Horrific seventh inning blows apart Blue Ox

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ORONO – Although it seemed like Columbus Day at Mahaney Diamond Sunday afternoon, Bangor’s ship never came in.

Playoff-bound Albany took the wind out of Bangor’s sails late as 1,492 shocked fans witnessed a horrific seventh inning that saw nine Albany runs, nine hits, three Bangor pitchers, 46 pitches, two errors and a hit batter.

The end result was a 13-8 victory by Albany in a game that was rendered almost meaningless for Bangor after Newburgh clinched the Northeast League’s second half title Saturday night.

Both Bangor and Albany are 26-14, 2 1/2 games behind Newburgh, and tied for second place with game left. Albany will take on Newburgh in the league championship series beginning Wednesday.

Albany jumped out to the lead early with a run in the second inning. Rafael led off with a double to right center and came around to score on Wade Evans first of three errors in the game.

Bangor jumped ahead 2-1 in the third on a two-run single through the right side infield gap by Wes Shook.

The runs came on a perfectly executed hit-and-run with two outs and runners at the corners.

The Ox made it 5-1 in the fourth, thanks to a wild pitch, three Bangor steals, and a costly throwing error by relief pitcher Scott Jenkins.

After Evans drew a leadoff walk and Steve Puleo followed with a single, Jenkins grabbed a come-backer off the bat of Garret Quaintance with plenty of time, but threw the ball over first baseman Ron Lockett’s head.

The miscue allowed both baserunners to score and put Quaintance at second. George McDoniel followed with an infield hit after Lockett tripped over Jenkins while trying to field the grounder. One out later, Jello Cox singled Quaintance in.

Albany closed the gap with back-to-back homers to right in the sixth by Mercado and Santana.

The Diamond Dogs bridged the gap and then some with the explosion in the seventh highlighted by Santana’s two-run triple, Charlie Sullivan’s RBI double, and five straight Albany hits.

Bangor also hurt themselves with some shoddy defense. Bangor’s middle infielders combined for five errors in the game – six of Albany’s runs were unearned.

“Five errors… We could have put a tent over that act,” said Bangor manager Dick Phillips. “It’s just, there were some seeing-eye hits, we screwed up a couple plays, and it didn’t matter who I brought in [in the seventh], we couldn’t slow them down.”

Bangor did score two runs in the ninth on Wade Evans’ two-run home run to right field, but it was all the Ox could manage before Albany reliever Chris Sinacori retired the final two batters on fly balls.

Game Notes – Cox’s steal of second base in the fourth inning gave him a record-breaking total of 50 in 57 attempts this season. Cox broke the Northeast League record of 49 set last year by Newburgh’s Joey Madden.

Raul Santana, who was signed by Albany almost two weeks ago, came within a single of hitting for the cycle Sunday.

After reaching on an error in the second, Santana doubled, homered and tripled in the fourth, sixth and seventh, respectively, but struck out and flied out in his last two at-bats.

Diamond Dogs 13, Blue Ox 8

(Sunday Afternoon)

Albany (26-14) Bangor (26-14)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Perez, cf 6 2 2 1 Cox, cf 5 1 3 1

Sullivan, 2b 6 1 2 2 Goldberg, 2b 3 0 0 0

Reinisch, 3b 6 2 5 2 Shook, dh 5 0 1 2

Lockett, 1b 6 1 0 0 Morrow, rf 4 2 2 1

Mercado, rf 6 2 3 2 Evans, ss 4 2 1 2

Santana, c 6 2 3 3 Puleo, c 4 1 1 0

Simon, dh 2 0 0 0 Quaintance, 3b 5 1 0 0

Gilliam, dh 3 0 1 0 McDoniel, lf 3 1 2 0

Mora, lf 5 1 1 1 Hummell, 1b 4 0 1 0

Mariano, ss 3 2 1 0

Totals 49 13 18 11 Totals 37 8 11 6

Albany 010 002 901 – 13

Bangor 002 310 002 – 8

E – Jenkins; Goldberg, Evans 3, Quaintance 2B – Sullivan, Reinisch, Mercado 2, Santana 3B – Santana HR – Mercado (10), Santana (1); Morrow (11), Evans (4) LOB – Albany 11, Bangor 8 SB – McDoniel 3, Goldberg 2, Cox

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Albany

Sullivan 3 2 2 2 2 2

Jenkins (W, 7-0) 3 5 4 1 3 4

Sellner 2 2 0 0 1 2

Sinacori 1 2 2 2 0 1

Bangor

High 6 9 6 5 0 6

Audette (L, 2-4) 2/3 3 4 1 0 0

Maddock 2 1/3 6 3 1 1 1

HBP – Mariano by Maddock WP – Jenkins, High TIME – 2:57 ATTENDANCE – 1,494