Gades Greatness: Counting down top 12 moments of 2024, #6-4

As we have hit the final month of the 2024 calendar, the time has come for our annual review of the Top 12 moments from the previous Hudson Valley Renegades season. We have already gone through half of the top 12 list, which means we start to hit the home stretch today with numbers six through four.

If you missed the first part of the countdown, you can read part one here, and part two here.

12. Single-Game Attendance Record Broken Twice

11. Rafael Flores Becomes All-Time Hit King

10. Moving On To The Championship Series Once Again

9. Trent Sellers Dominates in July

8. The Juan Crisp Game - Craziness in Greensboro

7. Doubleheader Sweep Of Wilmington On August 22

6. Jared Serna goes deep three times

Coming into the season, one of the most-exciting hitting prospects on the Renegades was Jared Serna. After clobbering 19 home runs in the Florida State League, the 5-foot-7 second baseman hit no home runs in 120 plate appearances with the Renegades at the end of 2023. The power was certainly there, it just wasn't on display yet. Serna hit two home runs in Hudson Valley's first three games of 2024, signaling a shift, but he was still stuck on two homers for the season when the month of April came to an end. When the calendar turned to May, the Renegades were are normally hitter-friendly Frawley Stadium, but Serna was poised to put on a show for the ages.

The game was 0-0 in the top of the third when Roc Riggio walked and Serna followed with a two-run homer to right field on a screaming line drive off Luke Young. The game continued back-and-forth until the top of the seventh when with Riggio again aboard at first, Serna drove a pitch from Brendan Collins down the left field line for another two-run homer to put Hudson Valley in front 6-4. The game took some wild turns from there.

Trailing 7-4 into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Blue Rocks rallied for three runs against Matt Keating to tie the game and force extra innings. In the top of the 10th Kiko Romero brought in pinch runner Cole Gabrielson with an infield single, and three batters later, Serna hit a towering drive down the line in left that just stayed fair as it left the ballpark and landed on the street behind Frawley Stadium for his third home run of the day. The homer came off dominant Wilmington reliever Todd Peterson, who hadn't allowed a run on the season to that point. He was the first visiting player to hit three home runs at Frawley Stadium in a game since 2007.

After the Blue Rocks again rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 10th off Steven Fulgencio, the Renegades pushed three across in the top of the 11th, and hung on to win 13-10. Serna did get one chance to hit a fourth home run, grounding out to second base to end the bottom of the 11th.

It was a truly wild game punctuated by Serna's superstar performance which gave way to a month of May in which he hit eight home runs, drove in 29 runs, and posted a .973 OPS.

5. Jace Avina home run robbery

If a three-homer game only coming in at #6 in this countdown didn't demonstrate how many truly outstanding moments there were in 2024, the part where the Minor League Baseball Play of the Month for August comes in at #5 should demonstrate that. On August 4, just as the Renegades were at the start of a dominant month at home, the 'Gades were taking on the Jersey Shore BlueClaws in an important series. Hudson Valley had won the first five games of the series and were going for their first six-game sweep since 2022, and had Trent Sellers on the mound, in the midst of his dominant run that checked in at #9 on this list.

A three-run home run by Omar Martinez gave the Renegades an early lead in the bottom of the first, but in the top of the second with one out, Felix Reyes came to the plate for the BlueClaws. Sellers hung a 2-0 breaking ball and Reyes hammered it to deep center. Jace Avina raced back and planted his right foot in the padding of the wall to propel himself up and over the fence to rob Reyes of a home run. He quickly spun around to show the ball off to the umpires and the amazed crowd, who showered him with applause. Sadly, Avina only played in eight more games for the rest of the season before an injury put a premature end to a year which saw him become a fan-favorite in the Hudson Valley because of plays like this.

The Renegades won the game 7-5, completing their first series sweep in over two years, but it wouldn't be the last of the season.

4. Renegades execute first seven-game sweep in SAL history

After sweeping Jersey Shore to begin August, Hudson Valley went just 6-6 in its next 12 games, splitting two six-game series at Brooklyn and home against Hickory. The Renegades set out on a seven-game series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks at Heritage Financial Park to wrap up a 13-game homestand after the Hickory series, and the team set itself firmly in the record books.

The series opener was Bhutan Night on Tuesday, Aug. 20. We will cover this game in more detail later on in the countdown, but the 'Gades scored early and often against Blue Rocks flamethower Jarlin Susana en route to a 10-0 win. They followed that up with a 5-3 victory the next night led by 6.1 innings of one-run ball from Josh Grosz. Next up was the doubleheader sweep on Aug. 22 that came in at #7 on this countdown.

On Friday, Aug. 23, the Renegades trailed 1-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth before Dylan Jasso doubled, and pinch runner Kiko Romero scored on a Coby Morales single to force extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th, Jackson Castillo won it for the Renegades with a walk-off single of Chance Huff, driving in George Lombard, Jr. The next night saw Hudson Valley fall behind 3-0 in the top of the first before winning easily 7-3, before taking the series finale 6-3 paced by three hits by Riggio including a triple and a home run.

It was the first seven-game sweep in the history of the South Atlantic League, and was the second time the Renegades had swept an opponent at home in August. It was all part of Hudson Valley's historic home field advantage in 2024, in which the team set a franchise record for home wins by going 47-19 (.712) in Wappingers Falls.

Check back next week for the final installment of the countdown!