Eric Knopsnyder
The Tribune-Democrat
JOHNSTOWN —
Buffalo manager Chuck Righetti was looking to shake things up in the seventh inning on Tuesday, but it was Toledo that ended up looking like a shaken team.
Righetti’s decision to put Garrett Cortright on the mound and in the lineup paid quick dividends. Despite giving up a run in the top of the seventh, Cortright helped jump-start a slumbering offense, and Team New Era scored five runs on the way to a 6-3 victory in a AAABA Tournament winner’s bracket game at Roxbury Park.
“I was just trying to motivate some of the boys in the dugout and shake the lineup a little bit,” Righetti said of his decision to remove his designated hitter in favor of Cortright. “They were sleeping a little bit, let them score the second run. They just had to be woken up.”
Cortright was hit by losing pitcher Eric Vaughan to lead off the bottom of the seventh and things quickly unraveled for the Monarchs (1-1). Michael Hackett reached on an error by shortstop Ryan Ford, and Jesse Kelso drove Vaughan from the game with an RBI single.
Reliever Logan Brunkenhoefer didn’t throw a strike, walking Justin Urschell on four pitches before being lifted in favor of Josh Cok. That didn’t work either, as Cok walked Joe Polichetti to tie the game. One out later, Steve Karnyski gave Buffalo the lead with a two-run single to left. Cody Stonish’s run-scoring single made it 6-3, and Cortright reached base for the second time in the inning – this time on a walk – before reliever Mike Moyer came on to get the final out.
“We just had one of those innings where we couldn’t get strikes across,” Toledo manager Dale Gray said. “If you can’t get strikes across, it’s tough.”
Buffalo is 2-0 in the tournament for the first time since 2000 and just the second time since 1980. Righetti’s squad will play Philadelphia today as one of four remaining unbeaten teams in the tournament.
“We’re going to keep playing until they make us stop,” Polichetti said.
Kelso, Urschell, Stonish and Travis Denman each finished with two hits for Buffalo, but Team New Era only had one run – on Polichetti’s solo homer in the second – until the seventh-inning outburst.
“That’s how they play,” Righetti said. “We’ve been in games like this all year. That’s how we got here – come back in the bottom of the seventh, 2-1 and get three or four and close the door. We’ve been in maybe a dozen of those games this year. We don’t fold our tent.”
Cortright, who gave up an unearned run on Ford’s RBI double in the top of the seventh, picked up the victory. Jon Klein pitched two perfect innings, striking out four of the six batters he faced, for the save.
“That’s his job,” Righetti said of Klein. “That’s been his job all year. Once I get the lead, I go to him. Only once all year that anybody came back on him.”
Polichetti said the team expects to win when Klein takes the mound.
“He’s very, very good,” the catcher said. “Every time he goes out he just gets the job done.”
Toledo got a sacrifice fly from Daniel Russell in the third and an unearned run off Buffalo starter Jordan Cave in the sixth.
Alex Johnson led off the sixth with an infield single and came around to score one batter later on a sacrifice bunt by Keith Farmer. That was the play that angered Righetti, as Cave threw high to first base, allowing Johnson to take third. Johnson, noticing a lack of urgency on Buffalo’s part, never stopped at third and scored without a throw.
Ford, who reached base all five times in Toledo’s victory over New Orleans on Monday, had two more hits Tuesday.
The Monarchs will play Altoona in an elimination game today.
“We’ll rebound from this and come back strong tomorrow,” Gray said. “We weren’t expecting this.”
