The Hudson Valley Renegades, Class A Short Season affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, fell to the Aberdeen IronBirds by the score of 9-4 on Saturday night. The IronBirds, the Baltimore Orioles’ affiliate, took advantage of a struggling Renegades bullpen, scoring eight runs in the game’s last three innings.
The start of the game was pushed back nearly an hour due to rain, but that didn’t stop the home fans from coming out to support the Renegades. It was fireworks night, a popular promotion at The Dutch, but they weren’t the only things in the sky that fans were treated to. When the rain cleared up, a perfect rainbow stretched across Dutchess Stadium and signified that a game was ready to be played.
The Renegades got on the scoreboard first with RBIs from Jean Ramirez and Matt Eureste. They tacked on another in the fourth when Angel Perez singled, advanced on a wild pitch and came around to score on a throwing error. Three runs looked like it might have been enough for starter Nick Padilla who went five strong. He gave up one run on four hits, didn’t walk a batter, and struck out six.
Padilla turned it over to Hunter Schryver who pitched an easy one-two-three inning in the sixth. However, after setting down the first two batters he faced in the seventh, the IronBirds started to put a rally together when Luke Ringhofer was hit by a pitch. The IronBirds capitalized with three straight doubles to take the lead.
They added another in the eighth, and four more in the ninth off a three-run triple by Seamus Curran. Jon Keller, who entered in relief of starter Nick Gruener, was more than happy with the run support. He pitched three shutout innings, yielding just one hit and striking out five en route to the victory.
The Renegades tallied nine hits but were unable to put it together with runners in scoring position. Matt Dacey, Angel Perez, and Isaac Benard all had multi-hit games, while Jean Ramirez collected two RBI. For the IronBirds, Zach Jarrett had a big game with three hits and three runs scored. Catcher Jean Carrillo had a great night on both sides of the field, hitting a two-run double and throwing out three runners from behind the plate.
The game puts both teams’ records at 6-5 on the young season. They will face off for game two of three at 5:05 p.m. on Sunday night at Dutchess Stadium.