Silverio HR rallies Tri-City in ninth

V’Cats escape final jam to win wild one after go-ahead two-run blast

Juan Silverio slammed a tworun home run in the ninth to give the Tri-City ValleyCats a wild 14-13 win over the host Florence Y’alls on Saturday in a Frontier League slugfest in Florence, Ky.

With the ‘Cats trailing 13-12, Willy Garcia led off the ninth with a double and Silverio followed with the go-ahead tworun homer to put Tri-City in front.

Of course on a night like this Florence didn’t go away easily in the bottom half of the inning with closer Trey Cochran- Gill allowing a leadoff single to Ray Zuberer to start the frame. But after a fly out, Zuberer was caught stealing to put the ValleyCats just an out away from victory. Again, the Y’alls tried to build a rally with a Harrison DiNicola walk and an Andre Rios single to put runners on first and second and Friday night’s star — Axel Johnson — at the plate for Florence. The hero role, however, was not to be for Johnson on Saturday as he lifted a fly ball to left fielder Denis Phipps to end the game.

After Tri-City jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage, Florence grabbed a commanding 9-4 lead with six runs in the second and three more in the third. Phipps cracked a three-run home run in the fifth to cut into the advantage and the ‘Cats added five more to take a 12-10 lead, keyed by Phipps’s two-run double which snapped the 10-10 deadlock.

Florence fought back with a run in the bottom of the sixth before going back in front in the seventh with a pair of runs highlighted by Johnson’s RBI double to give the Y’alls a 13-12 lead.

Tri-City will rest up the next two days before playing their home opener on Tuesday against Lake Erie, with firstpitch set for 6:30 p.m.