The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (17-15) concluded a 12-game road trip on Sunday afternoon at NBT Bank Stadium against the Syracuse Mets (15-18) in the series finale. Coming into this game, Lehigh Valley led the series over Syracuse 4-1.
Ranger Suarez (0-0, 0.00) was on the mound for Lehigh Valley. It was his second rehab start after his first start was cut short due to rain on Tuesday night. On the other side, Humberto Mejia (1-2, 4.55 ERA) was on the mound for Syracuse.
After two and a half scoreless innings, Syracuse struck first in the bottom of the third inning when center fielder Tim Locastro drove in Lorenzo Cedrola on a two-out RBI single to left field for a 1-0 lead. Suarez got Ronny Mauricio to ground out which ended the inning.
Lehigh Valley left fielder Jake Cave started the top of the fourth inning with a walk as Weston Wilson approached the plate. Wilson doubled on a ground ball past the third baseman Jaylin Davis and into left field, scoring Cave that tied the game 1-1.
Two batters later, Scott Kingery brought Wilson home with a sacrifice fly to right field to put Lehigh Valley up 2-1 with two outs. After a double by Jordan Qsar, Dustin Peterson lined out that ended the inning.
Moving to the top of the fifth inning, the IronPigs started to pull away. John Hicks and Esteban Quiroz both hit back-to-back singles with one out for Jake Cave. Cave hit a ground-rule double when the ball bounced in play and went over the left field wall, scoring Hicks for a 3-1 lead.
Weston Wilson was up next. He cleared the bases with a three-run home run off Mejia’s fastball over the wall at the left-center field, extending Lehigh Valley’s lead to 6-1. It was Wilson’s seventh home run of the season.
Simon Muzziotti was next and said “Hey, I can do that too,” and hit a solo home run over the Salt City Deck building at right field for a 7-1 lead. It was Muzziotti’s second home run of the season. The Mets changed pitchers after Muzziotti’s home run.
Zach Muckenhirn was the new Mets’ pitcher. He got Scott Kingery to fly out and struck out Jordan Qsar that retired the side.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Louis Head replaced Ranger Suarez. Suarez pitched five innings, allowing one run, and three strikeouts in 48 pitches, of which 35 were strikes. Mark Vientos was up with two outs and crushed a solo home run off Head’s fastball to center field and it was now 7-2 Lehigh Valley. DJ Stewart grounded out which ended the inning.
Lehigh Valley second baseman Esteban Quiroz started the top of the seventh inning with a walk. Jake Cave was next as Muckenhirn threw a wild pitch, moving Quiroz to second base. Cave singled on a line drive to right field, moving Quiroz to third base for Weston Wilson.
Wilson brought Quiroz home with a sacrifice fly to right field for an 8-2 lead. It was Wilson’s fifth RBI of the afternoon. Jake Cave was caught stealing second base and a lineout by Simon Muzziotti ended the inning.
Moving to the bottom of the eighth inning, Hans Crouse was the new Leigh Valley pitcher. He got into trouble when he gave up a two-run home run off the scoreboard at left field. It was now 8-4 IronPigs with one out. After putting two more players on base, Crouse was replaced by Trey Cobb. Cobb got the last two outs to retire the side.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Erich Uelmen closed out the game for the IronPigs. He walked Jaylin Davis with one out. Two batters later, Uelmen gave up a single to Lorenzo Cedrola with two outs. Finally, Uelmen got Tim Locastro to ground out which ended the game. Lehigh Valley defeated the Syracuse Mets by the final score of 8-4.
Lehigh Valley ends the 12-game road trip 8-4 and won the series over Syracuse 5-1. The IronPigs had nine hits, went 3-6 with runners in scoring position, and left four runners on base. Ranger Suarez picked up his first win of the season for Lehigh Valley while Syracuse pitcher Humberto Mejia lost his third game of the year.
Lehigh Valley returns to Coca-Cola Park to begin a six-game homestand against the Memphis Redbirds starting on Tuesday at 11 am on MiLB.com. Tickets for the game are available on StubHub and Viagogo. Also, pick up IronPigs merchandise today at Fanatics.com.
