The Muckdogs dropped the fifth of their last seven games on Sunday afternoon to the Lowell Spinners. It was a back-and-forth affair until the seventh inning. The Muckdogs and Spinners traded runs through the first six innings.
Lowell got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning when Tyler Esplin would reach base on a ball that skipped on Gunnar Schubert. Two singles later, he would come around to score thanks to Grant Williams RBI base knock.
In the bottom of the fourth, Jerar Encarnacion got his first hit since returning to the lineup. His triple to the right-center wall set the Muckdogs to score with a runner on third with one out. Two batters later, Denis Karas doubled him home to tie the game up at one. Karas has brought in three batters in the last two games.
Batavia went to the bullpen in the fifth and would yield one run in that inning. Kroby Batesole was hit by a pitch from Martin Anderson to start the inning. A double from Williams followed it up to put two runners in scoring position with no outs. A sacrifice fly from Dylan Hardy put the Spinners back in the lead 2-1.
Michael Donadio led Batavia off in the sixth, and he would tie the game by hitting an opposite-field home run to left to knot the game again 2-2 in the sixth. Donadio tallied his second homer of the year, and both of them have been sent to the opposite field.
Batavia and Lowell were still tied going into the seventh inning, but that would change soon after. The first three batters of the inning would come around to score, and four in total would. Two of the runs came to score on a double from Kole Cottam, and another on a bases-loaded walk. Batavia would face bases-loaded situations multiple times. At the end of the inning, Lowell led 6-2, and that would be the final.
The Muckdogs have now dropped five of their last seven games, and have one more game against Lowell before going back on the road to play the Williamsport Crosscutters in Central Pennsylvania.
Photos by Steve Ognibene.
