(June 16, 2017 – Bridgewater, NJ): Down to their final strike, the York Revolution tied Friday’s game in dramatic fashion, but ultimately lost to the Somerset Patriots 3-2 in 11 innings in front of 7,219 fans at TD Bank Ballpark in the series opener.
Trailing 2-1 and facing all-time Atlantic League saves leader Jon Hunton with two outs in the ninth, Jared Mitchell took a walk to keep the game alive. Then down in the count 0-2, Triunfel torched a double to left-center, sending Mitchell on a sprint all the way from first base, beating the relay home to tie the game at 2-2.
Somerset capitalized in the bottom of the 11th, however, as Tyler Bortnick blooped a leadoff single to shallow right on an apparent miscommunication and Aharon Eggleston sacrificed him to second. Luke Westphal then struck out Adam Donachie for the second out, but Scott Kelly took a 1-2 pitch to right field for the game-winning single, bringing Bortnick home ahead of the throw from Mitchell in right.
York opened the scoring in the top of the third on a line drive homer to left by Luis Cruz, his second in 12 games played with the Revs.
Somerset countered in the bottom of the third, loading the bases for Mark Minicozzi who lofted a sac fly to center, tying the game at 1-1. Revs starter Logan Williamson avoided further damage, popping up Greg Golson to leave the bases loaded.
The Patriots threatened in the fifth as Minicozzi doubled with two outs and Yovan Gonzalez singled to center, but Travis Witherspoon threw out Minicozzi attempting to score to keep it knotted.
Williamson turned in a strong effort, holding the Patriots to one run over 5.2 innings, matching his longest start of the year.
Somerset starter Jerome Williams equaled Williamson by allowing just one run, lasting 6.1 innings.
The Patriots went ahead in the bottom of the seventh as Kelly was hit by a pitch on the first offering from Hawtin Buchanan. Kelly then stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch, before coming home on a groundout by Carlos Guzman to give Somerset a 2-1 lead at the time.
The Revs bullpen was excellent from there, retiring 11 consecutive Patriots before the fateful bloop single that set up the winning run in the 11th.
Notes: The Revs fall to 2-2 in extra-inning games while Somerset improves to 6-2. The Patriots have now won seven games in walk-off fashion with two of those against York. The Revs fall to 4-3 against the Patriots overall. At 11 innings, the game matched the longest contest of the season innings-wise for both squads. York righty Steve Janas (1-3, 5.19) faces Somerset right-hander Mitch Atkins (4-3, 4.19) on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 1350, woyk1350.com, and on the WOYK app beginning at 6:45 p.m. with Darrell Henry on the call.
