inning. The scoreboard remained 1-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning, when Staten Island second baseman Cody Brown notched a dinger of his own, tying the game at one apiece.

Staten Island left fielder Kendall Coleman plated the winning run off a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning, preceded by two consecutive singles and a fielding error by ValleyCats’ left fielder Luis Payano.

In his first professional start, ValleyCats pitcher Matt Ruppenthal threw one and a third innings, allowing two hits while striking out three. Ricardo Castro threw four and two-thirds innings of relief, striking out six while allowing the home run to Brown. Diogenes Almengo (0-2) picked up the loss after working two innings of one run ball.

The Yankee’s bullpen slowed just five hits on the night, with the only run coming off of Toro-Hernandez’s solo blast.

Tri-City is looking to avoid a series sweep on Monday when the two teams square off again at 7:00 p.m. On the mound, former Houston Astros farmhand Jorge Guzman will go up against ‘Cats recent call-up Juan Robles.

The ValleyCats next home game is July 4, when they take on the Brooklyn Cyclones, an affiliate of the New York Mets, at 6:30 p.m. A rare mid-week fireworks show will follow the final out on Tuesday and then again on Wednesday, July 5. For tickets: tcvalleycats.com/tickets or by phone (518)-629-CATS.

ValleyCats director of media relations and production manager Chris Chenes contributed to this story.