POMONA, NY- Devin Harris drew a bases loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to win the game for the Boulders over the Ottawa Champions, 4-3, at Palisades Credit Union Park.
On a hot Sunday night, the Boulders offense did just enough to support starter David Fischer and Pat Butler (2-4) to topple Ottawa in a nail biter. Fischer was dealing all game, only allowing one unearned run in seven innings pitched, while striking out five batters. Two unearned runs came across after Mike Fransoso dropped a high pop in the infield grass that would’ve gotten Rockland (37-24) out of the inning unscathed.
Butler took over in the eighth, and threw two scoreless innings, with his only blemish being a walk in the ninth which was erased in a sparkling double play by Junior Arrojo and Pat McKenna. McKenna supported the defense with two doubles and two runs scored to spur on the offense. Devin Harris stayed hot as well, going 3-4, including an RBI before the walk-off.
The Boulders struck first in the second inning, when Mike Montville scored on a Devin Harris double. They added one in each of the third and fifth innings off of Can-Am wins leader Daniel Cordero. Reliever Nick Cunningham came in for one shutout inning in the seventh, leaving Miles Moeller (2-2) with the reigns with a tie game going into the eighth and ninth innings.
In the ninth, with the game tied at three, Junior Arrojo led off with a walk after barely missing a home run, with a huge blast just barely hooking foul in left earlier in the at-bat. Mike Fransoso laid down a sac-bunt to move him over. A few batters later with the bases loaded and two outs, Devin Harris fought to a full count, and was walked, winning the game for Rockland.
The lower scoring affair was a big change of pace to the fans at Palisades Credit Union Park. In the last three games at the stadium in Pomona, a team has scored ten or more runs, with the most recent being Rockland’s 11-0 drubbing of Ottawa on Saturday.
The Boulders have off on Monday, before taking a trip up to the hometown of baseball, Cooperstown, New York, where they will take on the Sussex County Miners at Doubleday Field at 1 P.M.