Molina, Roman deliver a victory
Stolen base, clutch single cap comeback from four-run deficit
Even with a tender, taped left ankle that caused him to miss four days, Tri-city Valleycats shortstop Nelson Molina was able to help the team win its fourth straight game with his legs on Wednesday night.
He stole second base on his own and then scored on Luis Roman’s single off the shortstop’s glove in the bottom of the ninth for a come-frombehind 5-4 victory over the New York Boulders in front of 2,066 fans at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
“I’m grinding on it, you know,” Molina said. “It’s been rough. … I want to help my team. I try to do the best rehab that I could to be (back) sooner in the field, helping my teammates. Thank God I’m feeling good and I keep getting better.”
Molina got hurt when third baseman Juan Silverio stepped on his ankle on a play in the field in New Jersey.
After Molina stole second base with one out on a headfirst slide, Roman delivered the single up the middle that glanced off the glove of diving Boulders shortstop Phil Caulfield. Molina said he planned to take home whether the ball hit off Caulfield or not.
“Right now we’re feeling good, confident, the vibes are going well,” Roman said. “We’re not getting down on ourselves. We know that after the sixth inning, seventh inning, we’ve still got some game going on. We’re fighting.”
The Valleycats rallied from a 4-0 deficit in the seventh inning to improve to 39-33. They extended their lead to 4 ½ games over the Boulders in the Frontier League’s Atlantic Division.
“Lot of character on that team, and these guys just don’t quit,” Tri-city manager Pete Incaviglia said. “They play hard until the end of the game. They kept battling.”
After managing just one baserunner through the first six innings against New York starting pitcher Orsen Josephina, the Valleycats scored four runs in the seventh to tie the game at 4.
Zach Biermann started the rally with a leadoff single to right and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Red-hot first baseman Brad Zunica got the Valleycats on the board. He smacked an oppositefield double to left-center to score Biermann and make it 4-1.
Zunica wasn’t on second for long. Silverio blooped a single to right-center to bring home Zunica and halve the Boulders’ lead at 4-2.
Molina chased Josephina with a bloop single to right to put runners at the corners.
Boulders reliever Dylan Smith got Tri-city’s Oscar Campos to pop out to second for the second out, but then Smith handed the Valleycats a pair of runs to tie it.
Smith walked Roman and Carson Lien back-to-back to force in a run. Smith followed with a wild pitch that sent Molina home to knot the score at 4.
The Valleycats threatened to take the lead in the eighth when Biermann led off with a single to right and Willy Garcia followed with a single to center.
Tri-city still had runners at the corners with two outs with Molina at the plate. He worked a 2-0 count against Boulders reliever
Zach Schneider. But then Silverio got caught between first and second and Biermann was thrown out breaking for home during the rundown. The scoring of the play was 2-6-3-5-1.
Valleycats closer Trey CochranGill worked out of his own jam in the top of the ninth. He put two men on with none out. It was partly his own doing because he threw high to second on a bunt attempt by New York’s Milton Smith with both runners safe on the play.
But Cochran-gill got Ray Hernandez to ground into a 1-4-3 double play and induced Gian Martellini to pop to first.