Even as the Oneonta Tigers ended a season-long eight-game losing skid, their chances of making the New York-Penn League playoffs took another hit.
Michael Rockett's RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth inning snapped a tie and the O-Tigers beat the Hudson Valley Renegades, 3-1, Monday in front of an announced crowd of 327 at Damaschke Field. The attendance is a season-low.
However, Staten Island's 5-3 victory at Vermont, eliminated the O-Tigers from the NY-Penn wild-card chase. Oneonta, which has seven games remaining, is 7 1/2 games behind the Yankees (43-27) in the wild-card standings.
The O-Tigers (34-33), who hadn't won since beating Williamsport, 3-2, Aug. 21, still have a slim chance at reaching the playoffs, trailing Lowell by 5 1/2 games in the Stedler Division.
Following the final game of a three-game set with visiting Hudson Valley (33-36) at 7:05 tonight, the O-Tigers host the Spinners for three games, including a double header Wednesday and their home finale Thursday. Oneonta finishes the season with three games at Hudson Valley on Friday-Sunday.
Lowell (40-28) beat Brooklyn on Monday, 8-5, lowering its elimination number to two in the division. That means any combination of Lowell victories and Oneonta losses that adds up to two will eliminate the O-Tigers from the playoff chase.
Three Oneonta pitchers combined to hold Hudson Valley to seven hits. Nathan Newman started and went 4 1/3 innings, giving up one run on four hits. He struck out three and walked three.
Michael Torrealba (2-1), who earned the victory, followed with 2 2/3 innings of relief, giving up two hits and striking out one. Jose Ortega threw the final two innings, earning his first save. He gave up one hit and struck out two.
Hudson Valley opened the scoring in the first.
Christopher Murrill walked, but Newman got Dustin Biell to line out to left and Tyler Bortnick to ground out to third, the latter moving Murrill to second.
Eli Sonoqui then singled to left, scoring Murrill to make it 1-0.
Oneonta tied it in the second when Alexis Espinoza homered to center with one out. It was Espinoza's second homer of the season.
Carmelo Jaime got things going in the sixth with a bunt single up the first-base line with one out. Rockett then tripled to right to score Jaime and give the O-Tigers a 2-1 lead.
Oneonta closed the scoring in the seventh. With one out, Luis Palacios doubled to left and scored on Matt Mansilla's single to left.
O-Tigers 3, Renegades 1
{"Sports agate MLB teams"/}Hudson ValleyOneonta
{"Sports agate MLB batting"/}abrhbiabrhbi
{"Sports agate body text"/}Murrill dh3110Jaime ss3110
Biell cf3000Rockett cf4011
Bortnick ss4010Bishop 1b3010
Sonoqui 1b4021Murrian c4000
Cohen lf4010Espinoza rf4111
Jones rf4020Hrnndez dh3000
Otero 2b4000Palacios 3b3110
Genao c4000Mansilla lf3011
Davis 3b2000Sedon 2b3000
Totals32161Totals30363
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E""Newman (1). DP""Oneonta 1. LOB""Hudson Valley 7, Oneonta 6. 2B""Jones (5), Palacios (5). 3B""Bortnick (3), Rockett (6). HR""Espinoza (2). SB""Murrill (27), Espinoza (8), Mansilla (3).
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Lobstein L,3-5632229
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WP""Lobstein, Chapa, Newman. Umpires""Home, Thomas Newsom; Field, Joe Muenzer. T""2:34. A""327.
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