The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (36-43, 1-3) and the Syracuse Mets (41-38, 3-1) played game four on Friday night at Coca-Cola Park. Drake Fellows was on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Jonah Tong of Syracuse.
The game was scoreless in the first two and a half innings. In the bottom of the third inning, Lehigh Valley second baseman Robert Moore hit Tong’s changeup for a solo home run to right field to give the IronPigs a 1-0 lead. It was his sixth home run of the season. With two outs, a flyout by Keaton Anthony ended the inning.
Moving to the top of the sixth inning, Syracuse had a runner on second base when Ji Hwan Bae hit an RBI double to center field, scoring Cristian Pache, and the game was tied 1-1. With one out, Ryan Clifford grounded into a 4-6-3 inning-ending double play. Drake Fellows went six innings, allowing five hits, one run, and struck out five, throwing 81 pitches, of which 57 were strikes.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Lehigh Valley had a runner on third base when Keaton Anthony hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Felix Reyes to give the IronPigs a 2-1 lead. With two outs, a groundout by Bryan De La Cruz ended the inning.
Kirby Snead pitched for Lehigh Valley at the top of the seventh inning. Syracuse had a runner on third base with one out when Grae Kessinger hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Jared Oliva, and the game was tied 2-2. With two outs, a groundout by Hayden Senger ended the inning.
At the top of the eighth inning, Syracuse had a runner on second base with two outs when Yonny Hernandez hit an RBI double to right field, scoring Videl Brujan to give the Mets a 3-2 lead. Snead struck out Ryan Clifford to end the inning. Snead pitched two innings, allowing three hits, two runs, and three strikeouts, throwing 41 pitches, of which 27 were strikes.
Nolan Hoffman pitched for Lehigh Valley at the top of the ninth inning. He allowed a hit and struck out one, throwing 14 pitches, of which nine were strikes, to get three outs.
In the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs, Lehigh Valley had a runner on first base when Paul McIntosh hit the ball to center fielder Cristian Pache. Pache made a diving catch, but the ball hit the turf as he was securing the ball. Christian Cairo scored, tying the game 3-3. Steward Berroa struck out swinging, sending the game to extra innings.
At the top of the tenth inning, Syracuse had runners on the corners when Nolan Hoffman made a throwing error on a pickoff attempt, scoring Hayden Senger, and the Mets took a 4-3 lead. With two outs, Hoffman struck out Ryan Clifford to end the inning. Hoffman went two innings, allowing two hits, and struck out four, throwing 31 pitches, of which 21 were strikes.
In the bottom of the tenth inning, Steward Berroa was at second base. With two outs and Berroa at third base, Felix Reyes grounded out to shortstop for the final out of the game. The IronPigs lose to the Mets 4-3.
Lehigh Valley finished the night with seven hits, committed one error, went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, and left six men on base. The loss went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Nolan Hoffman (1-4), while the win went to Syracuse pitcher Jefry Yan (2-0), and Danis Correa earned his first save of the season.
The IronPigs and Mets play game five on Saturday at 6:35 pm on the MLB App. Kolby Allard (2-1, 4.29 ERA) will be on the mound for Lehigh Valley against Xzavion Curry (2-0, 4.54 ERA) of Syracuse.
