Rangers Squeak Past Dragons for DH Sweep

On an afternoon where, around the league, players were hard to come by, the Rangers had just enough energy to pull out two wins over a scrappy Dragons squad, 11-5 and 8-6.

Shawn Schmitt picked up his second win of the year with a complete game win, striking out five, while allowing just 3 hits in an 11-5 win in the first game of the day. The win places Shawn fourth all-time in the league in wins with 26, and sits in a tie with former Ranger Rob Hoover atop the Rangers career wins mark of 33.

The Rangers got on the board first in the top of the first inning. Steve Marshall led off with a walk and somehow ended up at second. Jonmarc Lippincott then singled to right field to plate Marshall. Robert Riley would later drive in Lippincott for 2-0 lead. The Dragons answered with a run in the bottom of the inning on Phil Dickerson’s sacrifice fly. The Rangers’ second inning was highlighted by 48-year old Tim Sullivan’s first home run since 2002, a two-run shot to right field off starter Scott Jones. The Dragons made it 4-2 as Atrayu Wolter’s fielder’s choice scored Ryan Nollen from third. The Rangers’ third inning started off with a Lippincott double. Ty Adams followed with an RBI triple. James Robinson would later come up big with a two-out RBI single to score Adams and make it a 6-2 score. Cody Vance drove in Nollen with the Dragons third run of the day in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead in half at 6-3. The Rangers put the game away in the top of the sixth as Matt Caraway connected on a 3-run home run to left, his first home run since 2002 as well. His home run put him all by himself for 7^th place on the MVABL career HR list. The Dragons got two more runs in the sixth on an errant pickoff attempt and a Wolter sac fly. The Rangers ended the scoring in the top of the 7^th as Jelani Arnold and Jonathan Silverman each contributed run-scoring singles to make it an 11-5 final.

Jonathan Silverman started out slow for the Rangers in game 2 giving up 6 runs, uncharacteristically walking 3 and hitting 3 in the inning. The Rangers had jumped out to an early 1-0 lead prior to that as Steve Marshall led off with a triple and scored on a Lippincott sac fly. The Rangers cut the lead in half at 6-3 in the bottom of the second on a pair of unearned runs. Brian Bay did his best job on the mound to keep the Rangers at bay, but the Rangers kept clawing their way back as Silverman settled down to strike out 6 over the remaining 5 scoreless innings. In the meanwhile, the Rangers’ third inning started off with a Ty Adams single. Robert Riley followed with a double. James Robinson grounded out to third to score Adams. And then Matt Caraway drove in Riley to make it a 6-5 Dragons lead. The Rangers would eventually tie the game in the bottom of the fifth as Shawn Schmitt drove a two-out single to right field to score Jason Sarver from second base. With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Ty Adams would launch a solo home run to deep left center to give the Rangers a 7-6 lead. Riley followed with his second double of the game, and after a walk to Jelani, James hit a groundball to third, whose throw was offline to first allowing Riley to score. Final score was 8-6.   

Offensive highlights: Ty Adams 4-7, triple, HR, 4 runs, 2RBI; Jason Sarver 3-for-6, 3 runs, SB; Robert Riley 3-for-5, 2 doubles, 3 walks, 3 runs, RBI; Jonathan Silverman 3-for-4, RBI; Matt Caraway 2-for-7, HR, 4RBI, SB.

Historical Notes: Clint increased his hitting streak to 21 games (2nd best in team history). Jonmarc is 2 RBI shy of 300 RBIs in the league. Jelani is 1 run shy of 100 runs scored in the league. Shawn is 1 win away from passing Rob Hoover for the most wins in Rangers history.