Five seventh inning walks and a hit batsman by Yankees pitcher Daniel Franco propelled the Vikings to a 9-8 victory Saturday night at the D.C. Canegata Ball Park in a time-shortened seven innings Raphael Jackson AA Baseball league game.
Franco came on in relief of Yankees starter Malcolm McGregor in the fifth inning and retired the first six batters he faced. However, he was bitten by the wildness bug in the final inning and with his team leading 9-7, his five walks, hit batsman and some miscues by his team allowed three runs to walk across home plate for, literally, a Vikings walk-off victory. The victory in itself meant more to the Vikings that the loss did for the Yanks, who had already wrapped up the regular season championship one night earlier. But the loss still did not sit well with the boisterous Yankees fans and t they made their displeasure known loud and clear.
The Yankees drew first blood in the top of the second inning, plating three runs on a two-run double by Omari Eastman and an RBI single by Dwayne Harvey.
Rodney Raphael’s RBI groundout got the Vikings on the board in the bottom of the third and they then trailed 3-1 after three completed innings.
An unearned run in the top of the fourth extended the Yankees lead to 4-1, but the Vikings erupted for four runs against McGregor in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-4 lead. RBI singles by Warren Brooks and Collin Williams and a couple of passed balls accounted for the Vikings four runs in the inning.
The Yankees scored two more unearned runs in the top of the fifth to retake the lead at 6-5, but the Vikings responded with a two-run single by Brooks to lead 7-5 after five inning.
A sacrifice fly by the Yankees Levron Serauw tied the game at seven in the top of the sixth. The Vikings had no answer in the bottom of the inning.
Due to time constraints the umpires let the teams know that the seventh would be the final inning of play. The Yankees, again taking advantage of sloppy defense by the Vikings, scored two more unearned runs in the top of the inning to take a 9-7 lead and looked well on their way to victory behind relief pitcher Franco. However after retiring six batters in relief of McGregor, Franco had a hard time finding the strike zone in the bottom of the seventh. He hit one batter and walked five, and along with a couple of miscues by his defense the Vikings were able to get the three runs needed for the 10-9 victory without the benefit of a hit in the inning.
Cantibol Encarnacion picked up the victory in relief of Vikings starter Jahmoy Williams, while Franco got the loss. Top batters for the winners were Brooks, who had two hits in fou at bats with three RBIs, and Raphael and Williams went one of three with one RBI each. For the Yankees, Sarauw was 2 for 3 with one RBI, Eastman 1 for 3 with two RBI and Khalif Gerard and Shakeel Newton were both 2 for 3.
