The Auburn Doubledays came into Niles winners of their last four games.  Conversely, Mahoning Valley had lost their last five contests.  Baseball really is a game of momentum and streaks.  One consistent for Mahoning Valley has been the effort put forth by SP Mike Rayl.  Rayl had good stuff and struck out eight in five innings for the Scrappers.  What hasn’t happened much this season, is good relief pitching following a good start.  Julio Ramirez and Clayton Ehlert provided solid bullpen efforts as Mahoning Valley won to end both streaks, 4-2.

The Scrappers put the games first run up when Jesus Aguilar singled to start the second inning.  Aguilar moved to second on a passed ball and later advanced to third on a Tyler Cannon bunt.  With one out, Diego Seastrunk drove the ball far enough to left field to allow Aguilar to tag from third and give the Scrappers the early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Auburn responded with a series of plays that typified what kind of season the Scrappers have had.  CF Jonathan Jones was up with a man on third and nobody out.  Jones hit a ball to second to score the runner.  Kevin Fontanez pulled Carlos Moncrief off of the base with the throw.  Moncrief appeared to tag Jones before he reached first, but safe was the call. Jones stole second with the throw going wide right and into center.  While advancing to third, the throw appeared to beat Jones to the base, but again, he was called safe.  The next batter, Gustavo Pierre, singled to knock home Jones and put Auburn ahead 2-1.

The Scrappers loaded the bases in the fourth on a single and a pair of walks.  Cannon got an RBI on a fielders choice pushing Giovanny Urshela home with the tying run.  Seastrunk drew a walk with one out to reload the bases.  Aguilar scored on a wild pitch to give the Scrappers a 3-2 lead.  Fontanez walked off of new pitcher Zach Anderson.  Trent Baker then popped out to first.  Nick Bartolone had a good at-bat before drawing a walk forcing home another run for a 4-2 Scrapper lead.  Moncrief got robbed by Doubledays LF Marcus Brisker who made a beautiful diving catch to end the inning.  One hit, three runs, 4-2 Scrappers.

The score stayed 4-2 in favor of Mahoning Valley behind three solid innings of relief from Julio Ramirez.  Clayton Ehlert pitched the ninth for the save.  Afterwards, Manager Travis Fryman praised the good pitching.  “This is the best outing that Ramirez has had.  We tried to stretch him to three innings once before and the results were not real good.  We were apprehensive to leave him in there but he was working easy tonight.  It was an ugly ball game and they gave us plenty of opportunities to win. They [Auburn] might be the hottest team in our division over the past couple of weeks, so we’ll take it.”