@CoachRyanKY
LEXINGTON- The Legends returned to Lexington on Tuesday Night after splitting a double header at Gastonia. Mighty struggles and heartbreaking losses have defined the Legends thus far this season. They find themselves at the bottom of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball largely due to inconsistent offense and hiccups from the mound.
The game started with a BANG, a Legendary long ball left the lumber of Legends leadoff man Mikey Reynolds. Not to be outdone, Kyle Cottam raked a double of his own to set up another Legendary long ball in an almost identical spot over the Left Field fence, this time from Pedro Gonzalez.
Lexington, had not won at home this season entering Tuesday’s contest. At the end of the First Inning, the Legends found themselves ahead four runs to none and the tides felt as if they were going to potentially turn for the faithful fans in attendance. Tuesday night was the “$2 Tuesday” promotion, where the Legends offer canned soda and snacks for $2/piece. A win certainly wouldn’t come cheap, as High Point sits atop the Southern Division of the ALBP.
High Point was able to add two runs, both by solo shots in the Second and Fifth Inning respectively. Cottam, continued his exceptional offensive play as of late and knocked an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth to tally another run for the Legends, making the score 5-2.
High Point was able to cut the deficit by one on a sac-fly from Martin Figueroa of High Point. High Point brought a five-game winning streak with them to Lexington. That wasn’t the end of the brutal offensive attack for the Rockers, two more runs would come in for the visitors before Serrano finally got the Legends out of the Inning.
Serrano replaced Javier Reynoso who had a solid start for Lexington. Bullpen issues have plagued the Legends up to this point in the season, an issue that I am sure Manager Gregg Zaun seeks to improve immediately. Does the name Gregg Zaun ring a bell? He had a 15 year MLB careers spanning over 10 different teams. Notably winning the World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997.
Xander Wiel tied up the game after turning on a fastball, sending it soaring over the fence Center Field. Parreira gave the Rockers their first lead of the game in the Top of the Seventh to make the score 6-5. The Legends needed to put their rally caps on if they hoped to earn their sixth win of the season.
Lexington tied the game up on an errant High Point check-throw to First to score Cottam all the way from Second Base. A mental error, as the runner had no where to go anyways. Jacob Edwards, pitching for High Point, was rattled as he walked the next batter to paint the corners with Legends. Only one out was on the board for the Rockers and momentum felt firmly in control of the boys from Lexington.
Momentum is a precious thing in baseball, and it is important to seize opportunities when it is swinging your way. Sieze opportunity is exactly what Lexington did on a passed ball from the High Point Catcher to give them back a one run lead at 7-6 in the Bottom of the Seventh Inning.
Osmy Gregorio provided some insurance with an RBI Double immediately following the previous scoring play, giving the Legends an 8-6 lead.
Ryan Grotjon of High Point sent a monster shot, 414-feet over the Right Field wall deep into the darkening Lexington sky. If there are any good things to come from that, at least it was just a solo-shot and would only add one run to the board for High Point. The insurance run from Gregorio was already needed for Lexington, that policy had to be activated quickly.
The Legends would lose the lead for the second time in as many innings off of the bat of Colin Moran. Moran, the former Cincinnati Red and Pittsburgh Pirate absolutely demolished a fastball over Center Field. So much for the insurance policy purchased earlier, the score sat at 9-8 and the Legends would need to pull the rally caps back out of the wardrobe.
Lexington would bring out some trickery in the Bottom of the Eighth, Aldenis Sanchez would steal Third and then follow by successfully stealing home!
That tied the game up at nine a piece heading into the Ninth Inning.
The Legends sought to lean on the arm of Carlos Martinez entering the titanic like struggle with closing duties for Lexington. The Right-Hander, has appeared in “A” ball before his stop in the Atlantic League. He would walk the number nine hitter in the order after forcing Liniak to ground out previously. Next batter up, Martinez would hit Marin Figuroa in the knee to put two runners on with only one out on the board for Lexington. Both runners would be stranded after a pop out to Center, sending the Legends to the Bottom of the Ninth Inning with a chance to win the game in walk off fashion.
Pedro Gonzalez would open the side for Lexington with a double ripped into the Left Field Corner to give Lexington a runner in scoring position with zero outs on the board for High Point. He would be left there, as the next three batters for Lexington all fell out.
Free baseball was on the way for the 1,332 announced in attendance.
The Legends would fall behind quickly via the pace-of-play runner put in place during extra innings, once again needing an offensive rally to tally their first win of the season at home into the history books. The fans were almost waiting with a baited breath that Legends play-by-play announcer Steve Tressler noted. Tressler also provided insight that the Legends fans in Lexington care about winning baseball as well, a sentiment that I wholeheartedly agree with.
Carlos Martinez of Lexington would be pulled in the Top of the Tenth after allowing another run earned to make it 11-9.
Mikey Reynolds, the Legends Second Baseman, was able to score his pace-of-play runner to bring the Legends within one in the Bottom of the Tenth. That brought Gabe Howell to the place as the winning run. The tying run in Reynolds would steal Second Base on a 2-1 count to make it to where Howell only needed a Single to tie the baseball game. Howell would swing and miss to lose the game in heartbreaking fashion for yet another, Legends loss.
HP- 11/12/3 Lex- 10/12/1
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