Chief’s Comeback Falls Short, Lose 8-7

 

The Syracuse Chiefs fell to the Scranton/WB Rail Riders 8-7 on Friday night.  It appeared as if the Rail Riders were going turn the table a little on the Chiefs after their 10-2 drubbing the day before, but a string of runs by Syracuse, including a three-run eighth would keep the game tied at 7-7.  Extra innings would be needed in this one to decide the winner.

Slade Heathcott, former first round draft pick of the New York Yankees on 2008, led the game off with his first home run of the season, and first at the Triple-A level.  Heathcott has spent the past six seasons working his way up through the Yankees minor league system, finally landing in Triple-A this season.

Scranton would add three more runs in the top half of the second inning thanks to a couple of sacrifices and a couple of errors.

 

Syracuse would respond in the bottom of the third when Dan Butler, who reached on an error, would score on a ground out by Matt den Dekker, cutting the lead to 4-1.  The Chiefs would then score in four consecutive innings making things a bit more interesting, topped off with a home run by Kila Ka’aihue.

Cutter Dykstra would give the Chief’s hope in the bottom of the ninth after hitting a one-out single.  Unfortunately though for Syracuse, Dykstra would get thrown out trying to steal second with two outs to end the potential threat.

Matt Grace would come in for Evan Meek to start the 10th inning, but would surrender two straight singles, followed by two sacrifices that would score the eventual winning run.  Ian Stewart would give the Chiefs hope in the bottom of the 10th, but would be left stranded when Kila Ka’aihue would ground out to end the game.

With the win the Rail Riders improve to 3-6 while the Syracuse Chiefs fall to 4-5.  The teams will meet again on Saturday for the third of four with first pitch scheduled for 1:05pm.  Kyle Davies is scheduled to make his first start of the season for Scranton, against Chiefs’ Bruce Billings.