ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Trailing 5-4 entering the bottom of the eighth in game two of the Cherry-Silver Series, which it was already down one-game-to-none, the Silver team needed to come up with a rally to prevent falling into a deep series hole.
It did.
Silver scored five runs in to turn that deficit into a 9-5 lead that would hold as the final score as it evened the best-of-five series 1-1.
“Cherry was up 1-0 in the series, so this was obviously big for us to even things up,” Silver co-captain Dalton Bowers said. “It showed that we can come back in tight ballgames and close it out if we need to.”
The rally was aided by two Cherry errors, including a big one by Luis Hernandez. Normally a first baseman, he was pressed into service at third after some illness felled some Cherry players. With the bases loaded and nobody out with Cherry still leading 5-4, he fielded a sharp grounder. He attempted to throw home to get the force out, but his throw hit runner Reece Weber in the helmet and bounced away, allowing Silver to tie the score. A wild pitch brought in the eventual winning run, and then Andre Vigil added a sacrifice fly. The final blow in the frame came off the bat of Jack Zoellner. He smoked a two-run double to left-center to give Silver a four-run cushion.
“We put the ball in play and trusted our abilities,” Bowers said. “Jack was struggling at the plate today, but he came up and hit one off the wall to give us that big lead.”
Silver found itself trailing after Luis Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in the seventh, his second home run of the series. He also had an RBI triple in the third and finished with four RBIs. Hernandez went 1-for-2 at the plate with a pair of walks and a stolen base, and leadoff man Austin Bell went 2-for-5 for Cherry.
Gonzalez was also the starting pitcher for Cherry and allowed three runs, only one earned, in 2.2 innings despite allowing only one hit, which was an infield single.
That hit was by Michael Eaton, the only member of Silver to have a multi-hit game as he went 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.
Game Three of the Series will be Tuesday afternoon at 4 p.m. The game will be open to the public and admission will once again be free.
Silver Rallies in Eighth for 9-5 Win
