In what seems to be a continuing trend, the Redlegs lost another close
game on Sunday. This time it came at the hands of the expansion Miami
Valley Fury by a final score of 9-8. This would mark the 10th
game this season the Redlegs have been in that was decided by 3 runs or
less, and of those 10 games the Redlegs have lost 8.
The Redlegs newest addition took the mound in the form of Dylan
Wittman and he kept the Fury offense down, allowing a meager 4 runs
over the first 4 innings of the game. The Redlegs took an early lead in
the top of the 1st inning. After the first two batters were retired, Jacob
Robinson reached on an error and stole 2nd before Brandon Howard
blasted a 2 run homerun. The Fury tied things up in the bottom half,
only to lose the lead to the Redlegs in the top of the 2nd when they put
together another 2 out rally. After the first two batters of the inning were
retired, Brandon Longacre singled and then Jared Bradley reached 1st due
to catcher’s interference. Matt Redman then worked a walk to load the
bases and Kevin Campbell hit a ball too hot to handle, which brought a
run in by forcing a Fury error.
The lead was short lived again as the Fury scored another run in the
bottom of the 2nd to tie things up at 3-3. But in the top of the 3rd
Brandon Howard launched his 2nd homerun of the game (he was only
getting started) to give the Redlegs a 4-3 advantage. But again, the Fury
would not be denied and they pushed another run across in the bottom
half of the 3rd to tie the game back up. After a quiet 4th by both clubs,
the Redlegs took a 6-4 lead in the top of the 5th. Kevin Campbell led the
inning off with a single followed by a double by Jacob Robinson to put
runners on 2nd and 3rd. With a base open, Fury skipper Larry Howard
opted to intentionally walk Howard to load the bases. Steve Benthal
cashed in on the opportunity with a run scoring single and Jack Millard
drove one in on a sac fly to end the scoring in the top half.
But the Fury would not be denied, they put together a 3 run inning in the
bottom of the 5th to take their first lead of the game at 7-6. In what the
Redlegs would hope would be the final lead change, they took the lead
again in the top of the 6th, scoring 2 more runs to push the score to 8-7.
Jared Bradley and Matt Redman started the inning with singles before
Campbell laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move the runners over.
Robinson then laced a ball to right, which eluded the Fury right fielder
and led to a Redleg run. Howard then got his 4th RBI of the game when
he drove Redman in with a sacrifice fly.
Brandon Longacre, who took over on the mound in the 5th, retired the
Fury 1-2-3 in the 6th and then the Redlegs followed suit going 1-2-3 in
the top of the 7th. But the Fury put together a rally that would lead to
their win in the bottom of the 7th, getting 3 singles and working 2 walks
resulting in 2 runs and the win.
Boxscore
| M Redman | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| K Campbell | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| J Robinson | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| B Howard | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
| T Patterson | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| S Benthal | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| J Millard | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| B Dempsey | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| B Longacre | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| J Bradley | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
2B: Robinson
HR: Howard 2
| D Wittman | 4 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| B Longacre (L) | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| B Howard | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |