BY JONATHAN SKUZA
ROCHESTER, N.Y.— The Rochester Red Wings dropped their home-opener 5-4 to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs as the offense struggled to push across runs outside of a four-run fourth inning Saturday afternoon.
”We didn’t make plays that we should’ve probably made that led to the big inning,” Red Wings manager Matt LeCroy said. “Offensively, it was kind of a mixed bag, but I thought we swung the bats okay and we some balls really hard that are normally homers, but they got stuck up in the air.”
Before the fourth inning, the Red Wing to reach base was Carter Kieboom who drew a two out walk in the second inning. Rochester was set down in order in the first and third inning in early inning pitching duel.
Rochester’s big fourth inning saw the Wings collect three hits and draw two walks to push across four innings after Lehigh Valley took a 1-0 lead in the top half of the inning. The Red Wings tied up the ball game when Drew Millas drew a bases loaded walk. Jack Dunn then cleared the bases with a triple to give Rochester a three run lead.
”I was just ready for the fastball and I got a hanging slider and was able to keep my barrel on it,” Dunn said.
After the fourth inning, the Red Wings collected only three hits in the final five innings and went down in order three times.
”A lot of times today we had some early outs,” LeCroy said. “I think we need to do what we did in the fourth inning and take pitches. We went up there hunting our zone and that’s kind of how it got away from us today.”
Along with the hot and cold offense, the Red Wings had a couple defense mishaps that led to crucial runs for Lehigh Valley. The IronPig’s first run came with some help from a throwing error that put runners on second and third with no outs in the fourth. Jordan Luplow hit a sacrifice fly to push across the contest’s first run. Two wild pitches in the next inning put runners in scoring position and scored a run for Lehigh Valley while a second throwing error put a runner on base.
Lehigh Valley took advantage of the defensive mishaps as they tied the game in the fifth inning after the Red Wings big inning. Kody Clemens drove in two with a base hit while the other run came off the wild pitch.
Scott Kingery drove the game deciding run in the sixth with an RBI triple that scored Matt Kroon who collected a two-out base hit and stole second.
Mitchell Parker took the mound for Rochester and pitched a strong outing despite the extended layoff due to the weather. Parker pitched four innings where he surrendered only one run and fanned five Lehigh Valley batters.
”I wasn’t trying to think too much more than just going out there and getting a job done and wasn’t trying to think of anything other than that,” Parker stated about his performance.
The Rochester Red Wings (2-2) will conclude their series with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs (2-2) As they will play a doubleheader on Sunday starting to 1:05 p.m. Left-hander DJ Herz (NR) will be on the mound for Rochester in game one and right hander Joan Adon (0-1,7.71) will pitch game two. Righty Mick Abel (NR) will pitch for Lehigh Valley game one and lefty Kolby Allard (0-0, 3.60) gets game two.
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