The Muckdogs (6-12) came into Friday’s game riding a bit of a resurgence, with four wins in five games, and were looking to continue their hot stretch against the Auburn Doubledays (7-11).
Coming off his first win of the season, 19-year-old Jordan Holloway got the start for Batavia and struggled to find the strike zone all night.
The California native would walk four of the first six batters he faced and before he knew it, he was down 2-0.
“It’s a typical 19-year-old pitcher,” Manager Angel Espada said. “He’s trying to work his way through things and figure out the game of baseball.”
Just like in first inning, walks were Holloway’s downfall in the second.
Edwin Lora walked to lead off the inning. He would then steal second and after the throw sailed into centerfield, Lora would end up at third. An Andrew Stevenson groundout to shortstop scored Lora from third making it 3-0.
Holloway’s night would be over after the fourth inning. While he did strike out six and only allowed two hits, he walked six batters and hit another.
“He’s young and his trying to learn how to pitch and these are learning experiences for him,” Espada said.
Nick White came in relief of Holloway in the fifth and allowed seven hits, two walks and three runs over his three innings of work.
Ryan Hafner and Ayron Adames would pitch the final two innings of the game for the Muckdogs. Both pitchers would combine for five hits, three runs and two walks.
When the dust had settled, Batavia pitchers had combined to walk 10 Auburn batters and hit two.
“It’s just one bad game. We have been playing good baseball for the past nine or 10 games and this is just one game,” Espada said.
The only offense of the day for the Muckdogs came in the sixth inning when Giovanny Alfonzo singled with two outs and then moved to second on a passed ball.
Alfonzo then scored Batavia’s lone run on a high hit ball to center by Stone Garrett that was lost in the lights by the Doubledays' centerfielder.
Auburn was able to score three more runs in the top of the ninth in route to a 13-1 victory.
Batavia dropped to 6-13 while Auburn improved to 8-11.
“You just put it behind you and start from zero tomorrow,” Espada said.
Photos by Howard Owens.
