Daren Stevens scattered four hits over five innings to lead the Yankees to a 9-4 victory over the Cobras Friday night at the D.C. Canegata Ball Park in the Raphael “Tight Shoes” Jackson AA Baseball League.
Stevens was relieved by Daniel Franco to start the sixth inning. Franco had a shaky start, giving up three runs in the bottom of the sixth, but settled down and blanked the Cobras the rest of the way.
The Yankees drew first blood, plating two runs in the top of the first inning on RBI singles by Mackeel Rogers and Steve Simmonds Jr. to take the early lead. The Cobras had no answer in the bottom of the inning, but cut into the lead in the second with an RBI ground out by Jesse D’Paula to trail 2-1 at the end of two innings.
The score stayed that way until the top of the fourth, when the Yankees extended their lead to 4-1 on an RBI double off the bat of Yanathon Garcia and an RBI triple by Charles Bollings. They scored another run in the top of the fifth, then struck again in the sixth with three run on RBI singles by Lakish Plante and Simmonds, Jr. and a Cobras error to increase their lead to 8-1
For their part, the Cobras did not score again until the bottom of the sixth, but began to show some life against Yankees reliever Franco in the bottom of the inning as they came up with three runs to cut the lead in half to 8-4. But Franco settled down and that was the end of the Cobra’s scoring.
The Yanks wrapped up the scoring for the game in the top of eighth inning, getting one run on Bolling’s RBI single to make the final score 9-4. The game was called after the Cobras failed to score in the bottom of the inning due to time constraints.
Steven got the win on the hill for the Yankees, while Roberto Camacho took the loss. Top batters for the Yankees were Simmonds and Bollings, both 2 for 5 with two RBIs, Garcia, 2 for 2 with one RBI, and Plante 2 for 4 with one RBI. Leanardo Castillo led the Cobras, going 2 for 2 with one RBI, and Otoniel Periera was 2 for 4 with one RBI.
