05 Jun Miners Win Thriller Over New York
Rally From Five Run Deficit To Push Win Streak To Six Games
June 5, Augusta, NJ – Trailing by five runs heading at the 7th inning stretch, the Sussex County Miners (6-1) rallied in thrilling fashion to defeat the New York Boulders (4-5) by a final score of 7-6 in front of 1,682 fans at Skylands Stadium on Saturday night. With the win, the Miners now have won six consecutive games.
The Boulders built their lead with a run in the first on a throwing error, then three consecutive doubles off of Miners starter Billy Layne, Jr. that pushed the lead to 3-1, and then a two run 6th inning expanded the visitors edge to 5-1 through six. Layne fough his way through those six innings, allowing four earned runs, walking two and striking out four.
On the other end, Ben Strahm would keep the Miners in check, allowing just one run on six hits through five innings. James Mulry would come on for an injured Orsen Josephina to throw a scoreless 6th, and then the Boulders would tack on another run to make it 6-1. They nearly scored more in the frame, but Maddux Conger would induce a fly out to escape any further damage.
The Miners bats got going in the bottom of the 7th. A walk and a hit batsmen put two runners on for Trey Hair, who launched an opposite field home run to bring the Miners back to within 6-4. The three run shot was Hair’s 4th HR of the season.
More drama then came in the 8th inning. With one out, Aaron Knapp and Chuck Taylor walked. Hard throwing former Miner Tanner Kiest came on, but Audy Ciriaco got a broken bat infield single to load the bases. After Hair went down on strikes, Martin Figueroa once again came through for the Miners. But instead of a championship winning home run, Figueroa simply lined a 100 MPH Kiest fastball into left field, scoring Taylor and Ciriaco to give the Miners the lead. The Miners nearly added more, but Kiest worked out of the ensuing bases loaded jam to send the game to the 9th with the Miners up 7-6.
Jalen Miller, Sr. would get in a bind in the 9th, however. The Boulders would load the bases with one out in the 9th, and Jack Sundberg’s fly ball into right field would elude a sprinting and sliding Taylor. However, an equally charging Trey Hair, from his second base position, grabbed the ball on a hop, and threw an off-balance strike to home plate, where Daniel Herrera stretched to get a force out at the plate and kept the lead at 7-6. Gavin Sonnier would then get a full count, two out flyout to finish the game in exciting fashion for Sussex County, and set the fans into a fireworks frenzy.
The two teams will wrap up their three-game series tomorrow afternoon at 2:05 pm. The Miners are scheduled to send Mike Castellani to the mound, where he’ll be opposed by the Boulders’ Danny Wirchansky. Tomorrow’s game can be seen on frontierleaguetv.com and also heard on mixlr,com/scminers