The Aberdeen IronBirds (8-8) swept the Hudson Valley Renegades (10-7) with a 9-2 thrashing on Wednesday night, making it the first time Aberdeen has swept the Renegades since July of 2006. The red-hot IronBirds are now on a 3-game win streak while going 8-3 in the last 11 games, and the 3rd place Aberdeen squad is now just half a game back from the 2nd place Staten Island Yankees (8-7) and just 1.5 games back from the division leading Renegades (10-7). The IronBirds were led to victory with phenomenal games from 1B Trey Mancini (5-5, 3 R, 1 3B, 1 RBI), LF Connor Bierfeldt (2-5, 2 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI), RF Manny Hernandez (2-3, 1 R, 1 3B, 2 RBI), and Hector Veloz (2-4, 2 RBI), while getting a solid pitching performance from starter Janser Severino (3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 2 K’s) and relievers Harry Marino (Got the W tonight), Michael Joseph, and Alex Santana ( 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K’s).
Aberdeen would strike with venom right off the bat in tonight’s game, scoring three runs in the top of the 1st Inning off of a 2-run 3B from RF Manny Hernandez and an RBI single from 3B Hector Veloz. Janser Severino would then pitch very effectively through his 3.2 Innings of work ( only run allowed was unearned), and the IronBirds would go into the 5th Inning with a 3-1 lead. It was in the 5th Inning when Aberdeen took control of the game with an RBI single from Trey Mancini to score Jeff Kemp(2-4, 2 R, 1 2B), followed by Connor Bierfeldt blasting a 2-run HR over the left field fence to give Aberdeen a 6-1 lead. The Renegades would make it 6-2 in the bottom of the 5th after LF Granden Goetzman hit a lead-off 3B and then scored on an RBI groundout from 1B John Alexander. The score would remain 6-2 until the top of the 7th, when Connor Bierfeldt crushed his 2nd 2-run HR of the game to make it a 8-2 IronBirds lead. In the 9th Inning, Hector Veloz would make it a 9-2 Aberdeen lead with an RBI single to score Mancini, who led off the top of the 9th with a triple, while Alex Santana would retire the Renegades 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th to close out the W and the sweep of the 1st place Renegades.
Now, here is a couple of notes on tonight’s game:
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- With his 5 for 5 game tonight, Trey Mancini tied the IronBirds franchise record for most hits in a game (5). The 21-year-old is now hitting a ridiculous .358 (1st on team-3rd in NYPL) with 9 R (Team-High), 4 2B, 1 HR and 8 RBI while posting an impressive .393 OBP on the year. Over his last eight games, he is hitting an unbelievable .500 (15 for 30) with 7 R, 3 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI. The sky is the limit for this former Fighting Irish star.
- After his 2 HR and 4 RBI night, Connor Bierfeldt now leads the team in HR (3) and is tied for 1st on the team with Hector Veloz (.293 avg, 2 HR, 9 RBI) in RBI’s (9) while posting an improving .240 average.
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- 7 IronBirds hitters recorded multi-hit games tonight: Mancini, Bierfeldt, Hernandez, Veloz, Kemp, Vega (2-5) and Richards, who went 2-5 tonight and is now hitting .262 with 5 2B’s (1st on team) and 7 RBI’s on the year.
-OUTSTANDING STATISTIC ALERT: ALL of the IronBirds runs tonight came with two outs. That’s impressive, talk about timely, clutch hitting! The IronBirds were also 6 for 10 with RISP tonight, while putting up the 9 runs on a season-high 17 hits. Stat’s don’t lie, the Aberdeen offense dominated tonight.
- After pitching effectively in 3.2 Innings tonight, Janser Severino now has a sparkling 1.80 ERA in 5 games (2 starts), while racking up 15 K’s (2nd on team) in 15 Innings and posting an impressive 1.13 WHIP. Alex Santana also lowered his ERA to 4.05 after pitching lights out in the 8th and 9th, and is now tied for 3rd on the team in K’s (12). Michael Joseph lowered his ERA to 3.46 tonight after pitching 1.2 shutout Innings. The 22-year-old also has 10 K’s in 13 Innings on the year. Harry Marino allowed just his first run of the season tonight, but got his 2nd win of the year and still boasts a 1.23 ERA while racking up 9 K’s in 7.1 Innings on the season.
- The IronBirds hitters are now tied for 2nd in the NYPL in HR’s (9), while the IronBirds pitching staff has posted an impressive and rapidly improving 3.56 ERA along with a solid 1.29 WHIP, while being 2nd in IP (154.1), and 2nd in K’s (146).
- The attendance at the Dutch tonight was 4,332
- The IronBirds (8-8) will now face the Brooklyn Cyclones (6-10) in the first game of a 3-game set at Ripken Stadium tomorrow night (Happy 4th of July everybody!!!) at 7:05 PM. LHP Mitch Horacek (0-1, 13.50 ERA) will make his 2nd start of the season for Aberdeen, while RHP Seth Lugo (1-0, 5.00 ERA) will take the mound for the 3rd time this season.
That’s all for now IronBirds fans! Be sure to keep it locked here at IBN in the AM for the Independence day edition of pre-game notes before the IronBirds take on the Cyclones, and check the site for the Line-up’s a couple of hours before first pitch! See you in the AM, IronBirds Nation!
– Logan Quick