Early Offense Leads Auburn to Sweep

Auburn, NY - In a doubleheader that was delayed an hour and eleven minutes by rain, the Auburn Doubledays struck early and often on their way to a 15 hit performance in a 9-5 win over Vermont in game one and kept the bats alive, taking game two 7-1.

The sweep of the doubleheader gave Auburn a full game lead over second-place Mahoning Valley, who split their doubleheader with Tri-City on Wednesday night.

In game one of the night, Vermont took the lead early against the Doubledays, taking advantage of a throwing error by Bryce Ortega and scoring the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Nick Rickles. Unfortunately for Vermont, their lead was short-lived.

The Doubledays sent eleven men to the plate in the first, plating six runs on seven hits. Back-to-back singles by Caleb Ramsey and Bryce Ortega got things started for Auburn, with Ramsey coming home to score the Doubledays first run off a double to right-center field by Matt Skole. After Montilla struck out swinging, Moldenhauer grounded out to second, scoring Ortega from third, putting the Doubledays up 2-1.
Unfortunately for Vermont, the Doubledays were just getting warmed up.

Carlos Alvarez followed by launching his first home run of the season over the wall in right field, scoring Skole and increasing the Auburn lead to three runs.  Billy Burns singled to left. Jeremy Mayo walked. Khayyan Norfork singled in Burns and Caleb Ramsey, in his second at-bat of the game, doubled in Mayo, giving Auburn their sixth run of the inning.

Auburn added two more in the second, using a pair of doubles by Ortega and Moldenhauer, an RBI single by Montilla, and a sacrifice fly by Billy Burns. They scored their final run of the game in the fourth inning, when Burns doubled in Russell Moldenhauer, putting Auburn up 9-3.

The Lake Monsters added two in the sixth on a solo home run by Nick Rickles and an RBI double by Michael Fabiaschi, but it wasn’t enough to defeat the Doubledays in a 9-5 game at Falcon Park.
Game two saw Auburn take the lead early and never relinquish it, scoring two in the second on a home run by Justin Miller and adding two in the third and three in the fourth in a 7-1 blowout of Vermont.
Wirkin Estevez was dominant on the mound for Auburn, pitching six innings, scattering three hits and allowing just one run for his fourth win of the year.

Offensively, the Doubledays had five players post multi-hit efforts, with Justin Miller bouncing back from an 0 for 5 game yesterday with a 3 for 4 performance in game two, driving in two on his fourth home run of the year.

Auburn will go for the three-game sweep of the Lake Monsters Thursday in a 7:05pm finale at Falcon Park. Fans in attendance on Thursday night can enjoy “Dollar Thursday,” where 12 oz. beer, 12 oz. soda, hot dogs and peanuts are all sold for one dollar apiece. For tickets, please visit www.auburndoubledays.com.