On Tuesday morning, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs took on the Gwinnett Stripers at the Striper’s home field, Coolray Park in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
This game was exciting for fans, with several home runs from both teams. The IronPigs came out on top, with a final score of 15-9.
The first pitch was thrown out at 10:50 a.m. by the Striper’s starting pitcher, Davis Daniel. It didn’t take long before Lehigh Valley put something up on the scoreboard. They finished the first inning with a total of four runs. The big blow came from Garrett Stubbs, who hit a two-run home run to put Lehigh Valley up 4-0 after the top half of the first.
When the Stripers came to the plate for the bottom half of the inning, they could only get one run in as Alex Verdugo plated the first run for Gwinnett.
At the top of the second, the IronPigs were back at it again. Shortstop Rodolfo Castro put up another run on the board. Moments later, Otto Kemp hit an RBI double as Weston Wilson scored his second run of the game. The Stripers scored another run in the bottom of the second as shortstop Jośe Devers drove in a run to make it 6-2 in favor of the IronPigs.
In the third inning, the IronPigs continued to work together as right fielder Oscar Mercado hit a line-drive single to right field, allowing center fielder Cal Stevenson to move ahead and put up another score on the scoreboard. Moments later, after Gabriel Rincones Jr. hit a single, bringing in Castro to put up another run on the board.
At the bottom of the third, Devers hit a home run to center field, bringing the Gwinett deficit to 8-3. The next time there was excitement on the field was at the bottom of the fourth inning when the Stripers scored again.
Second baseman Eddie Alvarez hit a two-run home run to center field to put the Stripers to 8-5 as the IronPigs were still leading. At the top of the fifth, the Ironpigs scored two more runs after a fielding error by Verdugo. Both Mercado and Crawford scored, putting the lead to 10-5.
No one scored again until the top of the seventh. Castro hit a home run, giving the IronPigs another run to add to the score. They were continuing to lead by 11-5. Two more runs were added after Kemp hit a two-run double, scoring Wilson and Rincones Jr. to score for a second time as the IronPigs continued to lead 13-5.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Stripers started to make a comeback with a few runs. Milligan hit a two-run double out to center field, allowing both Catcher James McCann and Devers to score. Moments later, while Milligan was at second, Alvarez hit a second homerun, sending them both home for the second time in this game and bringing the score to 13-9.
The IronPigs put up two more runs in this game’s eighth and ninth innings. First baseman Buddy Kennedy scored a run, and in the ninth, Kemp hit his fifth home run of the season to end the scoring at 15-9 in favor of IronPigs in the best game they played in this early part of the season.
The IronPigs play again at Coca-Cola Park against the Gwinnett Stripers on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. and for the rest of the week to complete this series.
