Pirates, Indians lead Minors, Majors
- Published: July 7, 2016
Despite suffering their first defeat of the season, the Tom’s Market Pirates managed to hang on to first place in the Minor League standings as the 2016 season enters its final weeks of play. The 9–1 loss to the Yellow Springs Chiropractic Indians on Saturday, July 2, dropped the Pirates record to 7–1 and brought the second place Indians to just a game-and-a-half back at 6–3.
The Indians jumped out to an early 3–0 lead in the first inning on RBI singles from Cal Freeman and Reagan Dunn along with Lucas Dunn’s RBI double. The game was all but put away with a third inning, six run explosion thanks to RBI singles by Brady Baker, Max Lugo, Aiden Scavone and Josephine Zinger and RBI doubles from the Dunn siblings, Reagan and Lucas. Baker led the Indians by going a perfect three-for-three at the plate and scoring two runs, while Regan and Lucas Dunn both went two-for-three at the dish, knocked in two runs and scored one run each. J.P. Anderson led the Pirates with a pair of hits in as many appearances and he scored the Pirates only run on Teddy Horvath’s fourth-inning RBI single.
The Yellow Springs Chiropractic Indians managed to win their first game of the week as well, but just barely, edging out a much improved Peach’s Reds team, 9–8, on Wednesday, June 29. The two teams combined for 33 hits in a game that saw seven lead changes. The Reds jumped out to an early 5–0 lead in the first. Sam Miller and Gabrielle Perkins both singled to ignite the Reds offense, and then both scored on a Ben Espinosa triple. Ashley Anadell’s base hit scored Mateo Basora and she later scored on a Ruthie Myers RBI base hit. The Indians’ tough defense held the Reds scoreless until the top of the final inning when Perkins’ RBI single scored Jonah Simon, Ben Espinosa’s single to short scored Sam Miller and Basora’s center field double sent Perkins across the plate to put the Reds up 8–7. That was after the Indians put up a run in the third along with four more in the fourth thanks to RBI singles by Brady Baker and Cal Freeman, an Isaac Grushon RBI double and Jaden Douglas’ RBI ground out to third. The Indians last at bat put them over the top when a Hope Danis RBI double scored the tying run by sending Josephine Zinger across the plate. Danis then scored the winning run on Baker’s RBI base hit to second. Gabrielle Perkins led the Reds with a perfect three-for-three day at the plate with a pair of base hits and a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
The Tom’s Market Pirates did win their earlier game of the week with a 8–2 victory over the Sam and Eddie’s Open Books Dragons on Monday, June 27. The Pirates never surrendered the lead after the first inning, scoring two runs on an RBI double by Shawn VanHoose and a Dylan Reed ground out, scoring Hazen VanMeter and Derek Reed respectively. The Pirates went on to add six more runs in the bottom of the third, starting with Dylan Reeds two RBI double scoring VanMeter and Malik Royalston. That was followed by Derek Reed’s double that plated brother Dylan, while Derek then scored on VanHoose’s centerfield base hit. Quinn Creighton’s ground out then scored VanHoose while Joslyn Herring’s infield base hit scored J.P. Anderson. Luka Sage-Frabotta went two-for-two at the plate with a pair of extra base hits for the Dragons off triples in the first and fourth innings. Kian Barker, Kellen Scott and Adeline Zinger each had an RBI to account for the Dragons’ scoring.
The Sam and Eddie’s Open Books Dragons bounced back to take their second game of the week, a close 5–4 victory over the Peach’s Reds in the first game on Saturday, July 2. The Reds took an early 2–0 lead in the first when Sam Miller scored on a Ben Espinosa RBI single followed by a Mateo Basora RBI single that scored Espinosa. But the Dragons responded with three runs of their own in the first, and tacked on two more in the fourth to put the game away on RBI singles by Kian Rainey and Adeline Zinger plating Colin Linderman and Luka Sage-Frabotta. The Reds scored a single run in both the third and fourth thanks to RBI singles from Basora and Otto Cipollini. Sage-Frabotta led the Dragons with a pair of extra base hits, part of the combined six hits and four RBIs from him, Linderman and Kian Rainey.
With just two weeks of play left, the Dragons are in third with a 3–6 record behind the second place Indians, while the Reds are in fourth place at 1–7.
Meanwhile, the Major League’s Winds Cafe Reds held on to their first place standing with a pair of victories last week. The first came on Monday, June 27, with a 19–12 defeat of the HarkenWard Solutions Cubs. The Reds scored early and often, putting up two runs in the first and then six more in the second to take an early 8-1 lead after two. They added four more in the third and exploded for seven runs in the fifth. Sebastian Thompson and Pete Freeman both went two-for-three on the day and each scored three runs. Finn Bledsoe and Jackson Bleything each went two-for-four at the plate and scored four runs each. DeAndre Cowen and Sean Adams both went two-for-four on the day for the Cubs, with Cowen scoring a pair of runs Cubs, as did Krishan Miller, Emmett Cipollini and Eli Wilson.
The Winds Cafe Reds secured their second win last week by downing the Sunrise Cafe Indians 18–11 on Saturday, July 2. They finished the first with a 5–1 lead thanks to base hits from Colton Bittner, Pete Freemans, Henry Smith-Heston and a Sophia Lawson double. They added one more in the second and four more in the third to go up 10–2. But the Indians woke up in the fourth, crossing the plate seven times thanks to base hits by Jaymon Lange, a Blaine Baker double and Jeremy Lange’s triple to come within one at 10–9. That didn’t seem to bother the Reds, who immediately responded with seven fourth inning runs to take the lead for good, while adding one more in the final frame after holding the Indians to only two more runs. Finn Bledsoe, Dominick Fisher and Jackson Bleything went two-for-four on the day and scored three times each for the Reds, while Blaine Baker led the Indians with a two-for-four day at the dish, scoring three runs.
The week’s other game turned out better for the Sunrise Cafe Indians, as they downed the HarkenWard Solutions Cubs in an 18–16 slugfest on Thursday, June 30. Both teams scored twice in the first, with the Cubs crossing the plate six times in the second only to be outdone by the Indians, who scored seven in the bottom of the inning to take a 9–8 lead after just two frames. The Cubs looked strong again in the third, crossing the plate six more times and then holding the Indians to only a pair in the bottom of the inning, resulting in a 15-11 Cubs lead after three. But the Cubs would only cross the plate one more time thanks to Sam Linden’s fourth-inning RBI single and followed by holding the Indians scoreless in the fourth. The Indians defense stiffened in the final inning and down 16–11, the Indians rallied, scoring seven times. Jeremy Lange, Blain Baker and Jaymon Lang all had final inning RBIs to finish off the rally and give the Indians the 18–16 victory.
The wins moved the Winds Cafe Reds to 6–3, a game-and-a-half ahead of the Sunrise Cafe Indians at 4–4 followed by the HarkenWard Solutions Cubs now three games back at 2–5.
Minor League games are played on Saturday mornings and Monday and Wednesday evenings, while Major League games are Saturday afternoons and Monday and Thursday evenings. All games are at Gaunt Park. See the league website at http://www.ysbaseball.org for the latest scores, standings and schedule updates.
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