baseball

Florida native Joey Bergman has made quite a showing in his first year of pro ball, hitting .302, scoring 35 times, driving in 31 runs and drawing 30 walks. But Friday night he achieved a special milestone -- hitting his first professional home run.

The blast in the fifth inning was part of a Muckdog onslaught against Auburn that lifted the division champs to a 8-5 victory.

Chris Edmundson also homered -- his second of the year. Edmundson's three-run shot was part of a five-run third inning for the Batavia.

Burgman had three hits and Edmundson two.

Starter Zach Russell went five innings and gave up three runs -- all in the first -- to get the win and move his record to 3-3 with a 2.93 ERA.

Batavia is in Auburn on Saturday and closes out the regular season at 1:05, Sunday, against Auburn. The playoffs open on Tuesday, but Batavia's first opponent and the location of the game have not yet been announced.

Photo: File photo.

The last in our series of Muckdogs player interviews. 

Sorry about the poor audio quality in the last two questions. The rest of the interview had to be cut out because of it. 

The Jamestown Jammers managed to get to starting pitcher Justin Edwards (4-5, 3.38 ERA) for five runs in the fourth and fifth innings, giving them all the runs they needed to defeat the Batavia Muckdogs.

The Jammers (40-32) are still in a wild card playoff hunt with Williamsport (41-32), while the Muckdogs are cruising into the playoffs as Pinckney Division champions.

The Muckdogs scored early, taking a 2-0 lead following a Victor Sanchez double, and hits from Jon Rodriguez and Joey Bergman.

The Muckdogs would score again in the fourth and fifth innings, but still come up short, 5-4.

Muckdogs coach Oliver Marmol was ejected in the fifth inning along with Manager Dann Bilardello. Marmol and Bilardello argued a foul ball call, which may have cost the Muckdogs a run. Shortstop Yunier Castillo hit the called foul, and later grounded out, and he apparently mouthed off himself and got tossed.

Rodriguez had three hits, knocked in two and scored twice.

Batavia is at home tonight against Auburn, in Auburn tomorrow and finish out the regular season Sunday at 1:05 p.m. against Auburn.

The playoffs start Tuesday at a location to be determined.

More pictures after the jump:

The Muckdogs need to make money and draw more fans, according to NY-Penn League Commissioner Ben Hayes, but even that might not be enough to keep the team in the city of the NYPL's birth.

Hayes said Dwyer Stadium is one of three or four ballparks in the league that is not up to professional baseball standards.

"It's not that I want them to relocate," Hayes said while visiting Dwyer for Thursday's game. "It's not something I want to happen. But it is something that, if the market is not supporting the ball club, or you have a stadium that’s not in condition for professional baseball, either one of those can end a franchise, and that’s where we are."

The infield is a particular concern, Hayes said. He said he's heard, but doesn't know about firsthand, that one team that visited Dwyer this year refused to take infield practice  because the manager was concerned about the condition of the playing surface.

Minutes earlier Hayes spoke with the groundskeeper. Hayes said the groundskeeper told him the field needed to be bulldozed.

"The infield needs to be laser leveled," Hayes said. "Those things are very costly."

The local ownership group is nonprofit, Hayes noted, and doesn't have the resources to take on those kinds of improvements.

The commissioner pointed to Aberdeen, State College, Staten Island and Brooklyn as franchises with professional quality facilities. He singled out Vermont as a club that, while profitable, will need to relocate if it can't solve its ballpark problems.

Hayes agreed that it would be a shame if one of the last original franchises had to relocate.

"We considered that three years ago," Hayes said. "That was one of the top things on our minds. It's one of the last original, founding clubs in the New York-Penn League.

Unfortunately," he added, "it’s a situation where I’m not sure this club can make money. It’s losing money every year and if that’s the case, then, you know, like the other original members, those clubs will have to depart and go somewhere else."

UPDATE, Friday, 9:22 p.m.: Groundskeeper Donald Rock called to clarify -- he's concerned that some might read his comments as meaning that the whole stadium needs to be leveled. That's not what he said. He said Hayes came to him before the game and asked, "If you could do one thing, what would it be?" and he replied bulldoze the field (both infield and outfield) and level it. Rock said years of football play on the field has left it uneven. He said Hayes told him he does a great job with the field and it's in the best condition it can be under the circumstances. He said Hayes said, "The things that need to be repaired, you can't do yourself."

The Batavia Muckdogs are playoff bound, and not as just some wild card hopeful, but as certified champs.

Tonight in Jamestown, the Muckdogs recorded their sixth-straight win to capture the Pinckney Division crown.

The team in the smallest city in the league now has a shot at its second league championship in three years.

Andrew Moss turned in another strong outing and Jon Rodriguez homered twice, giving him 11 on the season, as the Muckdogs beat the Jammers, 10-5.

Moss went six-and-a-third innings giving up four runs, but only one was earned. Anthony Ferrara came on to record his second save.

The Muckdogs now lead Williamsport by four games and Jamestown by 4.5 in the Pinckney Division.

Rodriquez went  2-5 with two solo home runs. Nick Longmire had two hits and three RBIs. Chris Edmundson continued his hot hitting at the top of the order, with two hits and three runs scored. Yuner Castillo also had two hits.

The division champs return home Thursday night to face the Jammers again, and then play Friday at Dwyer (fireworks!) against Auburn. 

The Muckdogs have three more regular season home games, and one more on the road.

The reason it's so short is that the second half of the interview had to be left out because of poor sound quality. 

In a wild one last night, the Batavia Muckdogs won the team's fifth-straight game and extended its three-game lead over second place Williamsport by beating State College 12-11.

Batavia and the Spikes took a 9-9 tie into the 11th inning. In the top of the frame, State College scored two runs to pull ahead, but the Muckdogs put three runners across the plate in the bottom half to pull out the victory.

Wild throws doomed the Spikes in the 11th.

After the Muckdogs tied the score on a double by Geoffrey Klein, a triple by Chris Edmondson and a single by Victor Sanchez, Sanchez was able to reach second on a wild pitch.

Then things got really strange.

Audry Perez struck out swinging -- at a wild pitch. When Perez ran to first -- as a hitter can do when he strikes out but the catcher misses the ball -- catcher Miguel Mendez made the throw to first to record the out, but Sanchez, sprinting from second, didn't stop running. He scored the winning run when first baseman Gerlis Rodriguez threw the ball away.

Reliever Andy North was credited with the win.

Starter Nick McCully lasted only three-and-a-third innings, giving up 10 hits and nine runs (seven earned).

Edmundson and Sanchez each scored three runs in the game on two hits apiece.

Perez hit a grand-slam homer in the third.

The Muckdogs are in Jamestown tonight and return to Dwyer tomorrow to face the Jammers again. Jamestown is in third place in the Pinckney Division, three-and-a-half games behind Batavia.

UPDATE: Added video highlights from photographer Mike Janes.

Behind seven strong innings from starter Zach Russell, the first-place Batavia Muckdogs beat State College at Dwyer today, 6-4.

The Muckdogs, now 40-27, are a game and a half ahead of Jamestown in the Pinckney Division.

Russell gave up only two runs (one earned) and scattered 8 hits, to improve his record to 2-3 and lower his ERA to 2.72.

Third baseman Jon Rodriguez (pictured above scoring the first run of the game) sparked the offense, going 3-4, scoring twice and smacking two doubles. He had one RBI.

Joey Bergman, playing second base today, had only one hit in his three ABs, but it was a big one. Bergman drove in three runs in the sixth inning to give Batavia a 4-0 lead.

Catcher Audey Perez continued his hot hitting, going 2-4 and scoring a run. Nick Longmire also had a hit and a run scored. DH Patrick Biserta had two hits and an RBI.

Anthony Ferrara pitched two innings, giving up five hits and two runs, to pick up his first save of the season.

The Muckdogs have two more games at Dwyer against State College (32-36), followed by a game in Jamestown on Wednesday, then a home game against Jamestown on Thursday. On Friday, Batavia is at Dwyer for a game against Auburn.

There are only five more home dates left in the regular season.

More pictures after the jump:

Audey Perez

Jon Rodriguez slides safely into second. It was an odd play. The throw beat Rodriquez by at least a second, but the second baseman was a good five or six feet of the bag and couldn't get back to the base in time, even though Rodriguez started his slide too soon and got to the bag rather slowly.

Zach Russell.

Without knot holes in outfield walls, how is a kid supposed to sneek a peak at a professional baseball game? How about stand on his bike seat and handle bars and watch over the right field wall?

Zach Russell on the mound.

The Batavia Muckdogs did not play as scheduled Tuesday against Williamsport because the field at Dwyer was deemed too wet.

As a result, fans will be able to enjoy back-to-back double-headers tonight and Thursday, both beginning at 6:05.

In the NY-Penn league, double-header games are scheduled for only seven innings.

There are nine home dates left in the 2010 Batavia Muckdogs season.

Will these be the final professional baseball games played in Batavia, the birthplace of the New York-Penn League?

At 6:05 p.m., the Muckdogs (34-26) open a double-header with Williamsport (35-27), followed by Wednesday and Thursday games with their division rival. Both teams are two games out of first place in the Pinckney division.

Jamestown is in first with a record of 37-25. The Jammers will be in Batavia on Sept. 2 for one game.

Fifth-round draft choice Nick Longmire remains among the league leaders in hitting, with 39 runs scored, five triples, eight homers and 44 RBIs.

Infielder Joey Bergman is among the top 10 hitters with a .315 average.

Justin Edwards leads the pitching staff with a 2.81 ERA while Andrew Moss has notched six wins.

Zach Russell, with a 1-3 record and 2.38 ERA is expected to start tonight's first game.