Albany Times Union

Mets sign ’Cats catcher

Campos was batting .305 in his second stint with the Tri-city franchise

- By Mark Singelais

The last time Valleycats catcher Oscar Campos visited Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, he sank to his hands and knees at home plate in a mixture of elation and sadness.

The Valleycats had just beaten the Hudson Valley Renegades in 12 innings to complete a two-game sweep for the 2018 New York-penn League title. After the final out, Campos thought of his mother, who died a year earlier.

“That year was for my mother,” Campos, who is Venezuelan, recalled earlier this season. “I feel so, how can I say, happy and sad and everything — a combinatio­n.”

In one of those coincidenc­es that seems to be baseball’s specialty, Campos returned to Dutchess Stadium three years later on Thursday night. This time, it was to revive his affiliated baseball career.

The New York Mets purchased Campos’ contract on Thursday and assigned him to the high-class A Brooklyn Cyclones, who happen to be playing the Renegades at Dutchess Stadium. Campos drove from Troy to Wappingers Falls to join the Cyclones for the series.

Without Campos, the Valleycats fell 5-2 to the New York Boulders before 2,865 fans at Bruno Stadium. The Boulders (36-38) snapped Tricity’s four-game winning streak and moved back within 3 ½ games of the first-place Valleycats (39-34) in the Frontier League’s Atlantic Division.

“It’s great when good things happen to good people,” Valleycats manager Pete Incaviglia said of Campos. “Terrific. Couldn’t be happier for him. Nobody deserves it more than Oscar. He’s a great player, man. He does a lot of things to help you win games.”

There was a Mets scout at the Valleycats game on Tuesday. Campos is the 11th Valleycats player to be signed by an MLB team this year.

Campos, who also played first base and the outfield, was hitting .305 with three homers and 27 RBIS over 63 games in his second stint with Tri-city, which is now in the independen­t Frontier League. His first stretch with the team was when it was a Houston Astros affiliate.

He reached as high as Triple-a with the Astros before becoming a free agent last year.

“To me, just keep working and have a little luck and that’s it,” Campos said in June about getting back to an MLB organizati­on.

A major league club typically has to pay $5,000 to buy a Frontier League player’s contract.

The departure of Campos leaves the Valleycats (39-33) with a significan­t void at catcher in the short term with Daniel Angulo the only active catcher. Second baseman Luis Roman can also catch. Tri-city traded Tuesday for catcher Jhon Nunez, who is with the team but hasn’t been activated yet.

On Thursday, the Boulders scored three runs in the first inning. The first two scored on wild pitches by Valleycats starter Bruce Bell following a passed ball by Angulo, playing

in his first game in two weeks.

But Incaviglia didn’t place any of the blame on Angulo.

“That was Bell,” Incaviglia said. “Bell didn’t have it in the first inning. It had nothing to do with Danny. He was just pulling his fastball and didn’t have his command in the first inning.”

The Valleycats got a run back in the bottom of the first on Brad Zunica’s RBI infield single to third. Juan Silverio brought Tri-city within 3-2 with a solo homer in the fourth.

But the Boulders tacked on two insurance runs in the ninth off Valleycats reliever Patrick Murphy.

Now the Valleycats, who are 10-21 on the road this year, leave for a six-game road trip to Equipe Quebec and Washington (Pa.) without Campos, one of their top players.

“He’s a good piece for us,” said outfielder Denis Phipps, who was out with a hamstring injury Thursday. “He’s been real, real good the whole year. We’re going to miss him, no doubt about it, but I mean, it’s another opportunit­y for another guy to step up.”

Note: Valleycats shortstop Nelson Molina left Thursday’s game with an oblique injury.

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