AUBURN - All good things must come to an end.
Glenn Gaston / Special to The Citizen
Auburn Doubledays' starter Luis Perez delivers a pitch to home during Sunday's game against Aberdeen at Falcon Park in Auburn.
Auburn Doubledays' starter Luis Perez delivers a pitch to home during Sunday's game against Aberdeen at Falcon Park in Auburn.
The Auburn Doubledays found that out when Aberdeen collected 11 hits and a bunch of early runs to end their seven game win streak by a 5-3 score on Sunday at Falcon Park.
Just one day after exploding for 14 hits - including five for extra bases - and 10 runs against the IronBirds, Auburn managed just six hits in the game, which was delayed for nearly 1.5 hours because of a thunderstorm in the beginning of the third.
Jedidiah Stephen provided the first score on an RBI single in the second to give Aberdeen a 1-0 lead heading into the delay. The third baseman, who upped his batting average to .421 after hitting for the cycle on Saturday, was one of three IronBirds to get two hits in the game.
When the game finally resumed, Joe Wice replaced Luis Perez on the mound and Aberdeen hit through the lineup and collected four more runs on five hits and the Doubledays only error of the game.
With two on and one out when the game picked back up, Joe Nowicki slipped in an RBI single to right field to score Brian Bent. Matt Angle then stole third with Ryan Adams at the plate and an overthrown ball by Chris Haupt behind the plate allowed him to score the second run. Tyler Henson and Robbie Widlansky then hit an RBI double and single, respectively to give the Doubledays a bigger hill to climb.
“The question that alludes a lot of us - what happened tonight versus last night? I don't have an absolute, concrete answer,” Auburn manager Dennis Holmberg said. “I just think that it was too little, too late tonight. We got pretty good pitching before the four-run inning after the delay. Wice came out and was much better after that inning. Perhaps we just didn't come out of the bullpen as sharp as we would have liked. It took him 10 minutes to get through that inning. We also took a lot of fastballs I don't know if we weren't aggressive enough or too aggressive, but we were just missing the fastballs today.”
Andrew Shindling, Joe Esposito, Kyle Touchatt and Scott Mueller combined to strike out nine Doubledays batters. Esposito got his second win of the season by throwing six of them and allowing two hits in 4 1-3 innings of work.
Mueller earned his first save when he and the IronBirds defense retired Doubledays batters in order in the ninth. Perez got his first loss of the season in just 2 1-3 innings on the mound by allowing four hits but striking out three. Javier Nieves closed out the game, allowing just two hits against 11 batters in three innings.
“You hate to lose your starter Perez (after the rain delay) because he pitches very well,” Holmberg said. “Not that Wice doesn't do a good job and not that Nieves doesn't do a good job. They're both really good, but you hate to lose your starter. Our starters have done a great job this year, they have been going really deep into the games.”
Auburn first baseman Paul Franko provided the team with its first score, and its only big hit, on an RBI triple to right field to score Victor Santana in the seventh.
Leance Soto scored Franko on an infield ground out for the second out, but CJ Ebarb flew out to center field to end the inning.
Speedy leadoff hitter Darin Mastroianni started the eighth with an infield single and soon stole second with Luis Sanchez at the plate.
Two batters and two outs later, Manny Rodriguez reached base on a badly overthrown ball by IronBirds' second baseman Brian Bent and Mastroianni scored his tenth run of the season. Another fly-out to center field ended that inning as well.
It's unusual for the Doubledays (13-7) to manage only one extra base hit in a game. It's just the second time this month for the team that has gathered 29 doubles, five triples and nine home runs total.
“I wouldn't say that we're a big run-and-gun type of a ballclub, but the extra base hits and home runs are always nice to get” Holmberg said. “We have to just get back to not hitting the balls up, getting ourselves out of bad-hitting counts and not missing fastballs. It was just one of those nights and after seven wins, all good things have to come to an end. We just have to start all over again tomorrow.”
D-days Today
Record: 13-7
Standings: First place, 1-game lead
Streak: 1 loss
Next: vs. Aberdeen, today, 7 p.m.
Just one day after exploding for 14 hits - including five for extra bases - and 10 runs against the IronBirds, Auburn managed just six hits in the game, which was delayed for nearly 1.5 hours because of a thunderstorm in the beginning of the third.
Jedidiah Stephen provided the first score on an RBI single in the second to give Aberdeen a 1-0 lead heading into the delay. The third baseman, who upped his batting average to .421 after hitting for the cycle on Saturday, was one of three IronBirds to get two hits in the game.
When the game finally resumed, Joe Wice replaced Luis Perez on the mound and Aberdeen hit through the lineup and collected four more runs on five hits and the Doubledays only error of the game.
With two on and one out when the game picked back up, Joe Nowicki slipped in an RBI single to right field to score Brian Bent. Matt Angle then stole third with Ryan Adams at the plate and an overthrown ball by Chris Haupt behind the plate allowed him to score the second run. Tyler Henson and Robbie Widlansky then hit an RBI double and single, respectively to give the Doubledays a bigger hill to climb.
“The question that alludes a lot of us - what happened tonight versus last night? I don't have an absolute, concrete answer,” Auburn manager Dennis Holmberg said. “I just think that it was too little, too late tonight. We got pretty good pitching before the four-run inning after the delay. Wice came out and was much better after that inning. Perhaps we just didn't come out of the bullpen as sharp as we would have liked. It took him 10 minutes to get through that inning. We also took a lot of fastballs I don't know if we weren't aggressive enough or too aggressive, but we were just missing the fastballs today.”
Andrew Shindling, Joe Esposito, Kyle Touchatt and Scott Mueller combined to strike out nine Doubledays batters. Esposito got his second win of the season by throwing six of them and allowing two hits in 4 1-3 innings of work.
Mueller earned his first save when he and the IronBirds defense retired Doubledays batters in order in the ninth. Perez got his first loss of the season in just 2 1-3 innings on the mound by allowing four hits but striking out three. Javier Nieves closed out the game, allowing just two hits against 11 batters in three innings.
“You hate to lose your starter Perez (after the rain delay) because he pitches very well,” Holmberg said. “Not that Wice doesn't do a good job and not that Nieves doesn't do a good job. They're both really good, but you hate to lose your starter. Our starters have done a great job this year, they have been going really deep into the games.”
Auburn first baseman Paul Franko provided the team with its first score, and its only big hit, on an RBI triple to right field to score Victor Santana in the seventh.
Leance Soto scored Franko on an infield ground out for the second out, but CJ Ebarb flew out to center field to end the inning.
Speedy leadoff hitter Darin Mastroianni started the eighth with an infield single and soon stole second with Luis Sanchez at the plate.
Two batters and two outs later, Manny Rodriguez reached base on a badly overthrown ball by IronBirds' second baseman Brian Bent and Mastroianni scored his tenth run of the season. Another fly-out to center field ended that inning as well.
It's unusual for the Doubledays (13-7) to manage only one extra base hit in a game. It's just the second time this month for the team that has gathered 29 doubles, five triples and nine home runs total.
“I wouldn't say that we're a big run-and-gun type of a ballclub, but the extra base hits and home runs are always nice to get” Holmberg said. “We have to just get back to not hitting the balls up, getting ourselves out of bad-hitting counts and not missing fastballs. It was just one of those nights and after seven wins, all good things have to come to an end. We just have to start all over again tomorrow.”
D-days Today
Record: 13-7
Standings: First place, 1-game lead
Streak: 1 loss
Next: vs. Aberdeen, today, 7 p.m.
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