Ducks rally but lose in 12th to Somerset
The Ducks' Randy Ruiz blasts a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning in a game against Somerset on Sunday, June 1, 2014. Credit: George A. Faella
Nine innings never seem to be enough when the Ducks face the Somerset Patriots. The two teams played 10- and 16-inning games in last season's Atlantic League championship series and opened this season with a 15-inning marathon.
Sunday was more of the same. Luis Montanez singled in the top of the 12th inning to score Edwin Maysonet and lift the Patriots to a 6-5 win in the rubber game of a three-game set at Bethpage Ballpark in Central Islip.
"We both have teams that never quit," said Jeremy Accardo, who threw two innings in relief and took the loss. "I'd put our team up against their team in those situations. More often then not, I think we'd come out ahead."
Maysonet led off the 12th with an infield single and advanced to second on the same play on a throwing error by shortstop Sergio Miranda. He moved to third on a sac bunt.
"The balls they hit were the results that I was trying to get," Accardo said. "You make your pitches and get the ground ball. Sometimes they get caught and sometimes they don't."
The Ducks scored four in the seventh inning after mustering only three hits in the first six. Randy Ruiz, signed by the Ducks on May 20, homered off Patriots starter Matt Langwell to lead off the inning.
Langwell was pulled after getting the next two outs and the Ducks strung together a walk and three singles to tie the game at 4. Fehlandt Lentini slid to avoid a tag at home on Cody Puckett's game-tying, two-run single.
The Ducks gave the lead back in the top of the eighth, but a bases-loaded walk to Miranda in the bottom of the inning tied it at 5.
The Patriots retired nine of the last 10 Ducks in extra innings, quashing any hope of some late magic.
"[Somerset] got a lot of quick outs late in the game, which is very difficult to overcome," said coach Steve Foucault, who managed because Kevin Baez was attending his son's communion. "You really want to see a lot of pitches."
Ducks starter Jared Lansford allowed four runs, six hits and three walks with zero strikeouts in six innings. Mike DeMark earned the win for Somerset after pitching a perfect 11th inning.
Notes & quotes: Former Yankee Shane Spencer, the Patriots' third-base coach, was ejected in the 11th inning for arguing a play at first.
