Trenton 10, Binghamton 6
Everybody is entitled to a bad day. That includes B-Met starting pitcher Mark Cohoon. It includes, too, the men in blue, the three guys charged with arbitrating last night’s Eastern league game at NYSEG Stadium in Binghamton where the first place B-Mets dropped a 10-6 decision to the Trenton Thunder.
Cohoon’s bad day started with the first batter he faced. Thunder leadoff hitter Ramon Flores lined a single to left field to open the game, the first of ten hits Cohoon would allow over five innings. In fact, Cohoon had trouble at the start of almost all of those five innings allowing the first batter of the frame to reach base four times and the first two batters to reach safely three times.
The Thunder scored early and often against Cohoon plating three runners in each of the first two innings. Ramon Flores, Slade Heathcott and Tyler Austin slammed consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs in the first. Flores and Heathcott would score on Kyle Roller’s single with Austin touching home when Jose Pirela slammed a sacrifice fly to centerfield.
Cohoon’s bad day continued in the second when the first four Thunder batters got aboard with basehits. After Adi Castillo andf Flores singles, Heathcott tripled adding two runs to the Thunder lead. Heathcott is an impressive Yankee outfield prospect with insane defensive skills who had three hits in the contest. An Austin singe drove home the Thunder centerfielder making the score, 6-0.
For the men in blue, it was a different story. Two yes-or-no tag out calls at second base and two fair-or-foul decisions, one down the third base line and the other along the first base side, all went against the home team. The reactions to the B-Met middle infielders, the first time with second baseman Danny Muno attempting a tag and the second time involving shortstop Wilfredo Tovar in a similar tag attempt, led this observer to believe the umpire may have missed the calls. Both runners ruled safe at second would later score, both plays extended innings, both times the B-Met infielders almost went postal, and both calls played a major role in the outcome of the game.
A ground-rule double ruled fair down the third base line would prove too much for B-Met manager Pedro Lopez to weather. Lopez, who had argued in vain after each missed tag, took a deliberately slow and measured walk toward the third base up telling everyone in the park he would soon be making his exit. Trenton scored two more runs in the fifth ending Cohoon’s outing with the B-Mets in a deep 8-0 hole.
But, all was not dismal for Binghamton. Nine B-Mets came to the plate in the home fifth with Binghamton scoring a 6 spot to make it a game. Joe Bonfe, who made a sparkling diving play at first base to end the Trenton fifth, led off the frame with a single to left field. After Bonfe was retired 5-4, on an Alonso Harris ground ball, Harris hustled down the line to prevent a double play. Wilfredo Tovar walked, and Danny Muno sliced a base hit to left field scoring Binghamton’s first run.
Muno continues to hit in the clutch for Binghamton. The B-Met infielder’s .222 batting average belies his production with men in scoring position attributing to an impressive 32 RBI’s on the year.
B-Met leftfielder Darrell Ceciliani drilled a double to right-center field scoring Tovar and sending Muno to third. The double was Ceciliani’s second hit of the game and continued a steady batting average climb that has seen the B-Met outfielder add over 20 points to his batting average over the last three weeks. The red-hot Ceciliani finished the night hitting .268.
Next up, B-Met rightfielder Cesar Puello. Puello sent Thunder starter Mickey O’Brien’s first pitch high and deep toward the top of the light poles in left-center field, a monster three-run blast making the score, 8-5. The homerun was a team leading 10th for the B-Met slugger giving Puello a team best 39 RBI’s. Puello also leads the team in batting average at .315, stolen bases, and slugging percentage.
Allan Dykstra took O’Brien’s next pitch over the right field wall for his seventh four-bagger, pulling the B-Mets within a pair of runs, but that was as close as Binghamton would get. The B-Mets surrendered a pair of runs to Trenton in the seventh and loaded the bases in the bottom of the same inning but came up shorthanded.
The loss drops Binghamton’s record to 34-25 with the B-Mets still atop the Eastern Division standings.
Key Stats
Daniel Muno: 1-for-4, 1 BB, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB
Darrell Ceciliani: 3-for-5, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 R
Cesar Puello: 2-for-4, 1 HR, 1 BB, 3 RBI, 1 R
Allan Dykstra: 1-for-5, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 1 R
Mark Cohoon: 5.0 IP, 10 H, 2 BB, 8 R, 6 ER, 1 K
Shawn Teufel: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K
Ryan Fraser: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 BB, 2 ER, 1 K
Chase Huchingson: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 1 BB, 2 K