Errors Lead To Staten Island Yankees Loss Against Auburn

On Sunday afternoon, the story for the Staten Island Yankees (24-26) was their late-inning mistakes in their 5-4 loss to the Auburn Doubledays (22-27). After Joe Harvey and Conor Mullee had an excellent performance on Saturday, Sam Agnew-Weiland and Andury Acevedo combined to walk four batters in the seventh to lose the lead in the seventh inning. Acevedo would lose the lead for good in the eighth inning by giving up the final two runs on the game via a throwing error and a sacrifice fly.

Jordan Montgomery (0-0, 1.50) got the start for the Baby Bombers and went two innings, giving up one run on two hits and allowing one walk. The only run against Montgomery came in the second inning when Auburn led off the inning with a single and a walk. Later in the inning, with runners on second and third, Cody Gunther hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Diomedes Eusebio, making it 1-0 Auburn.

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Staten Island would tie the score in the bottom of the second inning on a leadoff homerun by Austin Aune to right center field off of Auburn starter Henderson Martinez. For Aune, the 423-foot blast was his second of the season and it came in a tough nine-pitch at-bat off of Auburn starter Anderson Martinez (0-1, 3.86).

"“His physical ability, we can all see it, and it is wonderful when you can see it play out in game situations,” replied manager Mario Garza."

The Baby Bombers would take the outright lead in the fourth inning. With Christopher Breen on second via a leadoff double, Aune would hit a ball that went under the first baseman’s glove into right field. The play resulted in Breen scoring and a 2-1 lead for Staten Island.

After Montgomery’s two innings, Jordan Foley (0-0, 3.38) would enter the game and throw four innings of one-run baseball, giving up one run, striking out five batters and walking one. Auburn would get to Foley in the top of the fifth inning on a RBI fielder’s choice by Garrett Gordon that tied the game at two.

With the game tied in the seventh inning, the bullpen began to have its struggles. Sam Agnew-Weiland would walk three of the four batters he faced in 1/3 of an inning. Andury Acevedo would try to keep the bases loaded, but ended up walking D.K. Carey on eight pitches to give the Doubledays a 3-2 lead.

Staten Island answered that run with two of their own in the bottom of the inning. The offense would start the inning with back-to-back walks to Vicente Conde and Nathan Mikolas. Three batters later, the team would have bases loaded and one out with Luis Torrens at the plate against new reliever, Chase McDowell (took over for Luis Torres). Torrens took the first pitch and hit it to the wall in right center field, scoring Conde and Mikolas on his double to re-take the lead for the Baby Bombers, 4-3. It was a big hit for the 18-year-old catcher considering he had only six hits in his last 34 at-bats before the double. According to manager, “he is one of those guys who loves the big moments.”

With the lead, Acevedo would struggle in the eighth by giving up a leadoff double to Bryan Langois. Then, on a bunt attempt by Osvaldo Abreu, Acevedo threw it past the first baseman, Bubba Jones, allowing Auburn to tie the game. With Abreu on third after a wild pitch, Gunter would hit his second sacrifice fly to right field that would ultimately get Auburn the win. Chase McDowell (1-1, 3.38) picked up the win for Auburn by shutting out the Yankees in the final 2.2 innings, giving up only two hits. Acevedo (0-1, 5.40) would take the loss for Staten Island.

The two teams will conclude their series Monday morning at 11:05 AM ET. Staten Island will send Ty Hensley (0-0, 6.75) to the mound for his second start of the season against Auburn’s Travis Ott (1-2, 2.80).

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YGY Staten Island Yankees Recap: Yankees’ Late-Inning Miscues Lead To 5-4 Loss Vs. Auburn

By Ricky Keeler | Aug 4, 2014