Muckdogs win in ninth to increase lead

Contributed Photo –  J.D. Orr came through again for the Batavia Muckdogs, delivering a 2-RBI single to give Batavia the lead in the ninth on Wednesday.

TROY – The Tri City ValleyCats kept J.D. Orr hitless on Tuesday night, a rain-shortened 1-0 Batavia Muckdogs win. It snapped a 10-game hitting streak for Orr.

Wednesday night, Orr made the ValleyCats pay. With one out in the ninth inning and Batavia trailing, 5-4, Orr laced a 2-RBI single to left and the Muckdogs held on to win, 6-5.

It is the third straight win for the first place Muckdogs who are 27-18. The Muckdogs had a lot of help as the three teams chasing Batavia for first place in the New York-Penn League Pinckney Division all lost on Wednesday.

West Virginia (22-21) now trails Batavia by four games, Mahoning Vally trails by five along with State College and Auburn. The only team to win on Wednesday in the Division was 15-29 Williamsport.

Batavia Manager Tom Lawless used five pitchers in the victory, but the last one he turned to was closer Evan Brabrand, who pitched a perfect ninth with a strikeout. Brabrand, a 9th round draft pick of the Miami Marlins, picked up his ninth save of the season. In 11 appearances he has the nine saves, a 2-1 record and in 10.1 innings has struck out 15.

Orr, a left-handed outfielder who was drafted in the 10th round this year by the Marlins out of Wright State, hit third in the lineup Wednesday and went 2-for-4 with 3 RbI’s, a run and a walk. Orr, who has 20 stolen bases on the season, is hitting .368.

Batavia had a lead in the sixth when newest Muckdog Julian Infante belted a 2-run home run to left field for a 3-2 lead. C.J. Stubbs hit his fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the 8th for Tri City and Batavia was down to their last three outs.

However, Orr’s single brought in Milton Smith II and Jack Strunc.

Strunc (run), catcher Andres Storms (double, run) and Rosario all had hits.

Geremy Galindez improved to 3-0 on the season with the win, as he pitched the eighth. Julio Frias started and went five innings, striking out five, allowing one walk and two runs. Brock Love, a 34th-round pick out of Alabama came in a tough situation and went 1.1 innings, pitching perfect baseball with two strikeouts. Love has a 0.00 ERA this season for the Muckdogs in five appearances and 6.2 innings.

Batavia is at Tri-City Thursday then returns home to Batavia on Friday to play the Connecticut Tigers.