’CATS RALLY FOR WIN
Phipps’ 10th-inning single lifts Valleycats over Washington
Tri-city’s Juan Silverio and his teammates defeat Washington in the 10th inning on Denis Phipps’ walk-off single.
Tri-city Valleycats manager Pete Incaviglia, who goes back several years with right fielder Denis Phipps, said Valleycats fans haven’t seen the best of Phipps.
Maybe it started on Friday night.
Phipps singled in Nelson Molina with none out in the 10th inning to give Tri-city a 5-4 walk-off win over Washington before 1,913 fans at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
“He hasn’t gotten hot yet,” said Incaviglia, who also managed Phipps in independent ball in Laredo and Sugar Land, Texas. “You guys haven’t seen him like I’ve seen him the last six years. Some people are going to pay when he gets going. Hopefully, this gets him going in the right direction and gets him hot because he can carry a ballclub when he gets hot.”
Under international tiebreaker rules, Tri-city began the inning with Molina on second. Phipps, batting .231 coming into the game, lined a 2-1 splitter from Zach Strecker into left field and Molina scored easily.
“He threw me like two bad pitches and I said, OK, finally I’m going to get something to hit because he’s not going to walk me to pitch to Willy (Garcia),” Phipps said. “He threw me a split around the zone, so I was able to hit it.”
The Valleycats won for the
fourth time in five games to improve to 8-17, one day after they lost to New Jersey on Thursday on a homer in the ninth inning.
“We got a little meeting, so Pete was talking like, hey, it was tough yesterday, but it’s a new day, so we can control right now, the present,” Phipps said.
In the top of the 10th, Washington had runners at the corners, but closer Trey Cochran- Gill struck out former Valleycat Hector Roa to keep the game tied.
The Valleycats trailed 4-2 until Juan Silverio and Garcia blasted solo homers to left to tie the score at 4 in the eighth inning. Garcia’s blast came with two outs.
With a chance to take the lead, Tri-city center fielder Mitch Piatnik struck out swinging with the bases loaded to end the eighth.
The Wild Things threatened in the top of the ninth, putting runners on first and second with two outs. Cochran- Gill entered and struck out Washington cleanup hitter Andrew Son.
Tri-city Valleycats pitcher Josh Hiatt was home run-proof through his first five starts this season. He didn’t allow a long ball in his first 312⁄3 innings as a Valleycat.
The Wild Things put an end to that streak by going yard three times off Hiatt, beginning with Roa, who played for Tri-city as an Astros prospect in 2015.
Roa, Washington’s right fielder, broke a scoreless tie in the third by hitting a homer to left that might have been wind-aided. Roa has shown power at Bruno Stadium before. He hit four homers there with the Valleycats six years ago, including a two-homer game against Mahoning Valley on Aug. 1, 2015.
After Roa’s shot barely cleared the fence, Gabe Howell left no doubt later in the third by crushing a homer deep to left that landed high on the berm for a 2-0 lead.
The Valleycats tied the score with single runs in the third and fourth inning. Keaton Weisz drove in Oscar Campos with an RBI single to center to bring Tri-city within 2-1, and then Garcia knotted it with a single to left to bring home Molina.
Washington retook the lead at 4-2 in the fifth inning, when Nick Ward ripped a Hiatt offering into the visiting bullpen in right.
The Valleycats failed to score after loading the bases with one out in the sixth. Washington reliever Ben Vecini came in to strike out Daniel Angulo and got Carson Maxwell to line out to left to end the threat.