During New Hampshire’s exciting extra-inning victory Sean Stidfole managed to work his way out of tight spots in a tie game in consecutive frames. Alhough New Hampshire won, Syracuse wasn’t so fortunate and lost their game in the tenth inning. Dunedin’s pitchers didn’t have a good night, while Auburn needed only one inning to secure their victory. Finally, Jonathan Diaz did everything he could to lead Lansing to a victory, getting on base every time he went to bat and contributing two extra-base hits, but he, perhaps unfairly, doesn’t get a star due to three strong performances during the two extra-inning games.
Syracuse 4 @ Ottawa
5 (10) - Boxscore
Randy Leek started for Syracuse and gave up three runs over 4.1 innings. The 30-year-old Leek lowered his ERA to 10.80. Although he allowed seven hits and a pair of walks, Leek struck out five and pitched decently, aside from a three-run third. Jamie Vermilyea gave up a solo homer and a pair of walks over his 1.1 innings of relief. Joe Kennedy came in for the bottom of the seventh, in what will almost certainly be his last appearance for Syracuse, and pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
Matt Roney forced extra innings with a scoreless ninth. Then he watched an eventful top half of the tenth, as Syracuse got runners on first and second with one out. However, then the pitcher picked John Ford-Griffin off first base and Chad Mottola was called out on strikes. Mottola was livid with the call and was ejected by the umpire, as was Syracuse batting coach Al Le Boeuf. Then Roney walked Brennan King to begin the tenth, but he pounced on Dusty Wathan’s attempted sacrifice bunt and threw out King at second. Roney struck out Matt Padgett, leaving the Lynx with a runner on first and two out. However, Roney surrendered a walk-off double to Danny Sandoval and first baseman Wathan scored from first to win the game.
Two Chiefs had multi-hit games. Wayne Lydon got on base four times, as a good leadoff hitters should, with a 3-4 night and a walk. Lydon scored two runs and added a triple and an RBI. Al Quintana, hitting eighth and presumably an emergency call-up as he’s spent practically the entire year with Dunedin, was 2-4 with a double and a run. Mike Vento, who was 0-3 on the evening, scored Syracuse’s other run on a walk. Ford-Griffin was 1-4 with a walk and an RBI, but made a costly mistake in the tenth with the aforementioned pickoff. Ryan Roberts was 1-3 with 2 RBI, a walk and a sacrifice bunt.
Trenton 5 @ New Hampshire 6 (11) - Boxscore
Despite an 11 inning game, New Hampshire only used three pitchers thanks to Yusaku Iriki persevering on a night where he didn’t have his best stuff and Jesse Carlson contributing one of his finest relief outings of the year. Iriki gave up five runs over 5 innings on seven hits and four walks. Irki allowed five consecutive batters to reach base during Trenton’s 4-run fourth, but he hung in to get the final out of the inning and, after allowing a solo homer to lead off the fifth, finished the inning by retiring three straight batters. New Hampshire was trailing 5-4, but an Aaron Matthews’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning tied the game. Iriki gave up a single to begin the sixth and left he game for Carlson.
Carlson immediately retired his inherited runner on a double play and would go on to face twelve batters over four innings, one over the minimum. Carlson allowed his only hit to begin the eighth inning, but the runner never advanced any further as Carlson came up with two of his four strikeouts during the inning. Unfortunately, New Hampshire also only had one hit during those four innings and Aaron Matthews also reached base on a strikeout, but the Fisher Cats couldn’t capitalize on either opportunity.
Sean Stidfole replaced Carlson to begin the tenth and the first two batters promptly reached base. With Trenton threatening Stifole induced a key double play off the bat off Juan Miranda and Trenton suddenly had a runner on third with two out. The next batter lined out to third baseman Ryan Klosterman and Stidfole and the Fisher Cats escaped any damage.
A 1-2-3 bottom of the tenth meant Stidfole was quickly back on the mound for what was probably an even more tense inning. Stidfole gave up a leadoff single to Cody Ehlers. Second baseman Manny Mayorson took the throw from Ryan Patterson and tried to catch Ehlers on a wide turn, but he overthrew the first baseman and Ehlers ended up on third base. With none out it was time for Stidfole to bear down and that’s exactly what he did. He retired the next batter on a grounder to the pitcher, so Ehlers had to stay put at third base. Stidfole struck out the next batter and then got a grounder to short to escape the jam. In the bottom of the eleventh consecutive singles by Matthews and Patterson put runners on first and second with none out. Kratz’s sacrifice bunt moved each runner up and then Ryan Klosterman singled home the winning run over a drawn-in outfield.
Fort Myers 7 @ Dunedin 4 - Boxscore
Through eight innings Dunedin had one run on seven hits. They made the game respectable with a three-run ninth inning, but they were never close enough to seriously put the game in doubt. Offensively, the team was led by Eric Nielsen and Kyle Phillips, each of whom went 3-5, although neither of them had a run or an extra-base hit and only Nielsen added an RBI. Luke Hetherington went 2-4 with a double and a run scored, while Anthony Hatch added a hit and an RBI and Chris Guttierez added a hit and a run. Only Brian Jeroloman both scored a run and drove one in.
Only one of Dunedin’s five pitchers didn’t give up a run during the game and he only pitched to one batter. Daryl Harang struck out the one batter he faced with two out in the top of the eighth and runners on first and third and wisely stopped right there. Connor Falkenbach almost made it through the ninth, but with two out he allowed an RBI single to the seventh hitter. Starter Robert Ray gave up three runs in 4.1 innings, but he was almost lucky to escape with that few runs allowed as he gave up 10 hits and walked three batters. Billy Carnline stranded both of Ray’s inherited runners on base, but he woud eventually give up two runs over 2.2 innings. Paul Phillips started the eighth and allowed a run, before he was rescued by Harang’s timely strikeout.
Lansing 2 @ Dayton 4 - Boxscore
Graham Godfrey had his second three-inning start in a row against Dayton. Godfrey gave up five hits, two runs, two walks and struck out two. He took the loss as he left the game with Lansing down 2-1 and they’d never tie the game. Ron Lowe gave up one run over his 3 innings and struck out four. Po-Hsuan Keng gave up an unearned run in eighth on consecutive errors by Matthew Lane and Sean Shoffit, but he did strike out three batters over his pair of innings.
The last five batters in Lansing’s lineup went a combined 0-17, which helps to explain a mediocre offensive effort. Jonathan Diaz went 2-2, with a walk, a hit by pitch, a double, a triple and two runs. Travis Snider went 2-4 and added an RBI, while Jonathan Jaspe had Lansing’s only other hit on the night.
State College 3 @ Auburn 9 - Boxscore
Chi-Hung Cheng looked even better in his second start of the year for Auburn than he did in his first wasn’t as good yesterday, in his third start of the year. Cheng, who has missed most of the year with injury issues, struggled with his control and walked four batters over 4 innings. Cheng also gave up four hits and three runs, two earned. Because of Cheng’s short outing Adam Rogers picked up the win with 3 innings of solid relief. Rogers allowed one walk and struck out six, leaving himself with a 43:7 K:BB ratio on the year. Toronto’s Drew Taylor threw the final 2 innings, pitching for only the second time since August 9. Taylor struck out three, gave up a hit and a walk and didn’t allow a run. He has a 3.00 ERA on the year.
Auburn scored all of their runs during a 9-run fourth inning. State College scored two in the top of the fourth and had a 3-0 lead, leaving some to wonder if the fact the Doubledays had stranded three runners and also hit into a double play would haunt them later in the game. However, Auburn made the most of their opportunities in the fourth, with some help from the State College pitchers. Manuel Rodriguez led off the inning with a walk and then Bradley Emaus followed with a single. C.J. Ebarb singled to load the bases and then Carlos Vazquez drove in the first run when he was hit by a pitch.
Victor Santana hit a two-run single to tie the game and then Luis Sanchez gave Auburn the lead with an RBI groundout. Ben Zeskind singled home Santana and then Adam Calderone and Darin Mastroianni both walked. With the bases loaded a balk gave Auburn another run and then a Rodriguez single gave them another. Emaus was hit by a pitch to load the bases again and then Ebarb walked to drive home Auburn’s eighth run of the inning. Vazquez drove home the last run with a sacrifice fly, but then Santana struck out to end the inning.
GCL Blue Jays
Day off.
3 star selection
3rd star – Ryan Patterson, 3-5, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, 6 TB
2nd star – Jesse Carlson, 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K
1st star – Wayne Lydon, 3-4, 2 R, 3B, RBI, BB, 5 TB
