Archive for the ‘Scrappers’ Category

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers took advantage of some early run production and rode their solid pitching and defense to the finish line in a 6-1 victory over State College.  The Scrappers scored five times in the first four innings and never looked back.  State College scored their lone run of the game in the top of the ninth inning.

Will Roberts was the starting pitcher for Mahoning Valley.  He threw four solid innings of shutout baseball, but unfortunately needed to go five innings to get the win.  The gift win was given to Harold Guerrerro who started the fifth inning with a 5-0 lead.  Guerrerro proved worthy to get the “W” as he threw four solid innings of scoreless baseball as well.

Four different Scrappers drove in runs with Tony Wolters and John Barr collecting a pair of RBI’s each.  Wolters finished the game 2-4, and Barr was 1-3 with a sacrifice fly.  State College did themselves no favors as their pitchers hit three Scrappers.  Jordan Smith was beaned his first two times at-bat (above photo).

Perhaps the most impressive ingredient of baseball that the Scrappers flashed in the win was the solid fundamental defense.  Routine plays were nightmares for State College, but Mahoning Valley was doing some pretty special stuff on defense seemingly every inning.  In the above photo, the Scrappers SS, Tony Wolters, had enough smarts to stop a ball in the hole and fire to third to take down the lead runner in a one-out situation early on.  3B Evan Frazar was waiting and the timing was perfect to eliminate the runner.  Jordan Smith threw a runner out at home from right field on a beautiful throw.  It was a great performance by the Scrappers.

“I was really pleased with our pitching tonight”, commented Manager David Wallace.  “Will Roberts was tough on their hitters and [Harold] Guerrerro came in and performed exceptionally tonight.”

Will Roberts

The Scrappers and Spikes wrap up their short series on Wednesday night at Eastwood Field.  Mahoning Valley is 4-0 against State College at home this season.

One Scrapper who was on the fast track has been slowed recently.  KC Serna took a line drive to the face in Jamestown while the team was on the road.  Wallace said that they are waiting for Serna to be cleared and that there is a small fracture with some bone sediment loose.

Al Kaline was recently at a Mahoning Valley Scrappers game to watch his grandson, Colin Kaline, in action.  Colin is in the Tigers organization, playing for the Connecticut Tigers, the short-season A affiliate for Detroit.

Al Kaline is in Cooperstown, never played a day of minor league baseball in his life, and has some weird coincidences with Derek Jeter.  Kaline played his entire 22-year career with the Detroit Tigers.  “Mr. Tiger” is still working for the organization as a front office figure.

Derek Jeter picked up his 3,000th hit recently to join a crowd of less than 30 players on a very elite list.  Al Kaline was the 12th player in Major League Baseball history to accomplish that fete.  Here is where it gets weird… Kaline picked up his 3,000th hit in Baltimore on September 24, 1974.  Derek Jeter was born in Baltimore  in 1974. Kaline finished with 3,007 career hits.  As of this writing, Derek Jeter has 3,007 hits.  Sometimes timing is everything.

Paneech: What is Al Kaline doing in his spare time these days?

Al Kaline: I’m still working for the Tigers.  I am an Assistant to the President and go to the games.  I travel a little bit to Erie and Toledo and, of course, Lakeland.  I have a home down there in Florida.  Basically, I do whatever the president wants me to do. The owner is a good friend of mine.  I had been broadcasting the games for about 20 years and when the new owners came in, they asked me to go into the front office and give my opinions.  I told him that they may not like my opinions, but I assured them that I would give them my opinion nonetheless.

Paneech: Your grandson, Colin Kaline (above), is in the organization now.  Is it weird coming to smaller venues to watch him?

Kaline: Actually, this is all new to me because I never played minor-league baseball.  I hadn’t had a chance to see my grandson play much.  He is like most guys in this league, they have a lot to learn and a lot of adjusting to do.  Some will do it, some won’t.  He is under a lot of pressure because of his name, but he handles it well, he is a great kid and was a great student.  Whatever he does, he is going to be successful. It may not be baseball, but he is going to do well.

Paneech: I would think he will receive some support because of his name in the Detroit organization.

Kaline: He wants to play baseball.  I tell all of these kids that they are blessed.  How many billions of kids have wanted to sign professionally and never did.  These kids are signed and have that chance to go somewhere with it.  How far they go?  Nobody knows.  But, they should really see it as a tremendous honor that they were signed professionally.

Colin finished the game 2-4 with a pair of doubles.  Afterwards he commented on his last name.  “I don’t feel the pressure so much.  I know people are going to be more critical, but I am just having fun, learning and playing the game.  It’s been fun so far.  My grandfather rarely pulls me to the side to give me pointers, he lets me do my own thing and knows I am having fun.”

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers withstood a late Jamestown Jammers comeback attempt and won in extra innings, 6-5, to move into a tie for first place in the Pinckney Division.

Mahoning Valley scored three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 3-0 lead.  Alex Lavisky (above) homered to start the scoring, his second home run for the Scrappers this season.

Jamestown scored two in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the lead to 3-2, and the score remained that way going into the top of the ninth inning.

The Scrappers added two runs in the ninth to take a 5-2 lead, but Enosil Tejeda allowed three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game into extra innings.

Mahoning Valley scored a run in the top of the 11th on a sacrifice fly by Todd Hankins, and Nate Striz pitched a scoreless inning in the bottom of the 11th to give the Scrappers the win.

Tejeda picked up the victory to improve to 2-2.  Relief pitcher Curtis Petersen picked up the loss for the Jammers to fall to 2-2.  Striz earned his first save of the season.

The Scrappers and Jammers will conclude their three-game series on Monday night at 7:05 pm.

Connecticut escaped Niles with a win and avoided being swept by the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, posting a 7-4 win at Eastwood Field.  The Tigers strung together good things in a row during a couple of different innings.  The Tigers got three hits from Curt Casali, including a monstrous home run, and a couple of doubles from Colin Kaline in the win.  The Scrappers kept battling back, but ultimately dug a hole too deep to climb out of.

“Our goal is to win the series and we went for a sweep tonight”, commented Scrappers Manager David Wallace.  “Both teams played hard and we just made one more mistake than they did.  They capitalized on it like good teams do.”

For the Scrappers, Jordan Smith (below) stayed hot collecting a couple more hits and knocking in the first two Scrapper runs.  Smith extended his hitting streak to eleven games with the hits.

Wallace talked about Smith and the productivity he has been putting out.  “Jordan has put together good at-bats for us all year.  He works hard and prepares himself.  He doesn’t try to do too much, but when the situation calls for it, he opens it up a little bit and lets it fly.  When he gets down in a two-strike count, he is one of the best at battling and getting the barrel on the ball.”

The Scrappers scored a pair of runs in the first when KC Serna and Tony Wolters consecutively walked on four pitches each.  After both runners moved up a bag, Smith laced a single for the 2-0 Scrappers lead.

Scrappers starter Will Roberts, making his first start of the year pitched two innings.  The decision was premeditated by the coaching staff to give Roberts two innings or roughly 40 pitches in his debut.  Danny Jimenez relieved Roberts to start the third and took the tough loss, exiting the game down only one run.

In the sixth inning, the Tigers got back-to-back doubles from Zach Maggard and Kaline to take a 3-2 lead.  In the bottom half of the inning, the Scrappers reclaimed the lead Evan Frazar singled to knock in Jake Lowery and then Cody Elliott drew a base on balls with the sacks full forcing home Alex Lavisky to go ahead 4-3.

The Scrappers lost the lead when PJ Polk laid down a perfect bunt up the first base line that was errantly thrown into right field.  Jason King then doubled to knock in two with a bases-loaded double.  Jason Holm then hit a sacrifice fly to right to put the Tigers in front 6-4.  They would add a run in the ninth.  New Scrapper Henry Dunn was giving chase to a ball that was hit to the right-center field wall.  Dunn had a nasty collision with the fence and stayed down for a minute but eventually popped up and stayed in the game.  Eugenio Suarez ended up with a triple on the great effort by Dunn.  Suarez would trot in on a sac fly by King to give the Tigers a 7-4 lead.

The Scrappers hit the road for a three-game set with Jamestown.  Bryson Myles is almost ready to return from a pulled hamstring injury that has kept him out of action all week.   Aaron Siliga, who rolled an ankle, should also be ready to roll within the next couple of days.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers overcame four runs in the first inning by the Connecticut Tigers and came from behind to win, 9-6.

Mahoning Valley answered with three runs in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to 4-3. Connecticut scored in the fourth inning to make it 5-3, but again the Scrappers answered to make it 5-4.

The Scrappers scored five runs in the sixth inning to take the lead. Todd Hankins singled in two runs and Cody Elliott (above) doubled in two more to make it 9-5.

Connecticut scored a run in the eighth inning to make it 9-6, but the Scrappers held the Tigers scoreless in the ninth inning.

The Scrappers and Tigers will play game three of their series on Friday night at 7:05 pm.

Scrapper fans got a little treat at Eastwood Field Wednesday.  Indians Prospect, Jeanmar Gomez, made a start in preparation to join the Indians after the break.  Gomez is rumored to be taking the place of Mitch Talbot in the Indians rotation.  Talbot is having arm problems and has been placed on the DL.  Gomez pitched four innings but did not factor into the decision as the Scrappers won, 2-1, to take the series opener against Connecticut.

“I felt good, I tried to work on all of my pitches”, remarked Gomez after the game.  “There is a lot of good energy with these players here, and that’s a good think for the organization.  They play hard and do the best that they can.  I told them that they have to learn something every day while they are here, make the effort to pick something new up every chance you get.“

Manager David Wallace didn’t see Gomez as a distraction, but rather a benefit, to his club.  “It’s a great thing, these guys got to see the way that Jeanmar prepared for his start.  They see the way he went out there and attacked the hitters with his fastball.  He is not Fausto Carmona with fantastic stuff, but to his credit, he knows how to pitch.  I’ll be interested to see what this team took from it.”

Gomez threw hard in his four innings of work.  He gave up five hits and one earned run while striking out three Tigers.  Gomez’s appearance will not live up to an Asdrubal Cabrera rehab appearance last season, but it is always nice when the big club sends the talent to Niles for a day, and the crowd of 2,611 surely appreciated their chance to watch the hard-throwing pitcher. Gomez, below with Scrappers catcher Alex Lavisky, is on the cusp of bigger things, very soon.

The Tigers were not intimidated by Gomez as they plated the first run of the game in the fourth.  Patrick Leyland, son of Jim Leyland, singled home Jeff Holm off of Gomez to put Connecticut ahead 1-0.

The Scrappers tied the game in the bottom of the fifth.  Cody Elliott singled and moved to third when Tony Wolters singled.  Elliott would trot home from third when Jake Lowery singled to pick up his eleventh RBI of the season.

Joseph Colon, who usually starts games for the Scrappers, entered the game to start the fifth and pitched very well.  Colon worked five scoreless innings in picking up the win in relief of Gomez.

New Scrapper, Evan Frazar singled to start the ninth.  Elliott bunted Frazar to second and then the new guy showed his wheels taking third.  KC Serna (above) knocked Frazar in with a clean single over the second baseman’s head to give the Scrappers the nice win.

Serna has embraced the hero role a lot lately and Wallace thinks it can get contagious.  “We preach quality at-bats whether we are up five or down five.  Be a better hitter with two strikes and make contact.  These guys are doing a good job battling right now.”

Drew LaFollette is another busybody with more than one responsibility working for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.  LaFollette, a Bowling Green grad from Toledo, likes the area and is part of a close-knit group of folks who work hard behind the scenes to make the Scrappers games an enjoyable outing for all who attend.  Probably his most interesting function is lining players up with host families.

Paneech: This year it seems like you kind of oversee what other people are doing in the sound room during games.

LaFollette: We have all spent a lot of time around each other and everybody here knows what they are doing.  Nothing is really new to any of them, it’s just a matter of keeping everybody on a schedule.  If there are changes, we just communicate them through everybody so that we all know what and when something will be different than scheduled.  It’s fairly easy as long as everyone is on board and aware of what they are doing.

Paneech: What is your official title and what duties fall under your care?

LaFollette: Officially, I am a production intern.  I also help out with marketing and the website and handle the Facebook and Twitter duties.  I also put together our host family program.  The host family thing can be tricky because you are dealing with the players and the families that they will be staying with.  I am like a middle man. Host families have certain qualities that they may be looking for, such as transportation.  There are really no hassles though and both sides are very cooperative.

Paneech: What could you see yourself doing if you were not working for the Scrappers?

LaFollette: Honestly?  I worked in a bank for a few years, and really couldn’t stand that nine-to-five routine. I like the unpredictability and wildness of the unexpected as compared to a standard routine type of job.  I am not sure what I would be doing, but hopefully it would be something like this.  What I do involves a lot of work, but we see our results right away and I am not sure of what I would be doing if not this.

Columbus Clippers (AAA) RHP Jeanmar Gomez is starting for the Scrappers on Wednesday, July 13 at Eastwood Field.  Gomez also has four appearances with the Cleveland Indians this season.

Gomez has 14 starts in Columbus this season, going 9-3 with an ERA of 2.40. In his four appearances with Cleveland in 2011, he is 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA. Gomez and the Scrappers take on the Connecticut Tigers, Class A Affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, July 13 at 7:05 p.m.

The Mahoning Valley Scrappers have enjoyed winning the majority of the one-run games they have played so far this year.  Heading into Friday, the Scrappers were 4-3 in those close games.  The Scrappers were also 9-4 at home on the season.  The statistic that wasn’t positive was the extra-innings record, which sat at 1-2.  The Scrappers changed that when Jerrud Sabourin, who had been flashing glove all season, came through with the bat to give the Scrappers a dramatic 4-3 win in 10 innings.

Sabourin reflected on his heroics.  “It felt great to be able to help the team.  My average is not as high as some of the guys, so the other team figures they can throw fastballs by me, so it kind of worked to my advantage and I am very happy with the results.”

Scrapper Skipper, David Wallace, discussed Sabourin’s progress after the game.  “Jerrud has been very good for us the last couple of weeks.  he got off to a little bit of a rough start, but has really been stinging the ball lately.  He has not had as much success as he deserves because he has been hitting a lot of balls hard, but right at people.”

Williamsport put the first run on the scoreboard in their first at-bat. Kyrell Hudson walked on four pitches.  Patrick Murray then singled in Hudson with two outs to give the Crosscutters the 1-0 lead.

Mahoning Valley tallied a run to tie the game in the third.  Cody Elliott reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on a fielders choice, and marched home on a Mike Nesseth wild pitch.  Jake Lowery (above) made it a 2-1 Scrappers lead by starting the fourth inning with his fourth home run of the season.

The Crosscutters added a run in the fifth inning to tie the game.  Kelly Dugan‘s sacrifice fly plated Bob Stumpo.  In the very next inning, Williamsport took a 3-2 lead when Asche singled home Harold Martinez from second base.

The Scrapper bats went numb, and hitless, after Lowery’s homer in the fourth inning until Todd Hankins started the home half of the seventh inning with a single.  Jerrud Sabourin (below) ripped a double into the right-cnter gap to tie the game.  Sabourin was mowed down trying to score from third.  Bryson Myles walked and stole second. When Stumpo, the Crosscutters catcher, fired the ball to second and it leaked out, Sabourin broke for home but Williamsport executed a good throw and tag to force the out.

Scrappers relief pitcher Nate Striz entered the tie game in the eighth. Striz kept the Crosscutters scoreless the rest of the game to earn the win.  The home team threatened in the bottom of the eighth.  Alex Lavisky drew a leadoff walk.  KC Serna was inserted to pinch run for Lavisky and trotted to second on a wild pitch.   Serna got to third on a Jordan Smith single, but was erased on a grounder hit to third by John Barr.  Smith and Barr moved up a base on Bryan Morgado‘s wild pitch.  Hankins was walked to load the bases.  Sabourin and Elliott then struck out to let Morgado off of the hook.

Credit the Scrappers for hustling.  If the 2011 version of this team has a dynamic, so far, it has to be hustle.  They run every ground ball out, they are on second base while a fly out they just hit is being caught, and, most obvious, they can steal some bases.  David Wallace said that his guys would play with respect for the game, and in 2011, he has not been a liar yet.

In the bottom of the tenth, Smith and Barr received one out walks. Sabourin, who tied the game, then struck out with an out and the bases loaded in the eighth,  was the hero with a single driving home Smith in the tenth.  Sabourin, who was 2-4 on the night, displayed some great clutch hitting during a very entertaining and competitive baseball game.

“It was a satisfying win for us tonight”, remarked Wallace.  “It is fun to win those types of games. I like the wins that we can kind of coast through because it is not as stressful.  Winning like this tonight with the good crowd into it, guys coming up in big situations and coming through, all make it a very satisfying win for us.”

The Scrappers head to the road for three more with these Crosscutters in Williamsport starting tomorrow before having a day off on Tuesday and returning to Eastwood Field on Wednesday for a three-game home stand against Connecticut.

On Superhero night at Eastwood Field, Jordan Smith did his best Spiderman by flashing some good webbing at third.  Bryson Myles and KC Serna played the role of Flash with their blinding speed on the basepaths, and Williamsport represented The Legion of Doom. In fictitious circles, good [Mahoning Valley] triumphed over evil [Williamsport] as the Scrappers posted a 8-2 win at home in front of 4,629 fans.

The Scrappers struck early for three first-inning runs off of Williamsport starter, Adam Morgan.  Bryson Myles led off the game with a single and advanced to second on a groundout.  Jake Lowery reached on an error setting the stage for red-hot Jordan Smith.  Smith (below) responded by doubling to get Myles home giving the Scrappers a 1-0 lead.  John Barr then singled to knock in Lowery and Smith to increase the first-inning lead to 3-0.

The Crosscutters responded in the third scoring two of their own when Kelly Dugan and Taylor Black raced home on Maikel Franco‘s double.  Scrapper starter, Joseph Colon, was able to buckle down and escape further harm in the inning.  All-in-all, Colon pitched a good game going five innings, giving up five hits, and exiting with a two-run lead.

Mahoning Valley got a run back in the bottom of the fifth.  Cody Elliott singled to left, moved to second on a wild pitch and kept running when the catcher’s throw sailed into center field.  KC Serna singled to left to drive home Elliott and put the Scrappers ahead 4-2.

The Scrappers bullpen did well to preserve the lead.  Enosil Tejeda, who started the sixth inning for the Scrappers threw three scoreless innings and looked very sharp.  Will Krasne pitched the ninth in a non-save situation for the Scrappers.

In the eighth, Todd Hankins hit a broken bat slow-roller down the third base line.  Serna came in from third and Smith was able to score from second when the Crosscutters third baseman, Harold Martinez, threw the ball past the first baseman.  With runners on second and third, Williamsport reliever Austin Wright uncorked a wild pitch.  Barr scored easily from third, but more impressively, Hankins sprinted all the way around from second and scored to make it 8-2 in favor of the Scrappers.

” We played a good, clean, defensive game tonight.  We have been kicking it around a little bit lately,” remarked David Wallace after the win.  “We grabbed the momentum and kept it tonight.  Our guys showed a lot of heart tonight by going hard and running everything out. It is exactly what we want to see and we are happy they are a part of this organization, it is exactly what we want to see.”