Troy, NY—The Empire State Greys (6-12) defeated the Tri-City ValleyCats (9-10) 9-3 behind an efficient Andres Rodriguez start and team wide power surge.
After two scoreless innings by both sides, it appeared offense would be hard to come by. Luis Atiles broke the scoreless tie in the third hitting a solo shot off of ValleyCats starter Garrison Bryant (L, 1-2), his first of the year.
The Atiles home run jolted the rest of the Greys offense, and they exploded the next three innings. In the 4th Jordan Scott led off the inning with a solo shot to right field and was shortly followed by a Josh Sears 2-run shot to left. Another two runs were scored in the 5th, Luis Atiles scored on a wild pitch, and Josue Herrera delivered with an RBI single. Luis Atiles delivered for the second time this evening with an RBI single in the 6th, giving the Greys a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the inning.
Carson McCusker broke the scoreless tie in the bottom half of the inning. Swinging on a 3-0 pitch, McCusker hit a two-run shot to left center field. McCusker’s home run was the only blemish on a stellar Andres Rodriguez (W, 1-1) outing.
Rodriguez was brilliant and most importantly efficient. The righty threw seven innings on just 77 pitches. Even though Rodriguez was mainly pitching to contact, he still had swing and miss stuff and amassed three strikeouts in the process.
Empire State’s offense did not let up after the McCusker home run. In the top of the 7th, Josue Herrera drove in his second RBI of the night with an RBI single. After a long Josh Sears single to deep right center, Cristopher Cespedes doubled down the right field line driving in Herrera and increased the Greys lead to 9-2.
In the 8th, McCusker provided the remainder of the ValleyCats offense with an RBI double off of Nick Trabacchi making the score 9-3. That score would hold up the rest of the night. Tanner Propst took the mound in the 9th and set the ‘Cats down 1-2-3.
The Grey’s will take on the ValleyCats in game two tomorrow evening at 7:05 and look to take the series.
