AUBURN - “It's never over 'til it's over,” Auburn Doubledays manager Dennis Holmberg said.
Glenn Gaston / Special to The Citizen
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Auburn center fielder Adam Calderone tracks down a long fly ball during Monday's contest against the Williamsport Crosscutters at Falcon Park.
Auburn center fielder Adam Calderone tracks down a long fly ball during Monday's contest against the Williamsport Crosscutters at Falcon Park.
Against Williamsport on Monday, he wasn't kidding. After the Crosscutters scored two runs in the top of the ninth at Falcon Park, the “Cardiac Kids” were a single away from having to attempt a second-straight ninth inning rally. Luckily it didn't have to get that far when Dennis Bigley earned his third save of the year by striking out Greg Picart to give the Doubledays a 5-4 win.
“I thought Bigley was certainly the right guy to come in the ninth inning,” Holmberg said. “I give him a lot of credit for getting us out of a very tough inning.”
With a three-run lead heading into the ninth, Bigley came out on the mound for Auburn. With one out, Daniel Rios (single) and Kent Sakamoto (double) smacked consecutive hits to create the sticky situation for the Doubledays. Alex Peralta then grounded out to Jonathan Diaz at shortstop to score one run, and Miles Durham singled to center field to score another. Bigley then walked Alex Presley to give the Crosscutters a runner on first and third. On two balls and two strikes, Bigley struck out Picart looking to save the Doubledays.
In his first start of the season, Chase Lirette earned his second win. He lasted five innings, fanned three batters, allowed four hits and one earned run.
“I don't know if he had as good of stuff that he did the last time he pitched, but Chase did well,” Holmberg said. “He competed, he threw strikes and pitched ahead of the counts. Overall, he looked good today.”
Lirette (2-1) made his first start in the rotation on the same day fellow starter Hector Delgadillo was promoted to Class-A Lansing.
“The coaches make the decision and I'm happy either way,” Lirette said. “I just want to help the team win. If it's as a starter, that's fine with me and if it's out of the bullpen, that's fine, too. I just wanted to go out there and give our team a shot to win.”
Just as they did on Sunday night in the first game of the series against the Crosscutters, the Doubledays scored early in the first. But unlike the previous game, it didn't take a hit. Michael Felix (0-4) walked lead-off batter Scott Campbell on a full count and then struck out the next two batters, but not before a pass ball on catcher Kris Watts allowed Campbell to take second. Campbell's speed allowed him to steal third just a pitch later and with clean-up hitter Luke Hopkins up to bat, a wild pitch scored Campbell.
After the Crosscutters tied the game in the second on a Peralta RBI double, neither team scored again until the seventh when Frances Poni hit a sacrifice fly deep to right field to score Rios.
The Doubledays came right back when they roped four of their 10 total hits in the bottom of the inning, including three consecutive singles to left field. The second one by Matt Liuzza scored Ben Zeskind. With two outs and the bases full, Jonathan Diaz had a rare strikeout to end the inning.
“At that part of the game, we seemed to go back to where we were in the first few weeks of the season when we had a lot of base hits and a lot of base runners but we couldn't get the one extra base hit,” Holmberg said. “But we were lucky when we got that one extra hit to take the win.”
That lucky extra hit came in the eighth for the Doubledays. With two on and two outs, Shawn Scobee had a routine hit to third baseman Jared Keel, who promptly made the second team error on an awkward throw to first that Rios couldn't field in time. Scobee was safe on first and Brian Jeroloman scored what turned out to be the winning run for the Doubledays.
With the win, the Doubledays are 1.5 games out of first in the Pinckney Division while the Crosscutters remain in last place. Regardless of division standings, Auburn will not take Williamsport lightly going into today's final game in the series, just as they haven't in the first two.
“Anybody can beat anybody at any time,” Holmberg said. “It doesn't matter if you're in first place, last place or in the middle of the pack. The level of competition is always somewhat equal, you never want to look down and you never want to look up. You just always want to play the very best that you can.”
“I thought Bigley was certainly the right guy to come in the ninth inning,” Holmberg said. “I give him a lot of credit for getting us out of a very tough inning.”
With a three-run lead heading into the ninth, Bigley came out on the mound for Auburn. With one out, Daniel Rios (single) and Kent Sakamoto (double) smacked consecutive hits to create the sticky situation for the Doubledays. Alex Peralta then grounded out to Jonathan Diaz at shortstop to score one run, and Miles Durham singled to center field to score another. Bigley then walked Alex Presley to give the Crosscutters a runner on first and third. On two balls and two strikes, Bigley struck out Picart looking to save the Doubledays.
In his first start of the season, Chase Lirette earned his second win. He lasted five innings, fanned three batters, allowed four hits and one earned run.
“I don't know if he had as good of stuff that he did the last time he pitched, but Chase did well,” Holmberg said. “He competed, he threw strikes and pitched ahead of the counts. Overall, he looked good today.”
Lirette (2-1) made his first start in the rotation on the same day fellow starter Hector Delgadillo was promoted to Class-A Lansing.
“The coaches make the decision and I'm happy either way,” Lirette said. “I just want to help the team win. If it's as a starter, that's fine with me and if it's out of the bullpen, that's fine, too. I just wanted to go out there and give our team a shot to win.”
Just as they did on Sunday night in the first game of the series against the Crosscutters, the Doubledays scored early in the first. But unlike the previous game, it didn't take a hit. Michael Felix (0-4) walked lead-off batter Scott Campbell on a full count and then struck out the next two batters, but not before a pass ball on catcher Kris Watts allowed Campbell to take second. Campbell's speed allowed him to steal third just a pitch later and with clean-up hitter Luke Hopkins up to bat, a wild pitch scored Campbell.
After the Crosscutters tied the game in the second on a Peralta RBI double, neither team scored again until the seventh when Frances Poni hit a sacrifice fly deep to right field to score Rios.
The Doubledays came right back when they roped four of their 10 total hits in the bottom of the inning, including three consecutive singles to left field. The second one by Matt Liuzza scored Ben Zeskind. With two outs and the bases full, Jonathan Diaz had a rare strikeout to end the inning.
“At that part of the game, we seemed to go back to where we were in the first few weeks of the season when we had a lot of base hits and a lot of base runners but we couldn't get the one extra base hit,” Holmberg said. “But we were lucky when we got that one extra hit to take the win.”
That lucky extra hit came in the eighth for the Doubledays. With two on and two outs, Shawn Scobee had a routine hit to third baseman Jared Keel, who promptly made the second team error on an awkward throw to first that Rios couldn't field in time. Scobee was safe on first and Brian Jeroloman scored what turned out to be the winning run for the Doubledays.
With the win, the Doubledays are 1.5 games out of first in the Pinckney Division while the Crosscutters remain in last place. Regardless of division standings, Auburn will not take Williamsport lightly going into today's final game in the series, just as they haven't in the first two.
“Anybody can beat anybody at any time,” Holmberg said. “It doesn't matter if you're in first place, last place or in the middle of the pack. The level of competition is always somewhat equal, you never want to look down and you never want to look up. You just always want to play the very best that you can.”
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