BERMUDEZ BLAST PUTS COOKIE TABLES ON TOP
NILES OH- Following a 2-3 road trip for Mahoning Valley, they found themselves back home in the
friendly atmosphere of Eastwood Field against the best team in the second half, The West Virginia Black Bears. As The Scrappers turned into The Cookie Tables for one night only, they were looking to give The Mahoning Valley faithful a treat for attending.
The Black Bears were anything but sweet, scoring off the jump in the top of the first inning, courtesy of Patrick Lee taking the first pitch of the game off his back, stealing second and coming home on a pair of sacrifice fly-outs. Cookie Table starting pitcher Elijah Pleasants managed to get out of the inning with no further damage done.
On the other side, starting pitcher Nate Madej was rolling for West Virginia, as he sent Mahoning Valley’s lineup down in order in the bottom of the first. The game remained a 1-0 game through the first three innings before TJ Reeves sent a screamer over the left field wall in the bottom of the fourth, knotting the game up at one run a piece.
The first half of the game had a pitchers duel as the script until the sixth inning. With the game tied 1-1, with a runner at third and two out, Cam Ridley shot a single to center field and regained the lead for The Black Bears 2-1. Pleasants would get the final out in the inning, notching the quality start under his belt for The Cookie Tables, but subsequently being on the hook for the loss.
Mahoning Valley had other plans for the bottom of the sixth inning with two on and two out, that man, TJ Reeves came through again by lining a single to center to tie the game up at two. The tie would be short lived with the next batter David Bermudez sending a boom shot out to left on the first pitch of his at bat. Promptly turning the game on its head, flipping the script and giving Mahoning Valley the 5-2 lead. Omar Veloz would tack on an additional run with an opposite field single, widening the lead 6-2.
Wasting little time getting some offense back, The Black Bears scored a run in the top of the seventh inning off a Ben McClain RBI single, cutting the deficit to just three runs. But it was The Cookie Table bullpen that locked it down the rest of the way with Danny Kirwin shutting down the eighth and Peter Allegro recording the save with a 1-2-3 ninth inning, giving Mahoning Valley the 6-3 win! Thus now bringing the season series win-loss record against West Virginia to 6-8.
Both teams are set to resume action on Wednesday, August 16th for the second game of the series. Catch all Scrappers home games on YSN (ysnlive.com/scrappers), the streaming home for The Mahoning Valley Scrappers!
