Home, Sweep Home: Doubledays Improve to 5-1 at Home

AUBURN, NY - After going 0-5 on their most recent road trip to winning three straight against the Black Bears, all you can say is: home, sweep home.
The Doubledays (5-6) were fantastic on both the mound and the plate on Tuesday night, defeating West Virginia, 9-3, en route to their first series sweep of the series.
Considering that the Doubledays went sweepless in 2016 and didn't secure their first sweep in 2017 until late August, their sweep against the Black Bears in late June should definitely serve as some validation that this year's crew could turn out to be something special. Their youth and skill has definitely translated well on the field as the Doubledays improve to 5-1 at home and are back at the .500 mark.
"We have a young and energetic group," said Doubledays manager Jerad Head. "It's a fun clubhouse to be in with these young kids and their passion. They go out there every day and leave it all out there. It's nice to see."
Auburn exploded in the third to give themselves a healthy cushion against the Black Bears for the rest of the game. Kyle Marinconz - who would bat twice in the inning - led off the inning with a single and scored on a Jacob Rhinesmith groundout for the first run of the game. Jamori Blash singled in a run to make it 2-0 before Ricardo Mendez burst it open with a two-run single.
Jose Sanchez, who boards with Mendez and catcher Israel Pineda when they're not on the field, then knocked in both of his roommates with an RBI double to give the Doubledays a commanding 6-0 lead after three frames.
Doubledays starting pitcher Malvin Pena continued his early-season tear, collecting his third win and lowering his ERA to an amazing 0.60 on the year and just allowing a solo run in the fourth inning.
Catcher Nic Perkins added to the Doubledays lead with a two-run bomb in the fifth and a Jamori Blash groundout brought in the ninth run of the game in the sixth. While the Black Bears were able to knock a two-run dinger of their own in the sixth, the combined efforts of Yonathan and Nector Ramirez kept West Virginia scoreless for the remainder of the game and give the Doubledays their final 9-3 score.
The Doubledays will be back in action at 7:05PM on Thursday when they take on the Muckdogs at Batavia.