Valley Cats walk-off puts them in 1st place

TROY, N.Y. » Cesar Salazar delivered a two-run base hit in the ninth inning on Saturday night to give the ValleyCats their first walk-off win of the season, 5-4 over Aberdeen at Joe Bruno Stadium.

The ValleyCats’ season-high-tying third straight win vaults them over the Vermont Lake Monsters for first place in the Stedler Division.

The night started with a brilliant pitching performance from the ValleyCats’ starter Luis Garcia, who collected a career-high 10 strikeouts, including seven in a row at one point.

Garcia was lifted after five innings, where he only allwed two baserunners. By that point, the ValleyCats had taken a 2-0 lead entering the sixth inning.

Alex Holderbach and Gilberto Celestino each used RBI singles in the fourth inning to get the ValleyCats on the scoreboard.

Holderbach ended the night with a career-high three hits for Tri-City.

Trey Dawson added a one-run single in the sixth inning for the ValleyCats to give them a 3-0 lead.

RJ Freure came out of the bull-

pen for Tri-City to make his Minor League debut in relief of Garcia.

Freure went two innings, giving up just a solo home run to Cody Roberts in the seventh inning to make the score 3-1 Tri-City entering the eighth.

Aberdeen then scored three eighth inning runs off of ‘Cats lefty Carlos Hiraldo to steal the lead entering the ninth inning.

Gilberto Celestino and Jeremy Pena each led off the inning with singles, before Alex McKenna was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Salazar then lined his first hit of the night into right field.

Celestino scored the tying run, with Pena coming home behind him on an error by Aberdeen right fielder Doran Turchin that resulted in the game-winning run.

Entering the day, TriCity had been 0-6 in games that they trailed entering the ninth inning.

Riley Cabral pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn the first win of his Minor League career.