Aces beat ‘Jacks, end losing skid Pena stifles Bangor

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BANGOR – Cincinnati Reds shortstop Barry Larkin has driven in a lot of two-out runs during his illustrious major league career.

Younger brother Stephen delivered with two outs for the Aces Monday night, belting a three-run double in a five-run second inning that carried the Aces to an 8-2 Northeast League victory over the Bangor Lumberjacks at the Winkin Complex.

The win snapped the Aces’ nine-game losing streak. The teams will play again tonight at 6:30.

The Aces, the only minor league team that will play its entire schedule on the road, looked like anything but a 4-24 team as they built an 8-0 lead through six innings with a series of clutch hits. Six of their eight runs were scored with two outs.

Meanwhile, righthander Alex Pena threw a masterful four-hitter over eight innings, striking out six and walking only one. Both runs off him were unearned. He threw 113 pitches, of which 74 were strikes.

He allowed just four baserunners and two infield hits through the first seven innings.

The Lumberjacks scored a pair of unearned runs off him in the eighth. Nick Devenney pitched a scoreless ninth.

“My fastball and curve were working today and I was able to get on top of the hitters [in the count],” said Pena, who added that he also threw some splitters.

“He had a good curve. He had a sharp break on it and he was able to throw it for strikes,” said Lumberjacks first baseman Mark Burke. “He was able to hit both sides of the plate and get ahead in the count.”

Al Corbeil, who was hitting .429 over his last five games, triggered the second-inning rally with the first of his three hits, a long opposite field fly- ball double to left.

Yohanny Valera walked and, two outs later, Dalmiro Quezada drew a walk when Lumberjacks lefty and loser Clayton Andrews missed high with a 3-2 curve.

Larkin followed by drilling a 2-1 pitch over the head of center fielder Jake Whitesides to clear the bases.

“I was just trying to make contact and he left a fastball up,” said the 30-year-old Larkin.

Leadoff hitter Coby Smith then rifled Andrews’ 0-1 pitch just inside the left field foul pole for his third homer of the season and a 5-0 lead.

“It was a fastball a little up and in and I was able to get the barrel of the bat on it,” said Smith, who also singled and doubled later to give him 10 hits in his last 23 at-bats.

The Aces added another run in the third when Corbeil ripped a double down the right- field line and came around on singles by Valera and Eustaquio Garcia (RBI).

The Aces made it 7-0 in the fifth and again Corbeil started the rally with a hit, this time a line single to left-center. Garcia reached on an infield single and J.P. Schmidt singled home Corbeil.

“Now that I’m getting an opportunity to play all the time, I’m able to get comfortable at the plate,” said Corbeil, who has 12 hits in his last 25 at-bats.

Aces right fielder Jutt Hileman saved two runs in the top of the sixth with a great running catch on Whitesides’ two-out blast to the warning track.

“That was one of the best catches I’ve ever seen,” said Corbeil.

Greg Schmidt’s fielder’s choice produced a sixth-inning run for the Aces.

Two errors on one play and Tim Baywal’s RBI single ruined Pena’s shutout bid in the eighth, and Rolando Bello grounded an RBI double down the right field line.

ACES 8, LUMBERJACKS 2

Bangor (15-16) Aces (5-24)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Uchino, ss 4 0 1 0 Smith, cf 5 2 2

Bello, 2b 4 0 2 1 Hileman, rf 5 0 0

Whitesides, cf 4 0 0 0 G. Schmidt, lf 5 1

Burke, 1b 4 0 0 0 Corbeil, c 4 3 0

Hammond, lf 4 0 0 0 Valera, 1b 3 1 0

Ross, dh 4 0 1 0 E. Garcia, ss 4 0 1

J. Garcia, rf 4 1 0 0 J. Schmidt, 3b 4 1

Baywal, 3b 2 1 1 1 Quezada, 2b 3 1 0

Hargreaves, c 3 0 0 0 Larkin, dh 4 3

Andrews, p 0 0 0 0 Pena, p 0 0 0 0

E. Thomas, p 0 0 0 0 Devenney, p 0 0 0

Parker, p 0 0 0 0

Totals 33 2 5 2 Totals 37 8 12 8

Bangor 000 000 020 ? 2

Aces 051 011 00x ? 8

E? Baywal; Corbeil, E. Garcia, Quezada; LOB? Bangor 5, Aces 7; 2B? Bello; Corbeil 2, Smith, Larkin; HR? Smith (3);

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Andrews (L, 1-1) 5 9 7 7 2 2

E. Thomas 2 2 1 0 0 0

Parker 1 1 0 0 0 2

Aces IP H R ER BB SO

Pena (W, 2-1) 8 4 2 0 1 6

Devenney 1 1 0 0 0 0

PB? Hargreaves; Corbeil; T? 2:27; ATT? 731