Valleycats stunned late
Aigles rally from six down in eighth inning to earn win
The Tri-city Valleycats had a six-run lead on Sunday night and were six outs away from a sweep of the Trois-rivieres Aigles.
Then their bullpen stopped throwing strikes.
The Valleycats imploded in a 19-14, 10inning loss to Trois-rivieres on Sunday before 1,907 fans at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
“We give them a gameplan and they just don’t follow it,” Valleycats manager Pete Incaviglia said. “It is what it is ... There’s a gameplan for each hitter, so we did the opposite of what we did the last two days.”
Tri-city (12-8) settled for winning two of three from Trois-rivieres heading into a road series beginning Tuesday at Washington (Pa.), where the Valleycats lost two of three last month.
“Terrible,” Incaviglia said. “Giving people extra outs. We’re running into outs on basepaths. I mean, we’re not throwing strikes. We’re not following the plan given to them on how to pitch people. I don’t have any answers. We get them coached up and they know exactly what they’re supposed to do and they just didn’t get it done today.”
The Valleycats rallied from a 5-1 deficit to seize a 12-6 lead, aided by third baseman Juan Silverio’s grand slam to center during an eight-run fourth inning.
But in the top of the eighth, Tri-city reliever Brac Warren walked four consecutive batters and forced in a pair of runs to slice the lead to 12-8.
“Have no idea,” Incaviglia said. “Don’t know if we didn’t get invited to the party last night. Our pitching staff was God-awful today. Absolutely terrible.”
Incaviglia had to bring normally reliable closer Trey Cochran- Gill into the game with the bases loaded and nobody out in the eighth. He walked in a run and then allowed a two-run double to left center by Valibhav
Desai to bring Trois-rivieres within 12-11.
“Just come in that situation and try to stop the bleeding, get a ground ball, maybe, a double play,” Cochran- Gill said. “It’s part of it. As bullpen guys, we don’t always get the luxury of having a clean inning. Sometimes you have to come into a sticky situation.”
Tri-city’s Willy Garcia provided an insurance run when he smacked a solo homer to left-center for a 13-11 lead in the bottom of the eighth.
But Cochran- Gill allowed a leadoff double by Connor Panas in the ninth. Then he left a fastball up to Trois-rivieres’ Candice Ejoh, who slammed a two-run homer to tie the game at 13-13.
“One of those days,” Cochrangill said. “Those two pitches, I kind of left up in the zone. It feels like out of the outing, those might have been the only two mistakes, which is kind of tough when you look back at it.”
The game went into extra innings and Trois-rivieres scored six runs in the 10th off reliever Troy Cruz, who hit back-to-back batters to force in a run and then allowed a bases-loaded triple to Ejoh, who finished with six RBI.
“That was huge for our team, obviously, to come back like that and show some resiliency and to come back on a very good closer like Cochran- Gill,” said Troisrivieres manager Matthew Rusch, a Mohonasen graduate. “It’s an impressive victory for us. We wanted to go home on a good note and we got it done today.”
Ejoh, who played at Canisius, said he didn’t think the game was over even when the Aigles trailed 12-6.
“Honestly, I’m always confident with this team,” Ejoh said. “We’ve came back before this year and we have a really good lineup, 1 through 9. I never had a doubt in my mind and ... we had four walks in a row and I think that kind of changed the momentum of the game.”
The teams combined for 19 walks and 408 pitches, including 201 by the Valleycats.