Photo Finish: BlueClaws squeak past Gades in 11 inn.

Wild game features five lead changes, many oddities

Spencer Henson became the Renegades all-time home run king when he hit his 24th of his career on Sunday against Jersey Shore. (Dave Janosz)

By Thomas Zinzarella/Hudson Valley Renegades

September 10, 2023

Wappingers Falls, N.Y. (Sept. 10, 2023) — The Jersey Shore BlueClaws squeaked past the Hudson Valley Renegades 10-9 in 11 innings on Sunday afternoon at Heritage Financial Park to close out the 2023 regular season. With the victory and a loss by the Brooklyn Cyclones, the BlueClaws won the Second

Wappingers Falls, N.Y. (Sept. 10, 2023) — The Jersey Shore BlueClaws squeaked past the Hudson Valley Renegades 10-9 in 11 innings on Sunday afternoon at Heritage Financial Park to close out the 2023 regular season. With the victory and a loss by the Brooklyn Cyclones, the BlueClaws won the Second Half Championship in the North Division of the South Atlantic League and secured a playoff spot.

The BlueClaws jumped in front early after a pair of errors in the first inning scored Gabriel Rincones in the top of the first inning against Brock Selvidge. In the second, Otto Kemp singled and stole second to start the frame, Caleb Ricketts then singled and Erick Brito hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Kemp and double the Jersey Shore lead to 2-0.

Hudson Valley rallied back, scoring a run in the second on a Jared Wegner RBI single that scored Ben Cowles. Hudson Valley tied the game at two on a run-scoring single from Cole Gabrielson in the bottom of the fourth.

The ‘Gades took their first lead of the contest in the fifth against Cam Wynne. After Wynne retired the first two hitters of the frame, Cowles and Antonio Gómez collected back-to-back two-out singles to bring up Spencer Henson, who doubled home both runners home to give the ‘Gades a 4-2 lead.

Jersey Shore responded with a five-run top of the sixth to retake a 7-4 lead. Selvidge started the inning and yielded a pair of doubles to Leandro Pineda and Otto Kemp before Shane Gray entered out of the bullpen. With Jersey Shore now trailing just 4-3, a single to centerfield from Erick Brito scored Kemp and tied the game at four. An error, a wild pitch, and an RBI single from Rincones polished off the scoring in the frame.

After a pair of RBI singles from Gómez and Jesus Rodriguez in the sixth trimmed the deficit to 7-6, Henson and Kyle Battle clubbed a pair of solo home runs in the seventh off Carlos Betancourt to hand the lead back to Hudson Valley at 8-7. The home run by Henson was his 24^th career as a Renegade, passing Everson Pereira and Grant Richardson for the most home runs in franchise history.

SPENCER HENSON SOLO SHOT! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/nzicKGDWOF
— Hudson Valley Renegades (@HVRenegades) September 10, 2023

The Renegades stretched their advantage to 9-7 in the eighth after a wild pitch from Jason Ruffcorn (4-1) scored Gómez. Osiel Rodriguez tossed a scoreless eighth and came back out for the ninth. Pineda and Kemp notched a pair of one-out singles, before a two-out throwing error by Jesus Rodriguez scored both runners to tie the game at nine.

After neither side scored in the tenth, position player Juan Crisp (0-1) entered out of the bullpen for the top of the 11^th. A flyball from Felix Reyes advanced Rincones, the automatic runner, to third base, and Kemp brought in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly to make it 10-9. Gabriel Cotto tossed a scoreless bottom half of the frame to secure the victory for Jersey Shore.

After an off day on Monday, the Renegades travel to play the Jersey Shore BlueClaws for Game 1 of the North Division Championship Series at ShoreTown Ballpark on Tuesday night at 6:35 p.m. Hudson Valley then returns home to Heritage Financial Park for Game 2 of the North Division Championship Series on Thursday and will host Game 3, if necessary, on Friday night. Playoff tickets are available at www.hvrenegades.com.