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Mounties Extend D2 West Lead with Extra-Innings Win in Boston

It’s getting harder and harder to ignore the Vancouver Mounties, who extended their D2 West lead to five games with tonight’s extra-inning win over Boston thanks to the heroics of CF Sonny Scoggins and 1B John Witherspoon.

Boston, meanwhile, missed a chance to climb closer to the Conference-leading Terrapins, who lost 3-0 to New Orleans.

The game got off to a raucous start, as both teams scored three in the first. The 37 year old Dave Wyatt has been Boston’s best starter over the first month of the season, and came in with a 2-0 record and a 2.36 ERA. But Vancouver greeted him rudely, as leadoff hitter Sonny Scoggins drew a walk, and scored on John Witherspoon’s first homer of the day, a 365 footer down the RF line. After Wyatt recorded an out, Tony Hines crushed another, to nearly the same spot, making it 3-0 Mounties.

The bees answered back in the bottom half, as an Adam Andersen single and Rogelio Ventura double put runners on second and third for the young cleanup hitter Paul Ratner. Ratner has had a slow start to his season, but he lofted a 2-2 Danny Lowe offering into left and into the stands for a three-run bomb that tied it up.

That’s where things would stay until the fifth, as both pitchers largely kept their opponents off the basepaths. But in the fifth, Witherspoon got to Wyatt again. Tim Taylor reached via an error as Ratner dropped a throw from SS Ramon Santiago, and advanced on a Colin Hannigan single before Witherspoon drilled a 3-2 pitch nearly 400 feet to left center to double Vancouver’s score. That did it for Wyatt, who was replaced by Carlos Castillo.

Lowe didn’t last much longer. He kept the Bees quiet in the bottom of the fifth, but in the sixth he gave up a leadoff double to Jonathan Wyand, who went to third on a Dustin Jennings bunt. Adam Andersen walked, bringing up Rogelio Ventura. Ventura and Lowe had a long battle, during which Andersen stole second. But on the ninth pitch, the Boston RF flew out to right, shallow enough to hold Wyand at third. That brought up Ramon Santiago with two outs. The light-hitting SS is in the middle of a career year, however, and was able to shoot a single up the middle, bringing Wyand and the speedy Andersen home to bring Boston within 1.

Vancouver pulled away again over the next two innings, however. Two walks and a single loaded the bases for Witherspoon in the 7th, and though he didn’t homer he did do damage, singling in one. Castillo recovered to strike out three Mounties in a row to escape, ending his night on a relative high note. He was replaced at the start of the 8th by lefty Dan Kuhler, who promptly gave up two singles to put men on the corners, then allowed a double to Sonny Scoggins that put the Mounties up 9-5.

That seemed like a high hill to climb, but climb it Boston did: in the bottom of the 8th, Dustin Jennings doubled, followed by a one out single by Ventura and a walk to Santiago. Shawn Burge strode to the plate with the bases loaded, and after taking a first pitch ball knocked Mounties reliever Josh Coleman’s next pitch straight down the RF line, clearing the fence for a dramatic, game-tying grand slam as the Boston crowd exploded.

Both clubs had a quiet ninth, but trouble started almost immediately for Boston in the tenth. OF Greg Cousino singled, stole second, and advanced to third on a fly ball that once again brought Sonny Scoggins to the plate. Scoggins is known more for his outstanding glove work than he is for his bat, but he whacked his second double of the day, bringing Cousino around for the go-ahead. He went to third on a wild pitch, but the Mounties stranded him there.

The damage was done, though, as Vancouver’s ace close Matt Greene entered to end the game in three batters - a strikeout, a hit batsman, and a double play. The Mounties now sit five games up on the West, while Boston remains in third place, four behind the Conference-leading Baltimore Terrapins.