(June 14, 2018) - Melky Mesa crushed a go-ahead three-run home run in the top of the eighth and Travis Witherspoon nailed a two-run shot in the ninth as the York Revolution stormed back late to win the finale of their four-game series against the Somerset Patriots, 7-3 on Thursday evening in front of 4,006 fans at TD Bank Ballpark. The Revs (21-20) have won two of their last three, and earn a series split before continuing their road trip to Southern Maryland on Friday night.
Down 5-3 after seven, the Revs set the table against reliever Mike Antonini as Alexi Casilla took a leadoff walk and Welington Dotel reached on an error by second baseman Mike Fransoso. That brought up Mesa, who clobbered a go-ahead three-run blast to left-center, giving the Revs their first lead of the night in dramatic fashion at 5-3.
Witherspoon (3-for-4) hammered his second homer in as many nights, lining a low missile over the wall in left-center to supply the finishing touches, a two-run shot in the ninth to make it 7-3.
The game did not get off to a promising start as Patriots righty David Kubiak struck out his first four batters faced, and Somerset used four singles in the bottom of the first to take an early 2-0 lead.
York starter Mitch Atkins came up huge in the bottom of the third as the Patriots loaded the bases with no outs on a walk and a pair of singles. Atkins retired Alex Castellanos on a pop up, struck out Aaron Dudley looking, and set down Justin Trapp on a line out to right, escaping with no damage done to keep the score 2-0.
Casilla was hit by a pitch to begin the fourth and promptly scored as Dotel drove an RBI double to the gap in right-center, cutting the deficit to 2-1. Kubiak denied the Revs of the tying run, however, as Mesa lined a smash that was caught at second, and Jose Cuevas was retired on a great diving play by Castellanos on a ground ball at third base to end the inning, stranding Dotel at third.
Julio Borbon connected on a solo homer to right-center, just out of the reach of right fielder Jared Mitchell's leaping attempt at the wall in the bottom of the fourth, extending Somerset's lead to 3-1.
Atkins (2-3) allowed nothing further to earn his second straight win, retiring nine of his final ten batters faced and facing the minimum over his final 3.1 innings. He worked a season-high seven innings, allowing three runs on eight hits including just one run on four hits after the first inning. The righty walked only one and struck out a season-high eight, his fourth consecutive start of at least six punch outs.
The Revs made it a one-run game in the sixth, chasing Kubiak who had the bases empty with two outs after recording his tenth strike out of the night. Singles by Dotel and Mesa forced the righty from the game, and Michael Burgess greeted lefty reliever and former York teammate Chase Huchingson with a two-out RBI single to left-center, bringing the Revs within 3-2.
After taking the lead in the eighth, the Revs went to reliever Luke Westphal who struck out Danny Dorn following a leadoff walk to Alfredo Rodriguez. Junior Rincon entered to retire Castellanos on a ground ball to third and Dudley on a line out to right, ending the eighth.
Grant Sides handled a scoreless ninth inning to close it out.
Notes: Witherspoon is 5-for-6 with two homers the last two games, and 8-for-14 over his last five games with a pair of three-hit performances. The Revs improve to 2-14 when trailing after seven innings, posting their second such victory in nine days and their second in the last six road games. Somerset suffers its first loss when leading after seven innings, falling to 14-1. The Revs have hit five home runs in the last three games, and broke out to score six unanswered runs from the sixth-inning on after being held to three runs or fewer in each of the previous six contests. York's four consecutive strike outs to begin the game came within one of matching a franchise-record. York lefty Pat McCoy (0-1, 2.70) faces Southern Maryland right-hander Daryl Thompson (2-2, 2.25) in Friday's opener at 6:35 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 1350, woyk1350.com, The New WOYK app, and WOYK 1350 on YouTube beginning at 6:15 p.m. with Darrell Henry and Michael Marcantonini on the call.
