ValleyCats plate 11 for opening-day win

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Tri-City ValleyCats took home the matchup with the Trois-Rivières Aigles 11-4 on Opening Night at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium presented by the Rensselaer County Department of Health.

Cito Culver reached on an error from second baseman Ethan Hunt to start off the ValleyCat's first inning. Osman Gutierrez walked Josh Broughton and hit Jakob Goldfarb with a pitch to load the bases. Aaron Altherr hit into a 5-2 fielder’s choice before Zach Biermann drove in Broughton on an RBI groundout.

The ValleyCats started a two-out rally in the second starting out with a walk from Jaxon Hallmark. Culver, Broughton, and Goldfarb had three consecutive hits with Broughton lining an RBI double, and Goldfarb plating two on a single to give Tri-City a 5-0 lead.

Seth Brown hit a homer off Dwayne Marshall to cut the deficit to 5-1 in the third.

Hallmark led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and stole second. Broughton moved his teammate to third on a fielder’s choice and after an errant throw from Juan Kelly, Hallmark came around to score. Broughton moved to second on the play, stole third, and was driven on a Goldfarb sac fly. A single from Altherr, followed by a walk from Biermann, and an error from another error from Kelly loaded the bases. Parks lifted a pop-up against Mason McAlister, which dropped on the infield and plated two runs to pull Tri-City ahead 9-1.

Ricardo Sanchez picked up a one-out single in the fourth. Canice Ejoh brought Sanchez to third on a single. Goodwin knocked in the Aigles second run.

Trois-Riviėres tacked on two more runs in the sixth. Alex McKenney issued a hit by pitch and a walk to Sanchez and Ejoh, respectively. Both of them advanced 90 feet on an error from Hallmark. Both runners were brought in by Juan Kelly to make it a 9-4 contest.

The ValleyCats padded onto the lead in the eighth. Tyler Luneke issued a walk to Goldfarb and singled to begin the frame. Biermann grounded out to move the runners over. Carson McCusker had a two-run single to give Tri-City an 11-4 advantage.

Marshall (1-0) earned the win. He tossed five innings of two-run ball, walking four and striking out four. McKenney, Greg Veliz, Brac Warren, and Reymin Guduan did not give up an earned run in the final four innings and yielded just one hit.

Gutierrez (0-1) received the loss. He allowed nine runs (four earned) in 3.2 innings pitched.