Force Not with Spinners in Third Straight Loss, 8-6
July 11, 2015 - New York-Penn League (NYPL)
Lowell Spinners News Release
LOWELL, MASS. - The Lowell Spinners jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and again took a 6-4 lead but the Mahoning Valley Scrappers would not go away, taking the lead in the ninth and holding on to hand Lowell their third straight defeat, 8-6. The game was played in front of a capacity crowd of 5,553 at LeLacheur Park Saturday evening.
Lowell (13-9) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after loading the bases with no outs. Austin Rei's first professional hit brought home the game's first run and after Tucker Tubbs delivered a sacrifice fly, Mitch Gunsolus drove in a pair with a single to right to give the Spinners a 4-0 lead.
Mahoning Valley (7-14) started chipping away in the top of the second inning, loading the bases with one down. A force out brought home one run and an infield single a second to cut the lead to 4-2.
The Scrappers pulled even in the third after Li-Jen Chu led off the inning with a double. The Scrappers attempted to sacrifice Chu to third, but Rei threw it away, scoring Chu and sending David Armendariz, to third. A groundout brought him home to even the score at four.
The Spinners re-took the lead in the third inning as Rei atoned for the error with a leadoff triple. After Josh Ockimey walked a second sacrifice fly from Tubbs plated Rei. A Chad De La Guerra single advanced Ockimey into scoring position and a Jordon Austin single brought him home to push the score to, 6-4.
After the Scrappers scored a run in the fourth, Mahoning Valley tied it up again in the fifth against Daniel Gonzalez on a two-out single.
After the game remained tied into the ninth the Scrappers took the lead in the ninth on a two-out double to the gap by Nathan Winfrey to take an 8-6 lead and the Spinners went in order in the bottom half for their third straight loss.
Making his New York-Penn League debut, Javier Rodriguez allowed five runs, four earned, on five hits and four walks. He did not strike out a batter. Gonzalez followed, allowing one run on five hits and a walk over four innings, striking out three. Taylor Nunez (1-1, 1.98) took the loss, allowing two runs on two hits in the ninth.
Rei played his first full game as a professional and collected his first hit, first extra-base hit and RBI, finishing 2-for-5. Rivera and Gunsolus also had two-hit nights, as the Spinners had their first double-digit hit game in over 10 games.
The Spinners look to snap their skid Sunday afternoon when Luis Ramos (1-1, 5.31) gets the ball for a 3:05 first pitch. It's "Bark in the Park" Day with dogs welcome at the park and the final day of Pedigree's "Pet Friendly Weekend."
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