On a very busy night at Eastwood Field, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers completed a sweep of the Auburn Doubledays, winning 4-3 in 14 innings.  The four hour and twenty-four minute marathon was the longest in Niles since the Scrappers beat Staten Island, 3-2, on August 6 of 2005.

Kelly Pavlik was at the park signing copies of his book alongside authors David Lee Morgan, Jr. and Greg Gulas.  Pavlik also threw out the ceremonial first pitch (above).  The weather was perfect for the big crowd to enjoy “Buck Night”, as well as an appearance from the Cavs dancers.  There was something going on everywhere before the game started.

Once the game started, Auburn jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Yan Gomes double.  In the top of the sixth, Auburn tacked on another run as Jimmy Gonzales drove in Welington Ramirez with a bases-loaded RBI single with one out.  Scrapper reliever Jose Urena pitched himself out of the bases-loaded one out jam to keep the score at 2-0 in favor of the Doubledays.

In the bottom of the sixth, Mahoning Valley got on the board as Jordan Henry singled and advanced to second on Lurvin Basabe’s walk.  Jason Smit found the hole between short and third scoring the speedy Henry cutting the lead to 2-1.  After Ben Carlson walked to load the bases, Chun Chen was hit by a pitch forcing in the tying run to knot the contest at two apiece.

In the tenth inning, Auburn got a run when Welington Ramirez singled home Brad Glenn.  The Scrappers tied the game in the bottom of the tenth as Ben Carlson led off with a single.  Carlson was then lifted for pinch runner Kyle Bellows, who stole second base.  Chen came through again with an RBI double that scored Bellows tying the game at 3-3.

In the bottom of the 14th inning, Rafael Vera delivered with a two-out, two-strike RBI single that would score Chen lifting the Scrappers to their fourth straight victory.

After the game, Coach Travis Fryman commented  on the long game.  ” I don’t have a lot of answers for that ball game, I really don’t.  I thought it was a very poorly played game, but a very gutsy game.  Both teams played hard for 14 innings.  We had many opportunities to win that game and it should not have went 14 innings.”

Fryman was also very praiseworthy of his catcher, Chun Chen.  “Fourteen innings to catch, three steals, three or four hits, it was a very gutsy effort on his part.”

A new feature here will be the Smit-O-Meter, tracking the nightly efforts of Scrapper Jason Smit, one of the most charismatic athletes I have ever met.

The 7-9-09 Smit-O Meter:  3-7 with an RBI (10), currently batting .325.