After being shutout on opening night, the Muckdogs were back in action on Saturday night against the Auburn Doubledays.
In a game of ups and downs, the Muckdogs ultimately lost a tough one by the score of 9- 5 in 10 innings.
The scoring began in the bottom of the second inning when Muckdog catcher Blake Anderson singled with two outs. Giovanny Alfonzo would walk setting up first and second for Galvi Moscat.
Moscat would hit a hard ground ball back up the middle. Anderson scored from second but Alfonzo was thrown out trying to move to third, ending the inning.
The Doubledays would respond right away in the top of the third inning.
After getting through the first two innings unscathed, Batavia starting pitching, Nick White, would run into trouble in the third.
Auburn’s Conor Keniry would hit a lead off triple and would later score on an Ian Sagdal sacrifice fly making it 1-1. But the Doubledays were not done.
Leadoff hitter Byran Mejia and Matthew Page would both hit solo home runs making the score 3-1.
Unlike on opening night where the Muckdogs seemed to lose focus after they got down early, they responded right away in the bottom of the third.
Leftfielder Kyle Barrett would start off the inning with a walk and would move to second on a ground out to first by Anfernee Seymour. Barrett would then score on a RBI triple by Stone Garrett making it 3-2.
With the infield playing in, Eric Fisher was able to single and scoring Garrett from third and tying the game at 3-3.
Ryan Cranmer would hit a groundball to the pitcher, Jefrey Rodriguez and in an attempt to start a double play, he threw the ball in the dirt to the second baseball and the ball dribbled into the outfield. Fisher would move to third on the play setting up first and third with just one out for the Muckdogs.
The Muckdogs would take the lead back when Cranmer scored on a RBI single by Anderson making it 4-3. The Muckdogs were still threatening with runners on first and third but Alfonzo struck out to end the inning.
“We crawled back into the game and we battled,” Manager Angel Espada said.
The game remained at 4-3 until the seventh inning when Auburn DH, Kelvin Gutierrez would work a walk and move to third on a Luis Guzman double.
Both runners would score on a Keniry single making it 5-4.
Throughout the game, the Muckdog pitchers always had that one inning they could not get through without giving up some runs.
“It is just part of the beginning of the season. They are just trying to find their rhythm. It’s early and most of them haven’t pitched in awhile,” Espada said.
Going into the bottom of the ninth, the Muckdogs were still down 5-4 and down to their last out.
Garrett would hit a towering fly ball to leftfield that found itself landing on the other side of the fence tying the game at 5-5.
The celebration was short lived as Auburn was able to plate four runs in the top of the 10th inning, all with two outs to end Batavia’s quest for their first win of the season.
Garrett would finish the game 3-for-4 with a triple, homerun and two runs scored. Anderson was 3-for-5 with three singles and a RBI.
Cody Harris pitched three innings in relief. He only allowed two hits and walked one. Steve Farnworth got the loss as he pitched three innings, gave up four hits and all four runs in the 10th inning.
“You don’t want to lose series and you don’t want to get swept,” Espada said when talking about the importance of tomorrow’s game.
“It’s important to win tomorrow and not get swept just to give us a little bit of confidence,” he said.
The Muckdogs will try to avoid the sweep on Sunday, Father’s Day, when they face off against the Doubledays in the series finale. Game time is set for 1:05 p.m.
