Tough Times: Gades surrender early lead, fall in extras

Wilmington, Del. (May 24, 2023) — The Hudson Valley Renegades fell 10-9 in extra innings to the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Wednesday at Frawley Stadium.

The Renegades took an early lead in the top of the first when Spencer Henson drove in Alexander Vargas with an RBI single. Aldenis Sanchez brought in another tally with an infield single as Hudson Valley opened up a 2-0 advantage against Kyle Luckham.

Aaron Palensky led off the third with a solo home run off Luckham, as the Renegades rallied for three more runs to extend their lead to 5-0. Palensky had a terrific game at the plate, going 3-for-4 with four runs scored, a home run, and RBI and two walks. The homer was his league-leading 11^th of the season.

In the top of the fourth, Henson laced an RBI double and Rafael Flores followed with a run-scoring single off Marlon Perez to put the Renegades up 7-0. Henson finished 4-for-6 with two runs, two doubles and three RBIs in the game.

Tyrone Yulie cruised through four shutout innings to start his outing, but ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth. Wilmington rallied for four runs against him highlighted by a two-run home run by James Wood to cut the Hudson Valley lead down to 7-4.

Another Henson RBI double and a Grant Richardson RBI single in the top of the sixth extended the Renegades lead to 9-4, but the Blue Rocks rallied back for three in the bottom of the sixth against Carlos Gomez. Trey Lipscomb collected a two-run single and scored on an RBI single from Jeremy De La Rosa.

Wilmington tied the game at 9-9 against Nick Paciorek in the top of the seventh thanks to a Jacob Young single and an RBI fielder’s choice groundout by Lipscomb.

The Blue Rocks bullpen kept the Renegades offense at bay during the comeback, with at one point Dannel Diaz, Todd Peterson and Tyler Yankosky combining to retire 13 consecutive batters. Harrison Cohen stabilized things for Hudson Valley, twirling scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth to send the game into extras.

After the Renegades failed to score in the top of the 10^th, the Blue Rocks scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10^th on an infield single by Jeremy De La Rosa off Cohen (0-1).

Postgame Notes: The Renegades are now 2-3 in extra inning games this season, and have played extra innings in two of their last three games.

Hudson Valley continues its series with Wilmington on Thursday night at Frawley Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 a.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 5:45 on the Renegades Baseball Network. The Renegades send RHP Zach Messinger (0-2, 2.23) to the mound against RHP Chance Huff (2-2, 5.34).