The Mahoning Valley Scrappers and Batavia Muckdogs combined for 23 runs,  28 hits, and 8 errors.  When the dust cleared, the Scrappers pulled out a wild 12-11 win in the bottom of the ninth.  KC Serna came through with a bases-loaded hit to give the Scrappers a crazy 12-11 win over a resilient Batavia team.

Batavia scored three in the top of the first, as they did last night.  The Muckdogs used four hits, a hit batter, and a throwing error to formulate the three runs.  Roberto Reyes, Jeremy Patton, Romulo Ruiz, and Juan Castillo hit singles for Batavia off of Scrapper starter Harold Guerrero.  Guerrero struggled to throw strikes and when he did Batavia was hitting them.

Also like last night, the Scrappers scored a run in the bottom of the first to cut Batavia’s lead to 3-1.  Tony Wolters and KC Serna drew back-to-back one out walks.  With Alex Lavisky at the plate, the runners both moved up a bag on a double steal.  The Batavia catcher threw the ball past the covering second baseman allowing Wolters to score.  One run on no hits for Mahoning Valley.

After Guerrero settled down and struck out two of the three Muckdogs he faced in the second inning, Mahoning Valley went to work in the bottom of the second against Batavia starter Patrick Daugherty.  John Barr walked with one out.  Kevin Fontanez reached on an error by the third baseman.  Cody Elliott then smacked a double to the base of the left field wall bringing home Barr.  Bryson Myles (below) then hit a slow grounder to short allowing Fontanez to touch the plate and tie the game.  Wolters drilled a shot back up the box that deflected off of Daugherty’s foot and rolled toward Batavia’s dugout.  Elliott raced home to give the Scrappers a 4-3 lead after two innings.

In the third, the Scrappers went ahead 5-3 when John Barr collected his first hit as a Scrapper which drove in Todd Hankins.  Hankins reached on a single.  Fontanez brought home Barr with a line single to right to increase the Scrappers lead to 6-3.  That would be it for Batavia starter Daugherty who gave up five earned runs, one unearned run, and walked three Scrappers in 2 2/3 innings.

New Batavia pitcher Sean Watson was greeted rudely as Myles singled home a seventh Scrappers run in the third.

Batavia tied the game in the fourth at 7-7.  Guerrero faced two Muckdogs before being pulled in favor of Tony Dischler,who could not record an out before allowing Batavia to tie the game.  Batavia took an 8-7 lead when Dischler unloaded a wild pitch later in Batavia’s five-run fourth inning.

The Scrappers scored five times in the bottom of the sixth to take an 11-8 lead.  With one out, Wolters and Serna hit back-to-back singles and moved up a base when new Batavia pitcher Travis Miller hit Lavisky on a 2-0 count.  With the sacks full, Jordan Smith (above) hit a chopper about ten feet from where he was batting and everyone was safe to tie the game.  Miller unleashed a wild pitch to allow Serna in with the lead run.  Hankins reached on an error by Batavia to reload the bases.  Barr came through with a clean single to right.

Batavia battled back to tie the game with two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Elliott drew a one out walk.  Myles then hit a rocket single that moved Elliott to third setting the stage Serna who delivered with the game-winner.