AUBURN - After three straight losses at Tri-City over the weekend, the Auburn Doubledays hoped Monday night's return home and change of scenery might slow their skid. That was before they ran into Hudson Valley starter Wade Davis.
Jason Rearick / The Citizen
The Doubledays' Cory Patton unsuccessfully tries to break up Eric Durante's beginning of a double play in the bottom of the ninth. The Doubledays lost 4-1 to the Hudson Valley Renegades.
The Doubledays' Cory Patton unsuccessfully tries to break up Eric Durante's beginning of a double play in the bottom of the ninth. The Doubledays lost 4-1 to the Hudson Valley Renegades.
Davis pitched a strong seven innings for the Renegades, striking out 10 while allowing one run off three hits to guide Hudson Valley to a 4-1 victory over the Doubledays.
"Their guy threw a heck of a ball game Auburn manager Dennis Holmberg said. "You have to give him a lot of credit."
Davis mixed a fastball - clocked as high as 96 - with a sharp-breaking curveball that baffled many of the Doubledays' hitters.
"He threw his curve over the plate and that's what you have to do as a pitcher," Auburn first baseman Nick Thomas said. "His fastball wasn't bad either. I don't know, we just didn't hit the ball."
Doubledays starter Orlando Trias got off to a shaky start in the first. After hitting the first batter of the game, Trias allowed two hits to the next three batters, one of which was an RBI single. Hudson Valley's Alex Jamieson hit a sacrifice fly to drive in another run and Rhyne Hughes ripped an RBI double to give the Renegade's an early 3-0 lead.
Despite the bad start, Trias settled down after the first to throw six more innings of scoreless baseball.
Other than a Thomas home run in the second inning, the Doubledays couldn't get a baserunner past second and grounded into two double plays and one crucial triple play.
With Manny Sena on second and Sean Shoffit on first, Jermy Acey came to the plate in the third inning with no outs. Holmberg put on the hit-and-run and Acey hit a line-drive right at shortstop Neil Walton. He caught the ball, stepped on second to double-up Sena and threw the ball to first, forcing out Shoffit and ending the inning. The triple play appeared to take the air right out of the Auburn offense.
"If it did it shouldn't have," Thomas said of the triple play affecting the hitters. "It was 3-1 for a while. We had runners on almost every inning. We should have come back."
Trailing 4-1, the Doubledays got the first runner in both the eighth and ninth innings on base but grounded into double plays in both chances, ending any possibility of a comeback.
With the loss, the Doubledays' record in opening games of series drops to 4-8, a statistic Holmberg plans to address.
"It's an interesting statistic," Holmberg said. "We don't go out there trying to win every game. We just try to win two out of every three games. If we don't win the first game [of a series] then you have to win the next two. It puts us in a tough situation. I guess we need to try and win more first games."
The loss is the fourth in a row and drops the Doubledays to 16-17 and back under .500 for the first time since July 13.
"After losing three in a row, you hope to come home and win one," Thomas said. "Hopefully we can come back tomorrow and win one and take the series two out of three."
On the bright side for the Doubledays, they committed no errors in the game for only the fifth time this season. With the weekend series dominated by defensive miscues - the Doubledays committed nine errors in their previous two games - Auburn was very strong in the field. Thomas had a diving catch to force a double play in the sixth, while third baseman Anthony Garibaldi also made a diving play in the ninth to prevent any further damage.
Thomas' homer, a Sena single and an Acey single were the only hits in the game for Auburn.
"Their guy threw a heck of a ball game Auburn manager Dennis Holmberg said. "You have to give him a lot of credit."
Davis mixed a fastball - clocked as high as 96 - with a sharp-breaking curveball that baffled many of the Doubledays' hitters.
"He threw his curve over the plate and that's what you have to do as a pitcher," Auburn first baseman Nick Thomas said. "His fastball wasn't bad either. I don't know, we just didn't hit the ball."
Doubledays starter Orlando Trias got off to a shaky start in the first. After hitting the first batter of the game, Trias allowed two hits to the next three batters, one of which was an RBI single. Hudson Valley's Alex Jamieson hit a sacrifice fly to drive in another run and Rhyne Hughes ripped an RBI double to give the Renegade's an early 3-0 lead.
Despite the bad start, Trias settled down after the first to throw six more innings of scoreless baseball.
Other than a Thomas home run in the second inning, the Doubledays couldn't get a baserunner past second and grounded into two double plays and one crucial triple play.
With Manny Sena on second and Sean Shoffit on first, Jermy Acey came to the plate in the third inning with no outs. Holmberg put on the hit-and-run and Acey hit a line-drive right at shortstop Neil Walton. He caught the ball, stepped on second to double-up Sena and threw the ball to first, forcing out Shoffit and ending the inning. The triple play appeared to take the air right out of the Auburn offense.
"If it did it shouldn't have," Thomas said of the triple play affecting the hitters. "It was 3-1 for a while. We had runners on almost every inning. We should have come back."
Trailing 4-1, the Doubledays got the first runner in both the eighth and ninth innings on base but grounded into double plays in both chances, ending any possibility of a comeback.
With the loss, the Doubledays' record in opening games of series drops to 4-8, a statistic Holmberg plans to address.
"It's an interesting statistic," Holmberg said. "We don't go out there trying to win every game. We just try to win two out of every three games. If we don't win the first game [of a series] then you have to win the next two. It puts us in a tough situation. I guess we need to try and win more first games."
The loss is the fourth in a row and drops the Doubledays to 16-17 and back under .500 for the first time since July 13.
"After losing three in a row, you hope to come home and win one," Thomas said. "Hopefully we can come back tomorrow and win one and take the series two out of three."
On the bright side for the Doubledays, they committed no errors in the game for only the fifth time this season. With the weekend series dominated by defensive miscues - the Doubledays committed nine errors in their previous two games - Auburn was very strong in the field. Thomas had a diving catch to force a double play in the sixth, while third baseman Anthony Garibaldi also made a diving play in the ninth to prevent any further damage.
Thomas' homer, a Sena single and an Acey single were the only hits in the game for Auburn.
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