IronBirds' woes continued Friday night as they fell to 2-13 for the year with a 7-4 loss on the road to the Staten Island Yankees.
Not surprisingly, through Friday night's game, the IronBirds were in the cellar of the four-team McNamara Division of the New York-Penn League, three games behind third-place Hudson Valley Renegades.
Trailing, 4-0, heading into the fourth, Aberdeen's offense came to life as Mychal Givens led off with a single up the middle, then swiped second. Joe Velleggia walked to put two men on, and Givens came around to score his team's first run when Wynston Sawyer's pop fly to right was misplayed. Having moved to third on the error, Velleggia later sprinted home on Connor Narron's groundout to first, making the score, 4-2.
In the sixth, with the score still, 4-2, the IronBirds found themselves with men at every base and no outs, as Velleggia and Sawyer hit back-to-back singles and Narron walked. Austin Goolsby came up fourth in the inning and received a bases-loaded walk that pushed Velleggia home, cutting the Yankees' lead to a run. Now in prime position to tie the game, Aberdeen faltered, with Cody Young striking out and Sawyer and Narron were caught in a strange, inning-ending double-play. Sawyer was caught off the bag at third by a surprise throw from the Yankee catcher, and was tagged out at home after breaking for the plate. Narron tried to take third on the play, and was gunned down for the third out.
Staten Island got on the board in the second with reliever Alex Schmarzo on the mound, who relieved starter Aaron Wirsch. Schmarzo surrendered a leadoff walk, then a double, but appeared to settle down after that, retiring the next two hitters. The third batter of the inning earned a walk to load the bases, and the Yankees then scored twice on a error by center fielder Glynn Davis. Schmarzo got out of the inning by striking out the final hitter.
Centerfielder Glynn Davis dropped a two-out bases-loaded fly that gave Staten Island a 2-0 lead in the second inning, and the visitors managed to run themselves out of a bases-loaded rally in the sixth when an aborted squeeze bunt was turned into a wacky double play with runners nabbed at third base and second base.
In between all the rookie-league growing pains, first baseman Reymond Nunez blasted his second home run in two nights — a two-run opposite-field shot to right center that made it 4-0 in the third inning. Later, shortstop Cito Culver broke the game open with a two-run double in the sixth.
But the night belonged to the 6-foot-1, 195-pound DeLuca, who enjoyed a homecoming of sorts. He ws diagnosed as a Type 1 diabetic at the age of 14, but hasn’t let that slow his career.
“I remember taking Evan to Trenton Thunder games when he was little and saying ‘Wouldn’t it be great if the Yankees draft you someday and you were pitching for Trenton?’ Well, that’s getting a lot closer to reality,” said Dave DeLuca. “This kid eats, breathes and lives baseball. That’s what you look for in a player.
"He’s a very mature 20-year-old with a great future ahead of him.”
NOTES: Staten Island begins a four-game series against the Brooklyn Cyclones on Saturday night at home after going 11-0 combined against Hudson Valley and Aberdeen. The 12-2 Yankees are closing in on the franchise’s all-time winning streak of 13 games, set near the end of the 2009 championship season ... Vanderbilt product Caleb Cotham worked two scoreless relief innings with five strikeouts ... Among the New Jersey contingent cheering on DeLuca was Jim Basso, a Wagner College pitcher in the early 1970s whose career was derailed by arm injuries. The Edison, N.J., resident is a family friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment