Three walks, a double and a walk-off grand slam highlighted a five-run ninth inning for Mahoning Valley, which completed a three-game sweep of the visiting Oneonta Tigers on Sunday with an improbable 8-6 New York-Penn League win.
Gregory Folgia, who hadn't homered in his previous 88 at-bats this season, ended it with a shot to right-center field off Jose Ortega as the Scrappers won three games against the O-Tigers by a combined five runs.
Mahoning Valley defeated the Tigers, 10-8, on Friday by scoring twice in the eighth inning to snap an 8-all tie. The Scrappers followed with a 3-2 win Saturday, when the O-Tigers loaded the bases with none out in the ninth inning but failed to score the tying run.
The three-game skid matches the longest for Oneonta this season and came on the heels of a season-high six-game winning streak.
After nine straight road games, the Tigers return home at 7:05 tonight to start a three-game set against the defending NY-Penn champion Batavia Muckdogs.
Oneonta (16-11), which has a two-game Stedler Division lead over Vermont and Lowell, took a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth Sunday.
Losing pitcher Kenny Faulk walked Jason Smit to start the last of the ninth. Chun-Hsiu Chen followed with a double to left that sent Smith to third. Rafael Vera and Ben Carlson then drew back-to-back walks, the latter forcing home Smith to make it 6-4.
Ortega relieved Faulk and gave up Folgia's homer as Pinckney Division-leading Mahoning Valley improved to 19-11.
O-Tigers pitchers Gary Perinar, Kevan Hess and Faulk combined to walk 13 batters Sunday.
Though Oneonta's bullpen deserves the blame for the ninth inning, the O-Tigers missed a chance to add to its lead in the eighth.
Keith Hernandez reached on a fielding error by third baseman Vera to start the eighth and Luis Palacios and Carmelo followed with singles to load the bases with none out. But Chris Sedon struck out before Jamie Johnson grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.
Mahoning Valley took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off Perinar, who walked six and struck out two over 2 2/3 innings. Jordan Henry drew a leadoff walk, went to second on an errant pickoff attempt by Perinar, moved to third on groundout by Kyle Smith and scored on Smit's groundout.
A hit batsman and two walks helped the Scrappers to two runs in the third inning. Vera scored on a groundout and Folgia hit an RBI double to make it 3-0.
The Tigers answered with four runs in the fifth, all coming after Alexis Espinoza and Eric Roof struck out to start the inning.
Hernandez singled to right and went to second when shortstop Kyle Smith misplayed Palacios' grounder. Jaime then reached on an infield single to second before Sedon hit a three-run triple to right. Johnson's RBI single to right gave the O-Tigers a 4-3 lead.
Two Scrappers errors helped Oneonta to two more runs in the seventh.
Jaime struck out but reached on a throwing error by catcher Chen. Sedon then reached on a fielding error by Lurvin Basabe that sent Jaime to second.
Johnson's sacrifice bunt moved both runners up before Michael Rockett hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Jaime. Rawley Bishop followed with a RBI single to left to make it 6-3.
On Saturday, O-Tigers left-handed starter Adam Wilk allowed his first earned run of the season and took a no-decision.
Wilk brought a 0.00 ERA into Saturday, having allowed one unearned run in 18 innings through his first four starts this season. He shut out Mahoning Valley through four innings Saturday.
But in the fifth, Vera tripled to right with out one and scored on Basabe's single to right to tie the score at 1. Wilk left after five innings, allowing one run on four hits. He struck out one and walked one as his ERA rose to 0.39.
The O-Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth on Eric Roof's first home run of the season, a shot to right off MV starter Preston Guilmet, who allowed one run on four hits over seven innings.
It stayed that way until the seventh, when the Scrappers scored twice off of losing pitcher Mike LaLuna (1-2). He loaded the bases on two walks and a hit batsman to start the inning.
Ortega relieved LaLuna and gave up a two-run single to Kyle Bellows to make it 3-1. Ortega then struck out three of the next four batters _ one was intentionally walked _ to avoid further damage.
The Tigers had a golden chance to tie it in the ninth but scored once despite having their first four batters reach safely.
Rockett led off with a single to center off winning pitcher Vidal Nuno and went to third on a double by Bishop. Mahoning Valley then intentionally walked Espinoza to load the bases.
John Murrian pinch-hit for Roof and singled to left, scoring Rockett to make it 3-2.
But with the bases loaded and none out, Wade Gaynor struck out, Matt Mansilla popped out to first and Hernandez struck out to end it.
Scrappers 8, O-Tigers 6
{"Sports agate MLB teams"/}OneontaMahoning Valley
{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Johnson cf4011Henry cf2100
Rockett lf4021Smith ss4100
Bishop 1b5011Smit dh3201
Espinoza rf4020Chen c5110
Roff dh5000Bellows 3b1000
Hrnandez c4120Vera 3b2111
Palacios 3b4110Carlson 1b1101
Jaime ss4220Folgia lf4125
Sedon 2b4213Palincsar rf2000
Toole 2b1000
Totals386126Totals28848
Oneonta000040200""6
{"Sports agate MLB 9inning"/}Mahoning Valley102000005""8
{"Sports agate bat stax"/}E""Perinar (1), Sedon (2), Smith (5), Chen (2), Baseabe (15), Vera (5). DP""Mahoning Valley 3. LOB""Oneonta 8, Mahoning Valley 11. 2B""Rockett (5), Hernandez (4), Folgia (5), Chen (5). 3B""Sedon (1). HR""Folgia (1). S""Johnson. SF""Rockett, Vera. CS""Espinoza (3).
{"Sports agate body text"/}OneontaIPHRERBBSO
Perinar2ª03262
Hess420033
Faulk L,0-11¤14440
Ortega BS,1011100
{"Sports agate MLB pitching"/}Mahoning Valley
{"Sports agate body text"/}Popham564006
Kirk1ª22011
Johnson¤10000
Urena W,2-0230002
Faulk pitched to 4 batters in the 9th.
Ortega pitched to 1 batter in the 9th
WP""Perinar, Urena. HBP""Smith (by Perinar. Ejected""Bellows (2nd, by Garrett Cole). Umpires""Home, Garrett Cole; Field, Robert Calvert. T""2:58. A"" 4,342.
Scrappers 3, O-Tigers 2
{"Sports agate body centered"/}Saturday's Game
{"Sports agate MLB teams"/}OneontaMahoning Valley
{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Johnson cf4010Henry cf4010
Rockett rf4110Smith ss3110
Bishop 1b4010Smit rf-1b2100
Espinoz dh3000Chen c3000
Roof c3111Bellows 3b4012
Murrian ph1011Carlson 1b2000
Sedon pr0000Palincsr ph1000
Gaynor 3b4000Folgia lf3000
Mansilla lf4010Vera dh4110
Jaime 2b3010Basabe 2b4021
Hrnndez ph1000
Gulliver ss3010
Totals34282Totals30363
{"Sports agate MLB 9inning"/}Oneonta000010001""2
Mahoning Valley00001002x""3
{"Sports agate bat stax"/}E""Roof (1). DP""Mahoning Valley 1. LOB""Oneonta 6, Mahoning Valley 9. 2B""Bishop (3). 3B""Vera (1). HR""Roff (1). SB""Basabe (3), Smith (5), Henry (11).
{"Sports agate body text"/}OneontaIPHRERBBSO
Wilk541111
LaLuna L,1-2212220
Ortega110013
{"Sports agate MLB pitching"/}Mahoning Valley
{"Sports agate body text"/}Guilmet741102
Nuno W,1-0241114
LaLuna pitched to 3 batters in the 8th.
IBB""Folgia (by Ortega), Espinoza (by Nuno). HBP""Carlson (by LaLuna), Smith (by LaLuna). Umpires""Home, Robert Calvert; Field, Garrett Cole. T""2:23. A"" 3,203.
Scrappers 10, O-Tigers 8
{"Sports agate MLB teams"/}Friday's Game
OneontaMahoning Valley
{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Johnson cf4001Henry cf4330
Rockett lf3220Smith ss3211
Bishop 1b5010Smit rf4100
Espinoza rf3011Bellows 3b5213
Murrian c4112Folgia lf4121
Gaynor 3b4100Carlson 1b4021
Roof dh4230Vera dh5021
Sedon pr-dh0000Aponte c4111
Jaime 2b5131Toole 2b4000
Gulliver ss4123
Totals338138Totals3710128
{"Sports agate MLB 9inning"/}Oneonta000032120""8
Mahoning Valley30205002x""10
{"Sports agate bat stax"/}E""Gulliver 3 (13), Toole (1). DP""Oneonta 1, Mahoning Valley 3. LOB""Oneonta 10, Mahoning Valley 9. 2B""Jaime (2), Smith (2). HR""Aponte (1), Bellows (2). SB""Murrian (2), Henry 2 (10).
{"Sports agate body text"/}OneontaIPHRERBBSO
Gerbeª13310
Mendoza3ª43301
Torrealba¤32101
Hamilton2¤20024
Kapteyn L,0-1ª22000
Faulk¤00010
{"Sports agate MLB pitching"/}Mahoning Valley
{"Sports agate body text"/}Brach4ª63313
Adamsª32221
Fonseca 1ª21110
Hubbard BS,1ª12220
Burns W,2-01¤10001
WP""Gerbe, Fonseca. HBP""Smith (by Gerbe), Smit (by Gerbe), Espinzoa (by Brach), Rockett (by Adams), Espinoza (by Hubbard). Umpires""Home, Garrett Cole; Field, Robert Calvert. T""3:32 (:14 delay). A""2,888.
