The Yankees moved to within one game of winning the 2011 Raphael Jackson AA Baseball championship after taking two games from the Vikings over the weekend at the D.C. Canegata Ball Park. After veteran hurler, Geronimo Newton dominated the Vikings on Friday to lead the Yankees to a lopsided 15-1 victory in game one of the best of five series, the yanks turned to yet another veteran on Saturday, Leroy Simmonds Jr., for game two and he also delivered. Simmonds went the distance to help his team secure an 8-3 victory.
After a scoreless first inning on Saturday, the Vikings drew first blood by getting on the board in the bottom of the second inning with three unearned runs on three Yankees errors to take the early lead. They would not score another run against Simmonds.
The Yankees got on the board in the top of the third with two runs on an RBI single by Omari Eastman and a Vikings error.
They took the lead for good in the top of the fourth coming up with three runs on RBI singles by Dwayne Harvey and Cruz Soto and an error to now lead 5-3.
An unearned run in the top of the fourth and two more runs in the top of the sixth completed the scoring for the game and an 8-3 victory for the Yankees.
Simmonds, once one of the most feared hitters in the Virgin Islands, has relegated himself to just pitching because of a serious foot injury. He has done well in his new role and got the win on Saturday to move his team ever so close to the title. Raphael Jackson got the loss for the Vikings. Top batters for the Yankees were Harvey and Soto (1 for 3 with one RBI) and Eastman (1 for 4 with one RBI). For the Vikings, Colin Williams was 2 for 4, and Rodney Raphael and Kurt Wilkerson were both 1 for 2.
