ONEONTA _ John Murrian made good on his opportunity.
Murrian's two-out single to left in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Jim Gulliver from second base as the Oneonta Tigers snapped a three-game skid with a 3-2 New York-Penn League victory in front of an announced crowd of 639 at Damaschke Field on Monday night.
"I was just looking for something to hit," said Murrian, who added he waited on a slider from losing pitcher LaCurtis Mayes. "My job was to put something in the outfield. ... I recognized (the slider) early and (Mayes) left it up a little. I put a good swing on it."
Oneonta (17-11) had lost its last three games at Mahoning Valley following a six-game winning streak.
"That was a great game all the way around," Oneonta manager Howard Bushong said. "Our kids were a little fatigued, but they just keep battling. The last three games of that road trip _ the first three went great _ the last three we could have won all three of them. They just got away from us. We got back on the trail tonight."
The O-Tigers continue their three-game series with the reigning NY-Penn champions at 7:05 tonight. After finishing the series with the Muckdogs on Wednesday, the O-Tigers play five straight with Tri-City, starting with two in Troy beginning Thursday.
"Let me tell you something, Batavia's pretty good," said Bushong, whose team leads the Stedler Division by two games over Vermont (16-14) and Lowell (16-14). "That's for sure. They are one sound, solid baseball team. It was impressive watching our kids find a way to win."
Murrian almost didn't get the chance to lead the Tigers to victory.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, third baseman Wade Gaynor drove an 0-1 pitch deep to left field, but it bounced off the top of the wall for a double.
"It felt great," Gaynor said. "... I thought it was gone. I'm going to be honest _ I thought I had enough."
He wasn't the only one.
"I was kind of antsy too," Bushong said. "I thought that ball had a chance at getting out, but this is a big ballpark. We know that and that's the way the park plays. It's just one of those things. But he crushed that ball and it was fantastic to see him do it. Hopefully this will be something that gets him going and he'll swing it like he's capable of."
Winning pitcher Wade Kapteyn then put the Muckdogs (15-16) down in order on four pitches in the top of the 10th.
The game looked like it might go a bit longer as Mayes (0-2) struck out Chris Sedon swinging and got Michael Rockett on a comebacker for the first two outs in the 10th.
"We don't quit with two outs," Bushong said. "Our kids are still battling up there with two outs. We've done this pretty much most of the year. We're not done with two outs. We still fight. We've had a lot of success with it."
Gulliver, who had gone hitless in four at-bats, then lined a single to left and went to second when Rawley Bishop bounced a single to left to put runners on first and second.
Murrian had a 1-1 count when he saw the slider and lined it to left. Batavia's Beau Riportella threw home, but Gulliver scored standing up.
"That's huge," Gaynor said. "We were talking in the late innings that we needed this one to get back on track. It feels good."
Batavia opened the scoring in the top of the fifth. Ryan Jackson had an RBI single and Ivan Castro scored on a wild pitch from O-Tigers starter Luis Sanz for a 2-0 lead.
The Tigers tied it in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double from Chris Sedon and a run-scoring single from Rockett.
NOTES: Any discipline the Detroit Tigers will take against Kevan Hess for a recent arrest for driving while intoxicated will be handled internally, said Dan Lunetta, Detroit's director of minor league operations.
Hess, 21, was stopped at 1:16 a.m. July 14 and charged with DWI, Oneonta Police Department Lt. Dennis Nayor said Friday. Hess, a right-handed relief pitcher from Kalamazoo, Mich., took a breath test and had a blood alcohol content of .08, which is the legal level for DWI in New York. Hess was also charged with failure to signal a turn.
Lunetta said Sunday night that the he wasn't sure of the time but that he was "notified immediately" about the incident, meaning the Tigers knew about the arrest before Hess earned his first professional victory Thursday in a 5-4 victory over the host Auburn Doubledays.
Lunetta said he wouldn't divulge what discipline the Tigers would take on Hess.
"These types of matters are strictly between the player and the club and we don't publicly discuss how we handle matters of this nature," Lunetta said. "... We take these things very seriously. We have procedures and a process in place and we handle it accordingly, but we don't discuss it publicly. We act upon it quickly.
"There are several factors in handling it and all of those are taken into consideration," he continued. "We deal with it accordingly."
Detroit selected Hess in the 14th round of this year's First-Year Player Draft out of Western Michigan University. A 6-foot-2 right-handed pitcher, Hess is 1-0 with a 3.44 ERA this season. He's given up 18 hits and seven runs over 18 1/3 innings, striking out 14 and walking six.
In his most recent outing, Hess struck out three and walked three over four scoreless innings against Mahoning Valley on Sunday, an 8-6 O-Tigers loss.
"Kevan is a fine, young man," Lunetta said. "He made a mistake. People make mistakes and I'm sure he'll learn from it."
Bushong said he couldn't comment on the incident other than noting that "it's being handled by the Tigers organization."
O-Tigers General Manager Andrew Weber said it was a matter between Hess and Detroit and also could not comment.
O-Tigers 3, Muckdogs 2
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___
P.J. Harmer can be reached at pharmer@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 229.
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