Brian Baisley gets ready to bat for Staten Island Yankees.
STATEN ISLAND, NY- All summer long, Brian Baisley has had the magic bat. The 25 year-old elder statesman was money again driving in three of the Baby Bombers’ four in a 4-1 triumph over the Verrazano rival Cyclones before an 11th sellout crowd of 7,171 at Richmond County Bank Ball Park in St. George Saturday night.
“I’m just trying to be productive. Get good pitches to hit and be productive,” the Staten Island first baseman modestly explained after finishing with a two-run double and a bizarre inside the park home run which took Brooklyn center fielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis to the track where it appeared he hauled it in. However, the ball jarred loose and fell underneath the wall.
Meanwhile, a hustling Baisley never stopped running rounding the bases and headed into the dugout before plate umpire Shea Gipson ruled that it was indeed a homer giving the Bombers a 4-0 lead in the home sixth. Not surprisingly, Cyclones’ skipper Edgar Alfonzo came out to get an explanation with Gipson actually taking him all the way to the scene to describe what happened.
“Hell. I don’t know. I wasn’t watching. I was running. … I was talking to one of the guys on the team and they said he caught it and then it went off the scoreboard. I’ll take them anyway I can get them,” Baisley chuckled. “I’ve never seen a home plate umpire go out there. … I’ve never seen something like that.”
In any event, it didn’t matter how his third dinger of the season resulted which supported the strong pitching of winning starter Brandon Braboy, who followed up a solid performance last week with a season best six innings of scoreless ball scattering three hits while walking a pair and fanning five for his first victory.
“It felt pretty good today. I got them to swing at a lot of first and second pitches. Didn’t go too much in the hole. So it felt good today,” he said.
“My pitching coach [Pat Daneker] is teaching me how to pitch. Before, I was trying to throw as hard as I can. Now, I try to pitch and not worry about how hard I throw. My change up worked good my last two starts and tonight I had a slider. All my pitches worked real good.”
“Braboy did very well today. He stayed low in the zone and got guys to swing at some bad pitches. Put the ball in play for our defense to go to work,” added battery mate Mitch Abeita, who contributed with a pair of hits and run scored.
Following a scoreless seventh, Drew Shetrone ran into trouble giving up three straight singles loading the bases to start the eighth forcing Staten Island manager Pat McMahon to bring in Brad Rulon into a hairy situation. The move paid off as he limited the damage getting Jordan Abruzzo to hit an RBI ground out to Baisley. With runners in scoring position, Sean Ratliff lined right to third baseman Mike Lyon and Eric Campbell flied out to center fielder Ray Kruml allowing the Staten Island Yankees to take a three-run lead to the dugout.
“Bases loaded, I just came in and threw strikes and had some good plays behind me. The first two guys hit the ball hard and got lucky that they snagged them. So, good defense right there,” Rulon pointed out.
With closer Pat Venditte unavailable, the right handed setup man got to close the deal pitching around a one out Jose Jimenez double by getting Nieuwenhuis and John Servidio swinging to notch his first save.
“Yeah. Pat was down and had a lot of saves lately. Just another outing. Not really worried about the end of the game. I’ve been in that situation before in college like a couple of inning saves like I came in the eighth and threw well. Then finished up. I haven’t done it here but kind of have been in that situation.”
The game started with both starters tossing zeroes but the Bombers finally broke through against Brooklyn’s Pedro P. Martinez with a three-run third. Abeita and left fielder Taylor Grote had consecutive one out base hits putting runners at the corners. Following a Kruml RBI ground out to short which scored the first run, second baseman David Adams kept it going with a bloop single to center. That brought up Baisley, who laced a two out deep drive off the right field sign for a two-run double making it 3-0.
“We fell behind last night and scored four in the ninth. We came out and battled. To come out and jump on them like that was good for the team,” Baisley noted.
“Brooklyn always plays us tough. They’re a good team and lately we haven’t scored until the ninth inning. So, it was good to get some runs early in the game. … Nice to get an early lead on them and then hold it,” Grote indicated after following an RBI in Friday’s late bid with a 2-for-3 night. “I had been struggling for quite a while but I’m starting to see the ball better. Just some minor adjustments. Trying to cut down. See the ball a lot better. So swing better.”
“We’ve been losing a lot of games lately to them,” added Rulon. “So it was good to get a win against them.”
Notes: The three RBI’s allowed Baisley to pass Dan Brewer for the team lead with 19 knocked in. His three homers are tied with Lyon, Addison Maruszak and Melky Mesa for a share of the club lead. … Seven Bombers have at least 10 RBI’s. … Servidio and J.R. Voyles each had a couple of hits in a losing effort for the Cyclones. … Some early defense prevented Brooklyn from grabbing the lead when Brewer started a 9-2-6 putout with Abeita finishing it off by pegging Voyles at second. … Martinez fell to 0-2 allowing all four earned on seven hits while K-ing three. … With two more scoreless and three K’s, Rulon lowered his ERA to a team best 0.36. … The win improved first place Staten Island to 23-15- four better than both Aberdeen and Hudson Valley with Brooklyn (18-20) trailing by five. … The third game of four is later today at Keyspan Park in Coney Island set for 5 PM with the clubs returning to the Ferry Terminal Monday for the series finale.
