The Baby Bombers were back at home again for a mid-afternoon battle with the Tri-City ValleyCats. It was an old-fashioned pitcher duel in Richmond County Bank Ballpark as Daniel Alvarez took the mound for the SI Yankees and dominated.
Kendall Coleman would be the hero in the bottom of the 8th of today’s game and continue his hot hitting. Wilkerman Garcia and Nelson Gomez were able to get back to back hits, which allowed Coleman to hit a sacrifice fly to right field that would bring in Garcia from third. Greg Weissert would step on the mound in the 9th to get the save and secure a 2-1 victory over the ValleyCats, their 5th win at home.
“Not so much his batting average but it’s the quality of at-bats and he’s been giving us quality at-bats right now,” said Manager Julio Mosquera “So it was suitable for the team to put him 3rd in the order and hopefully he gets an opportunity and it worked out to perfection.”
Before Coleman’s 8th inning heroics, newcomer Cody Brown hit a home run in the bottom of the 5th inning for his first career hit to tie the ballgame. Brown, who just joined the team on June 28th after signing as an undrafted free agent, put together some good at-bats in his second game with the Baby Bombers.
“I told him he might want to go swimming later to go get that ball I mean it was great, he gave us some quality at-bats. He hit that ball pretty hard too I didn’t know he had that in him,” said Mosquera. “Oh yeah, I knew I had that kind of power it shows up here and there. To have my first career hit and for it to be a home run it’s pretty awesome and special especially doing it here in front of the home crowd.”
The first inning got off to a good start for Alvarez with two quick outs, but a home run by Abraham Toro-Hernandez gave the ValleyCats an early 1-0 lead. Alvarez would settle down and pitch 7 innings with five strikeouts and no walks. He would find himself in a jam in the top of the 7th but with two men on he was able to strikeout the final batter and keep the score tied.
“I think he threw the ball really well today, one pitch that doesn’t really bother us that’s going to happen and it’s going to happen a lot in his career the good thing about it is he learned from it,” said Mosquera. “I wanted him to finish it, I told him to go get it and you have to do that with some of these pitchers so they feel the confidence.”
After a stellar performance from Alvarez, it was up to the bullpen to handle the last two innings, which they did without a problem. Coming into today’s game the SI Yankees bullpen has been the best in the NYPL boasting a 0.44 ERA to start off the young season.
The Baby Bombers seem to love it at home thus far, gathering their fifth win without a loss in Richmond County Bank Ballpark. They can only hope this hot streak at home continues as 9 of their next 12 games are at home.
They look to sweep the Tri-City ValleyCats tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. Jorge Guzman will take the mound tomorrow looking to build on is stellar performance last time out and bring his record to 3-0.