STATEN ISLAND, NY- The Staten Island Yankees were primed to make it four straight to open the 2006 season. But Maiko Loyola had other ideas- spoiling Fireworks Night with a one out two-run home run off reliever Justin Keadle (0-1) in the eighth inning which proved to be the difference in Hudson Valley's 8-7 win over the Baby Bombers before 4,614 at Richmond County Ball Park Friday night.
"Everytime we need to be concentrate when we come to home plate to hit," the Renegades right fielder said. "I get a good pitch but hit the ball hard....I got a good swing."
Loyola's big hit was made possible by teammate John Matulia who led off the inning with a bunt single. Though James Mayer failed to bunt him over with the team trailing by a run, it didn't matter when Loyola drove a Keadle offering just over the right field wall to give Hudson Valley the lead.
In a seesaw game which lasted nearly three and a half hours, closer Neal Frontz nailed it down for his first save with two solid innings.
"Just getting in the game which was important and just keeping our team ahead and getting ground balls. Just trying to stay ahead of the hitters," Frontz said after allowing only a two out ninth inning single to Tim Roth before getting Jose Gil to fly out to left fielder David Kennedy to end the game.
"He [Frontz] pitched real well. Coming into a tough situation and pretty much went out and did what he's been practicing all Spring. Just throw strikes. Found the zone early and pick up the save," Kennedy said.
It was some splendid defense from the left fielder a half inning earlier which gave his ball club a chance to comeback and improve to 3-1 on the season, tying Staten Island for the McNamara division lead in the New York-Penn League.
With the Baby Bombers ahead 7-6, the first two batters reached second and third before Kennedy bailed out reliever Roberto Gil (1-1) with back-to-back gems. With nobody out, his sliding catch of a Roth sinking line drive prevented another run. The left fielder made another key catch on a high popup which looked like trouble. Both plays helped Gil, who fanned Wilkins DeLaRossa to get out unscathed.
"It was a tough situation. Concentration. I tried to just play good D and came up with the play," Kennedy pointed out.
"We played real good today. Lot of good quality at bats....We just jept chipping away and that's what good teams do."
For the Baby Bombers, their first loss of the season was one skipper Gaylen Pitts lamented getting away.
"We had our opportunities. I thought that was the key to the game. We had second and third, no one out a couple of times and didn't add on. It comes back to haunt you," he said. "You don't do that. If you don't pick up those cheap RBI's it will hurt you in the end. Exactly what happened....The whole game was wasted opportunities."
"It was a tough game," said left fielder James Cooper after his 3-for-5 two RBI night wasn't enough.
"We just came up short tonight. I thought that we played well. We had a couple of opportunities we didn't pick them up but that happens. So we got to come out tomorrow ready to play."
It started out promising for Cooper who followed up DH Kyle Larsen's first inning two-run single with a runscoring double which gave starter George Kontos an early 3-0 lead.
But after giving a run back in the second, it fell apart for Staten Island in the third when Hudson Valley pushed across four runs, knocking out Kontos and banging around reliever Toni Lara to go in front 5-3. However, the Baby Bombers came right back to tie it on the strength of a Cooper RBI single and Roth ground rule double.
Staten Island pushed a run across in the fourth and fifth to pull ahead 7-5 before the Renegades' late rally.
Notes: Kontos was charged with three earned runs in just 2.2 IP while Lara gave up two runs in the frame before tossing two scoreless. ... The game was marred by five errors which didn't help matters on an overcast night which included some late rain in the eighth. ... With three more RBI's, Larsen increased his league-leading total to 11. ... Hudson Valley shortstop Jairo DeLaRosa was perfect on the night going 4-for-4 with a walk. ... Catcher Matt Spring allowed to passed balls including one in the fifth which led to Staten Island's seventh run. ... Fireworks were on display for 15 minutes right after the game. ... Staten Island travels to Hudson Valley for Game 2 tonight before concluding the three-game set at St. George Sunday afternoon.
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