Grays bats heat up for win

GAME RECAP 7-3-2015

By Anna Dunlavey; @annadunlaveyy

​It rained for most of last night’s game between the DC Grays and the Vienna Riverdogs, but that didn’t put a damper on the Grays’ evening. The Grays beat the visiting Riverdogs 13-7 to secure their tenth win of the season and improve to an overall 10-17 record.

Maverik Buffo (Brigham Young) started for the first time since sustaining a minor ankle injury earlier in the season. He said he felt a little shaky at first, but regained composure to throw eight hitless innings and get his first win of the season. Buffo gave up three runs, walked only four batters, and struck out nine.

​The Riverdogs’ only hit was a grand slam home run given up by Will Korosec (Stevens Institute of Technology) in the top of the ninth. He struck out one batter, before walking three and giving up the homer. After that, Colton Shaver (Brigham Young), who had just returned from the TD Ameritrade College Home Run Derby, moved from catcher to the pitcher’s mound to complete the game with two strikeouts.

The game got off tI a fast start. The Riverdogs scored in the top of the first, but the Grays were quick to tie it up in the bottom of the inning. RF Tony Holton (Jackson State) walked, stole two bases and scored when Quinn Carpenter (Texas Tech) hit into a double play.

​It seemed like the bottom of the second would be short, as the first two Grays batters went out in order. However, the Grays sparked a 2-out rally that lead to four more runs scoring. SS Drew Reid (Harvard) and 3B Keifer Rawlings (Bucknell) got things started when they were both walked. 2B Mike Caputo (Seton Hall) drove Reid home on a single. Holton walked and DH Kurt Sinnen (Old Dominion) singled to score both Rawlings and Caputo. Carpenter was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Holton scored on a bases loaded walk drawn by Shaver.

​The Grays scored again in the fourth inning, when Caputo crossed the plate while the Riverdogs were trying to tag out Shaver on the first base line. But it was the fifth inning where the Grays really blew the game open. Holton scored Reid, Rawlings, and Caputo on a bases loaded triple, then scored himself on a single from PH/LF Desmond Stegall (Grambling State). Stegall stole second, then scored the inning’s fifth run on a double from Shaver. The Grays ended the inning with an 11-1 lead.

Although the Riverdogs put a few more runs up on the board in the sixth, the Grays quickly brought their lead back to double digits. LF Bryan Baquer (Washington College) scored two runs on wild pitches–one in the sixth inning, and one in the eighth, before the Riverdogs tacked on four runs with their ninth inning grand slam.

The Grays will take a break this Fourth of July weekend, and return to action at home on Monday, when they play the Alexandria Aces.