One more to go!!!
That is the scenario facing the Mahoning Valley Scrappers following their 3-2 win over Staten Island in 11 innings before 1,544 fans at Eastwood Field Tuesday night.
With the Scrapper win, the two teams will play the "rubber" game for all of the marbles in the NY-Penn League Wednesday night at Eastwood Field. First pitch for that game is set for 7:05 p.m.
With the two teams deadlocked at 2-all, Chun Chen sent the Scrapper fans home happy as he picked on a 1-0 offering from Ronny Marte and launched a high home run to left for the game-winner.
“The first pitch was a ball, I was hoping to get a pitch that I could drive and I was fortunate to get one,” said Chen. “It was a fastball, I got a good swing on it and it carried.”
As for whether or not Chen thought it was going over the fence, he said, “No. I thought it was going to get caught. That was the biggest hit of my career so far.”
“One more to go and what a great game,” said Scrapper manager Travis Fryman. “The good pitching was on display on both sides and although there was not a lot of good execution offensively, it was a great ball game. Just a tremendous ball game.”
Unlike Chen, Fryman thought it was out off the bat.
“When it went up, it had enough, especially with that low fence out there,” said Fryman. “My only concern was (Neil) Medchill being about seven feet tall making the catch.”
As for Chen being able to decide the game, Fryman felt it might have been a matter of sweet redemption for the catcher.
"Chen had a real poor night the night before (in the 3-0 loss to the Yankees) and he has had a tough summer," said Fryman. "I think he took last night's loss personal. Baseball for me is a beautiful game because you can be a goat one day and the hero the next. What happened to him (Chen) is one of the great things about baseball. In football, you have to wait six days for another chance, but in baseball, you just have to wait 24 hours."
With Scrapper right-hander Marty Popham and Yankee righty Sean Black locked up an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel through four innings, the Yankees broke on top in the top of the fifth and they did it with two outs.
Carmen Angelini lined a single to right and Jimmy Parades followed with a ground rule double just inside the left field line. Working with a 3-1 count, DeAngelo Mack grounded a single to center, scoring both Angelini and Parades.
Facing the 2-run deficit, the Scrappers answered right back at the Baby Bombers in the bottom of the fifth with a pair of their own.
Jason Smit led off with a double to center and Casey Frawley followed with a ringing double to left-center scoring Smit.
Chen moved Frawley to third with a sacrifice bunt, but Jordan Henry flew out to short left.
Battling Black pitch-for-pitch, Argenis Martinez drove in Frawley with the tying run when he lined a single to right.
Jason Kipnis kept the inning going with a single to right and Greg Folgia “juiced” the sacks when he was hit by a pitch.
However, the Yankees kept the tie intact at 2-all when Black coaxed Jesus Brito into a pop fly to end the uprising.
With both bullpens tossing zeros for the next five innings, the 2-all tie stood until the Chen’s individual heroics in the 11th inning.
For the Scrappers, those guys out of the bullpen were Antwonie Hubbard, Matt Packer and closer Cory Burns who picked up the win.
“Popham was tremendous on the mound tonight,” said Fryman. “Hubbard has pitched exceptionally well the last three weeks of the season, Packer came in and did a great job tonight and Cory Burns was simply outstanding. He (Burns) was as sharp as he has been all season and you probably saw the best we bring to the table out there tonight.”
With Brett Brach and Marty Popham having already done their thing, that means the ball will be in the hands of right hander Clayton Cook.
“We will gook with Cookie (Clayton Cook) tomorrow,” said Fryman. “We still have a some of our good guys left in the (bull)pen so I like our chances tomorrow.”
