Wild Pitch Dooms Indians

by Scott Montesano
Rome Indians Marketing Intern

(Little Falls, NY) A two-out wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth allowed Mike Rozema to score and give the Mohawk Valley Red Legs a 3-2 win over the Rome Indians, Thursday night at Veteran’s Memorial Park.

The loss drops the Indians to 1.5 games behind Mohawk Valley for second place in the NYCBL’s Eastern Division.

With the score tied 2-2 and one out in the ninth, Jason Sullivan reached on an error by shortstop Matt Devins.

Rozema followed with a chopper over the head of first basemen Kevin Ryan to put runners at the corners.

The Indians then appeared as though they would avert danger. With the infield playing on the grass, Dennis Diaz hit a groundball to Devins, who threw the ball home to get Sullivan trying to score from third.

However, the out only delayed the pain.

With two outs and runners at first and second the Red Legs successfully executed a double steal on the next pitch to move both runners into scoring position.

Indians relief pitcher Soren Johnson, who had come in during the eighth inning, then threw a ball that skipped away from catcher Damian Blakeley, allowing Rozema to score the winning run.

Johnson took the loss to drop to 1-4 on the season. In one inning pitched, Johnson allowed an unearned run on two hits.

Ammer Cabrera earned a complete game victory for Mohawk Valley, allowing two earned runs on five hits and striking out 13.

The only time that Cabrera ran into trouble was the sixth inning when the Indians scored their only runs.

Kyle Barrett and Jeff Justice each hit two-out RBI singles to break a scoreless tie and give Rome a 2-0 lead.

However, the lead would prove to be short-lived as Mohawk Valley came storming back in their half of the sixth.

With two runners on and one out, Matt Pali hit a bases clearing double to tie the game 2-2.

Mohawk Valley had numerous opportunities to take the lead prior to the ninth, but the Indians bullpen would work out of the jams.

Gary Tarantino replaced starter Pat Dougherty in the sixth with two-outs and the bases loaded. Tarantino struck out Matt Cuttruff to end the inning.

Then in the seventh, with runners at second and third and one out, reliever Nick DeMaro came in and struck Diaz and got Pali to fly out to deep rightfield to retire the side.

One person who did not witness the loss was Indians manager Bill Kurich, who was ejected in the fifth by the home plate umpire.

Rome assistant coach Pete Kehoe finished the game as the Indians head coach.

Despite the loss, the Indians still lead the season series 4-1. The teams will conclude their home-home-home series Friday night at Larry DeLutis Field starting at 7pm.

Box Scores

WP: Ammer Cabrera (N/A)
LP: Soren Johnson (1-4)

2B: Rome – Damian Blakeley
                  - MV – Matt Pali, Tim Allen

3B: Rome – Jeff Justice

Time: 2:51
Att: 203

Rome (15-13) Mohawk Valley (18-13)