Bears Blow Lead But Win Over Pats

By Mark Krulish on May 24, 2008

NEWARK, NJ – Ramon Castro has been back less than two weeks, but has already solidified his place in the Bears lineup. Of course, it helps that Castro stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the 12th and slammed a walk-off home run into the Newark night to give the Bears their ninth straight victory, despite blowing a seven-run lead early on.

The game itself was a wild one, starting with both offenses lighting up the scoreboard.

The Bears jumped all over Somerset starter Brian Adams. Bobby Hill got the offense rolling with a single and he was followed by Ramon Castro sending a sizzling shot to Teuris Olivares at shortstop. It was ruled an error and the Bears had two men aboard with one out. Cory Aldridge continued his hot hitting, delivering an RBI single. Val Majewski batted in a run with a double later in the inning and John Pachot knocked in two runs with a single. Newark was up 5-0 after the opening frame.

Majewski went five-for-six in the game and fell a home run short of the cycle, which he nearly accomplished in the eleventh inning, falling just a few feet short in right-center field.

“I don’t know, I mean, I knew I hit the ball pretty high up in the air,” said Majewski when asked about his eleventh inning bid. “So I wasn’t sure it had the distance, maybe earlier in the day when it was gustier out there it might have gone.”

Sean Smith’s solo home run in the top of the third made the game 5-1, but Newark posted three more runs on triples by Jose Herrera and Majewski, whom was knocked in by Pachot once again, giving the Bears an 8-1 lead.

The Patriots got back to 8-3 on a two-RBI double by Elliot Ayala in the top of the fourth. Vito Chiaravalotti reached on an error and Jason Belcher singled to put runners in position for Ayala who ripped a line drive down the left-field line.

The Patriots continued to chip away and eventually caught up. Starting pitcher Benito Baez began the top of the fifth by walking Gera Alvarez and Michael Ryan. Two singles and a wild pitch brought them in to make it 8-5. After Baez got two outs, he had almost worked himself out of the jam when Jason Belcher launched a three-run homer to right-center field to tie the game at 8.

“Its disheartening to have your biggest rival down 8-1 and they come back,” said manager Wayne Krenchicki. “You need to score more runs and we need to go out there and stop them from scoring and we didn’t do that. But we did win and its an important ‘W’”

From there on, it was a tightly-contested game featuring a battle of the bullpens.

Edwin Almonte came on in the seventh and tossed three scoreless frames, giving up just two hits and striking out four. Al Levine followed with two shutout innings of his own and Rich Scalamandre finished it off and picked up his second win of the season in his one inning of work.

Eddie Cahill and Travis Minnix were equal to the task, keeping the powerful Newark offense off the scoreboard for four innings. Frank Brooks took the loss for Somerset and fell to 2-1.

There were a few close calls later on in the game. In the seventh, the Bears had the bases loaded with no one out, but were unable to bring anyone in. Castro and Cory Aldridge drew one-out walks in the eighth, but again could not capitalize.

On the Somerset side, Alvarez grounded into a costly double play in the top of the eighth inning with Belcher on third base. They had small rallies in the ninth and tenth inning but were turned aside each time by the Bears.

Then in the 12th, after ripping a long foul ball, Castro got a second opportunity and parked one into the netting in left field to win the game.

“I was thinking about that [homering after hitting the foul ball] but they just kept pitching me inside, inside, inside,” said Castro. “So I knew that and I was able to make good contact and it went out.”

Notes: Herrera’s triple gave him three triples in three games. Castro is now tied for the team lead in home runs despite only playing in ten games so far this season. Somerset starter Adams now only has four career Atlantic League losses and three of them have come from the Bears. Attendance was 2,378.

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