Staff Report
Wade Gaynor and Alexis Espinoza combined for five RBIs Wednesday to help the Oneonta Tigers extend their season-high winning streak to five with a come-from-behind, 8-4 New York-Penn League victory at the Auburn Doubledays.
Gaynor tied the score at 4 in the eighth inning on a two-run single with two out. Gaynor's line drive to center field, which marked his hit in a 1-for-5 effort, scored Jamie Johnson and Michael Rockett.
Johnson started the inning with a walk and moved to second on Rockett's infield single to short. Rawley Bishop flew out to right field before Casey Beck took over for fellow Auburn reliever Austin Armstrong. Espinoza, who homered in the sixth, then moved both runners into scoring position with a flyout to right that set up Gaynor's two RBIs.
Beck then walked Keith Hernandez to put runners at first and second for Matthew Mansilla, who drove in Gaynor as the go-ahead run with a line-drive single to center.
The Tigers _ first in the Stedler Division with a 15-8 record _ built on their 5-4 lead with three runs in the ninth. Johnson, Rockett and Bishop sparked the rally with one-out singles, the last giving Oneonta a 6-4 edge. Espinoza followed with an RBI single to right that scored Rockett and moved Bishop to third.
Bishop scored the final run when Espinoza stole second and drew an errant throw from Auburn catcher Yan Gomes. Beck dropped to 0-2 this season after allowing four runs _ three earned _ on six hits in 1 2/3 innings.
O-Tigers reliever Wade Kapteyn earned his first save by facing the minimum in two innings of scoreless relief. He allowed one hit _ a one-out single to Gomes in the ninth that was negated when Sean Ochinko grounded to third baseman Gaynor for a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
Kapteyn struck out two and walked one to help Oneonta starter Luis Angel Sanz improve to 1-2. Sanz struck out three, walked one and allowed four earned runs on six hits in seven innings.
Auburn (9-17), last in the Pinckney Division, took a 3-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI double by Jack Murphy, a run-scoring balk by Sanz and a sacrifice fly by Bradley Glenn.
Oneonta pulled to 3-2 in the sixth when Espinoza hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot to left that scored Bishop with two out. Espinoza finished 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a run for the Tigers, who received two hits and two runs apiece from Rockett and Bishop.
Auburn padded its lead to 4-2 in the bottom half of the sixth when Welinton Ramirez homered to left off Sanz.
The O-Tigers complete their three-game series at Auburn at 7:05 tonight, then play three straight at Mahoning Valley.
Oneonta, which won three in a row against the Tri-City ValleyCats before its series against Auburn started Tuesday, returns home Monday to start a three-game set against the defending NY-Penn champion Batavia Muckdogs.
The Tigers hold a three-game lead in the Stedler Division on the Lowell Spinners and the Vermont Lake Monsters, who are both 13-12. Tri-City is last in the Stedler, at 7-15.
O-Tigers 8, Doubledays 4
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