NYPL Vermont Lake Monsters

ValleyCats victorious over Expos

July 2, 2004 - New York-Penn League (NYPL)
Vermont Lake Monsters News Release


TROY, NY --- Mario Garza was 2-for-4 with a double, home run and four RBI to lead the Tri-City ValleyCats to a 7-3 victory over the Vermont Expos on Friday night at Bruno Stadium and a split of the four-game, two-city New York-Penn League series.

Garza gave Tri-City a 2-0 lead in the first inning with a two-run double off Expos starter Jim Henderson. Vermont tied the game with a pair of runs in the third inning on a Marvin Lowrance RBI single and a bases loaded walk to Luke Montz.

But the ValleyCats quickly got the two-run lead back with two runs in their half of the third. After a leadoff single, walk and one-out infield single, Francisco Caraballo bounced into a RBI forceout and Chris Clark followed with an RBI single to give Tri-City a 4-2 lead.

The Expos got their first two batters on base in the fifth on a walk and Lowrance single, but then Tri-City brought in relievers Rodrigo Escobar and Paul Estrada to shutdown the Vermont offense. The Expos did get an unearned run in the inning when Escobar threw a pickoff attempt in the dirt at first base, allowing Doug Vroman to score from third, but Escobar (19 strikeouts in 14 innings this season) allowed just one hit and struckout five in three innings of work.

Tri-City got some insurance in the bottom of the fifth when they got a leadoff single and two-run homer from Garza off of Expos reliever Francisco Sandoval, who settled down to allow just one hit over the next three innings before being charged with another run in the eighth for a 7-3 ValleyCat lead.

Estrada (28 strikeouts in 15.2 innings this season) allowed two hits and struckout four over the final two innings for his first save of the year. Ben Zobrist was 2-for-3 with three runs for Tri-City on Friday after knocking in five runs on Thursday night, while Clark and Lou Santangelo both had two hits for the ValleyCats (11-4).

Lowrance, Brad Ditter and Duron Legrande all had two hits for Vermont (6-9), which ends the four-game series with the ValleyCats with a split of two games at Centennial and two games at Tri-City. Henderson (0-1) allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits over four innings to suffer his first loss of the season.

The Expos continue the seven-game roadtrip with the first of two games at Oneonta on Saturday night. Vermont and Oneonta will then play at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon before the Expos head out to Ohio for a three-game series at Mahoning Valley.

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New York-Penn League Stories from July 2, 2004


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