Ponies Can't Hold Off Ducks' Persistent Push

Press Release:

AKRON, OH – The Akron RubberDucks erased three separate deficits and handed the Binghamton Rumble Ponies an 8-7 loss in eleven innings on Friday night at Canal Park. Rumble Ponies outfielder Tim Tebow racked up three hits and drove in two runs, but could not hold off the RubberDucks, who capped their comeback on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Sam Haggerty.

The Ponies held a four-run lead in the seventh before the RubberDucks forced the game into a 180 against reliever Daniel Zamora. With two outs and a runner on second, Daniel Salters ripped an RBI double to left-center. Haggerty followed with a two-bagger off the left-field wall. Two batters later, Ka’ai Tom blasted a three-run homer to center, putting Akron ahead 5-4.

After the Ponies tied the game on Jhoan Urena’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, Ryder Ryan forced extras with five strikeouts over two scoreless innings of relief. Tebow delivered a tie-breaking, two-out single in the tenth, but the RubberDucks answered back on Connor Marabell’s sacrifice fly.

In the eleventh, the Rumble Ponies pushed another run across on Josh Allen’s sacrifice fly. With Akron down by a run, Tyler Krieger opened the bottom of the inning by zipping a single to center against David Roseboom, plating Willi Castro, the placed runner. Krieger took second on John Mora’s errant throw to the plate, was sacrificed to third, and came home on Haggerty’s sacrifice fly to center.

The late dramatics washed away a stellar start by Scott Copeland. The veteran righty used 11 groundouts to blank the RubberDucks into the seventh inning. Copeland struck out six and only allowed two runners to reach in the same inning once. The righty notched two outs in the seventh before ceding to Zamora.

The Rumble Ponies had supported Copeland with early offense against Akron starter Aaron Civale. Tomas Nido put Binghamton on the board with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. In the second, Tebow launched a solo homer to right, his sixth longball of the season. John Mora tacked on an RBI single later in the inning.

Roseboom (1-2) allowed three unearned runs, two of which were placed runners in extra innings, in one inning of relief. The southpaw suffered his second blown save. Corey Taylor surrendered Haggerty’s walk-off sacrifice fly. David Speer (2-2) tossed the eleventh for Akron and earned the win.

POSTGAME NOTES: Tim Tebow’s homer in the second was his first on the road this season and extended his hitting streak to a season-best nine games…Tebow raised his season batting average to .276 with his third three-hit game of the season…Binghamton fell to 4-3 in extra-inning games