AUBURN, NY - After taking two steps forward on Thursday with their first back-to-back wins since August 5-6, the Doubledays took two steps back. Auburn (23-42) dropped both games of a doubleheader against the Black Bears (36-29) on Friday - 8-1 and 5-6, respectively - which mathematically eliminated the Doubledays
AUBURN, NY - After taking two steps forward on Thursday with their first back-to-back wins since August 5-6, the Doubledays took two steps back. Auburn (23-42) dropped both games of a doubleheader against the Black Bears (36-29) on Friday - 8-1 and 5-6, respectively - which mathematically eliminated the Doubledays from playoff contention.
Fernando Villegas homered on a 2-2 pitch from Auburn Game 1 starter Carlos Romero in the third inning and the Black Bears never looked back. Romero loaded the bases and allowed three runs in the fourth inning, and gave up back-to-back one-out triples in the fifth to give West Virginia a 5-0 lead. Jose Sanchez allowed the sixth run to score from third on a fielding error, which spelled the end for Romero's forgettable outing.
Bobby Milacki finished out the fifth inning and threw a scoreless sixth, but allowed two walks to score in the seventh.
The Doubledays, on the other hand, struggled to string anything together against West Virginia starter Austin Roberts. Auburn couldn't push across any runs against the Sacramento State product despite tallying seven hits, and only managed to put up a single run against his replacement, Trey McGough.
Auburn fell behind early in Game 2 as well, as a Villegas RBI triple coupled with a balk scored a pair against Doubledays starter Gilberto Chu. This time, however, the Doubledays offense was able to answer back.
A misplayed pop-up to shallow center field put Landerson Pena on second base with one out in the third, and a line drive to center from Jose Sanchez cut the Black Bears' lead in half. Pena's big night continued into the fourth inning as - with two runners on - he smashed a ball into the right field corner for a two-run triple. The scoring didn't end there, as a missed catch error at third allowed Landerson to score to give Auburn a 5-2 lead.
Rafael Gomez took over for Chu in the fifth inning and went three up, three down. His next inning of work, however, unraveled quickly. A 5-2 Doubledays lead quickly became a tie after a two-out RBI single from Matt Gorski and a double from Brendt Citta. Cory Wood delivered what would be the winning blow for the Black Bears - an RBI single to center field to give West Virginia a 6-5 lead.
Presented with the lead, West Virginia pitcher Cameron Junker went six-up, six-down to end the game and collect his fifth save of the year.
The Doubledays will be back in action Saturday at 7PM for the series finale against the Black Bears. Listen in on the action on fingerlakes1.com, milb.streamguys1.com, or the TuneIn app.
