Making Magic: 2024 Renegades season one for the history books

The 2024 Hudson Valley Renegades 30^th anniversary season will go down as one of the greatest in the team’s history with record-setting performances, eye-popping plays and a visit from 12 athletes from across the globe. While it would be impossible to capture everything from this past season at once, let’s take a look back at some of the most-memorable moments of the 2024 campaign.

APRIL

The season began with the Renegades taking one of their longest road trips of the year, departing the Hudson Valley for three games in Bowling Green, Kentucky and six in Rome, Georgia. Sebastian Keane got the start on Opening Night and struggled, allowing four runs in 1.2 innings as the ‘Gades lost 6-1. However, the team bounced back with wins in the next two games, a 14-2 win on April 6 behind home runs from Jared Serna, Omar Martinez and Rafael Flores, and a 3-0 win on April 7 led by six shutout innings from Cam Schlittler.

That start kicked off a campaign that saw Schlittler be one of the biggest breakout prospects in the Yankees system and ended with him being named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Year.

Hudson Valley went to Rome, where three straight games were rained out, leading to the series being shortened to five games, including two doubleheaders in three days. After winning three-of-five, the Renegades went home for a 12-game homestand, winning each of the first three games in dramatic walk-off fashion: Martinez drew a walk-off walk in the home opener, Nelson Medina lined a single to right the next night, and Jace Avina was at the plate when a walk-off wild pitch scored Cole Gabrielson for the third straight walk-off.

Also during that Aberdeen series, Roc Riggio made one of the signature plays of his season, drifting back into shallow center to catch a popup from Creed Willems before colliding with Medina and then throwing from his back to second base to complete a double play that you had to see to believe.

The Renegades finished that first homestand with a 7-5 record at Heritage Financial Park, solid, but nothing compared to what was to come over the team’s final 54 home games when they went 40-14 en route to the best home record in Minor League Baseball.

In April, the Renegades went 13-8, tied for first place in the SAL North with the Greensboro Grasshoppers, and had a miniscule 2.47 team ERA. Schlittler had a great month on the mound, and non-drafted free agents Trent Sellers and Ben Shields both impressed out of the bullpen as long relievers while making their professional debuts. Jace Avina impressed in his first month in the Yankees system after coming over in an offseason trade with he Milwaukee Brewers, batting a team-leading .333/.447/.564 with two home runs after starting the year on the 7-day Injured List.

MAY

The second month of the season started with a bang, with the Renegades outlasting the Wilmington Blue Rocks 13-10 in 11 innings in one of the most-memorable games of the season. The Blue Rocks scored three in the bottom of the ninth to tie. Then the Renegades plated three in the top of the 10^th to go in front only to see Wilmington score three in the bottom of the 10^th to tie again. Finally Hudson Valley scored three runs in the top of the 11^th, and Hueston Morrill shut the door in the bottom of the inning to seal the win.

In the win, Jared Serna had a monster game, finishing 3-for-7 with three home runs and six RBIs, becoming the third player in Renegades history to hit three home runs in a single game.

Jesus Rodriguez and Omar Martinez hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth for the Gades also. That was the beginning of huge months for both Serna and Rodriguez at the plate – Serna hit .282/.390/.583 with 29 RBIs, the most in the SAL, and Rodriguez hit a blistering .352/.444/.549 with more walks than strikeouts while playing left field, third base and catcher. As a utility player, Rodriguez turned eyes at the beginning of the season thanks to his bat. He earned a call up to Double-A Somerset on June 19 after hitting .332/.412/.507 in 56 games with the Renegades, but struggled with injuries for the rest of the year which limited him to just 23 games with the Patriots.

However, the team had a hard time maintaining that momentum as they lost their next seven games for a season-long losing streak. The final game in the skid was an excruciating 6-5 loss at Aberdeen on May 11, a game which was delayed by two hours and 41 minutes at the start, and finished with a walk-off for the IronBirds after a throwing error by catcher Juan Crisp on a stolen base attempt. But after falling in five of the first six of the week in Aberdeen, the Renegades won 4-3 in the series finale, led by a strong start from Shields, who struck out eight across 3.2 innings.

The up and down month continued with a series against Jersey Shore which saw Hudson Valley win the first four games, including Sam Aldegheri, who would be in the Major Leagues with the Angels in August on May 15 in front of a record crowd at Heritage Financial Park. The Renegades went to Brooklyn following that series and despite the services of MLB rehabber D.J. LeMahieu dropped four of six. The month finished with a series against the Aberdeen IronBirds at home where the 'Gades won three of the first four games to finish off May with an 11-14 record, sinking to fourth place in the division and 3.5 behind Greensboro entering June.

JUNE

The Renegades dropped the final two games of their series at home with Aberdeen before embarking to Wilmington for an eight-game series with the Blue Rocks, where Hudson Valley won five contests. They then won four of six games against the Brooklyn Cyclones to get within 3.0 games of Greensboro with three games left in the first half of the season. Conveniently, Hudson Valley made its one regular season trip to the Grasshoppers for the final three games of the first half and first three games of the second half. Unfortunately, the Renegades lost the first five games of the series, watching the Hoppers clinch a first half title on June 20.

However, much like in the series in Aberdeen at the beginning of May, the Renegades found a way to salvage the final game of the series, this time in one of the most-bizarre ways possible. With the team's bullpen stretched thin, disaster seemed imminent after starter Jackson Fristoe was removed after facing two batters in the bottom of the first inning with an injury that would keep him sidelined for the rest of the season. However, the Renegades bats were working, and the team held a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the seventh thanks to back-to-back home runs by Garrett Martin and Josh Moylan in the fourth, and a five-run rally in the sixth.

After Joel Valdez walked Mitch Jebb with one out in the seventh, he hit his pitch limit and had to be removed from the game, and backup catcher Juan Crisp entered to throw the final 2.2 innings in the game. He allowed a two-run home run to Jack Brannigan in the seventh to cut the lead to 9-6, and a game-tying three-run home run to Luke Brown in the eighth. In the top of the ninth, Martin and Moylan hit back-to-back home runs for the second time in the game to put the 'Gades up 12-9. Crisp went back out for the bottom of the ninth and struck out two batters on his way to closing out the victory and picking up the first pitching win by a Renegades position player in team history.

Beginning with that game, Moylan hit .269/.360/.474 with seven home runs over his final 51 games of the year, after having hit .220/.357/.277 with one home run in his first 50 games. It was the beginning of a turning point for the infielder in his first full professional season, going from being a solid role player to a key cog and force in the middle of the lineup for Hudson Valley.

The Renegades rode the momentum of that victory to taking four of five games in a rain-shortened series from the Wilmington Blue Rocks to close out a turbulent month of June with a 14-13 record. After posting a stellar 2.03 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 26.2 innings, Ben Shields was named the South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month for June. Shield was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Yankees in 2023 out of George Mason University, and made his pro debut with Hudson Valley as a reliever in 2024. Through strong pitching he earned a role in the starting rotation in which he flourished, leading to his award and his promotion to Double-A Somerset in early July.

Also heading to New Jersey at the end of June was Rafael Flores, who was perhaps the biggest breakout player in the organization this year. After hitting .285/.403/.466 with the Renegades, Flores walloped 15 homers in 65 games with Double-A Somerset on his way to being named Baseball America Yankees Minor League Player of the Year after the season. Earlier in the season, Flores became the Renegades all-time hits leader, and finished his Hudson Valley career with 154 hits and 32 doubles.

JULY

July began with the Renegades playing a home-and-home series with the Brooklyn Cyclones, traveling to Coney Island for the first three games. Hudson Valley won the first game before losing the next two, including falling to MLB rehabber Kodai Senga on July 3. Returning to Heritage Financial Park for the next three games, the Gades won two of three thanks to strong pitching performances by Blane Abeyta on July 4 and Baron Stuart on July 6.

The club played their final series before the 2024 All-Star Break at Jersey Shore and lost five of six games. The lone win in the series came July 12, a 6-1 win behind six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts from Cam Schlittler. The series finale on July 14 featured the first start of the season for Trent Sellers, who began the year in the bullpen but transitioned to the rotation after Sebastian Keane was moved to the 'pen. He walked Erick Brito to lead off the game and then retired the next nine batters he faced in his 3.0-inning start. That began one of the most dominant stretches of pitching in Renegades history, with the right-hander setting down 35 straight batters across a series of four appearances spanning 11.2 innings.

The Renegades regrouped after the All-Star Break with a three-game series at home against the Rome Emperors, and delivered one of their signature moments of the season in the first game on July 19. Kyle Carr, Sellers and Hueston Morrill combined to throw nine no-hit innings against the Emperors, but the Renegades failed to score through the first eight innings. In the bottom of the ninth Roc Riggio led off with a solo home run off Shay Schanaman, clinching the third no-hitter in franchise history on a walk-off home run. A no-hitter ending in a walk-off is extremely rare, having occurred only four times in MLB history.

While the no-no was a signature win, it was also importantly the turning point of Carr's season. The Yankees' third round pick in 2023, the left-hander struggled before the All-Star Break, and sported a 6.53 ERA and nearly as many walks as strikeouts. During the break he went home to California and was able to have a mental reset, and made some mechanical adjustments with pitching coach Spencer Medick. Across seven starts from July 19 through August 23, Carr sported a 1.23 ERA in 34.0 innings, and struck out 34 while walking only 11 and limiting opponents to a .145 batting average. Though while the tide of Carr's season turned, the Renegades season didn't.

Despite winning two of three from Rome, and celebrating the marriage of mascots Rascal and Rosie on July 20 the team took its last trip to Frawley Stadium the following week and lost four of the first five games, sinking to a 12-16 record in the second half and 5.5 games out of first place. Even tougher was the news that Jared Serna had been traded to the Miami Marlins as part of the Jazz Chisholm trade, dealing a tough blow to the clubhouse and lineup as Serna was one of the best hitters and most-beloved personalities on the team.

They looked down and out heading into the series finale on Sunday, but a 2-for-4 game for Anthony Hall and a sixth-inning homer by Moylan lifted the Renegades to a 5-4 victory. It felt innocuous at the time, but it started a run through the end of the season where the Renegades went 28-10 (.757) over their final 38 games, the second-best record in Minor League Baseball in that time. They rode the wave of the Sunday win into wins in the first two games of a six-game series with Jersey Shore to close out the month with a 10-13 record, but a glimmer of hope entering the final month of the year.

For his outstanding performance in July, Sellers was named South Atlantic League Pitcher of the Month after leading MiLB in ERA (0.00), WHIP (0.41) and Opponents' Batting Average (.067). He struck out 24 batters in 19.1 innings while walking four and allowing four hits.

AUGUST

The Renegades continued their winning ways into the August, beating Jersey Shore in the last four games of their series to complete a six-game sweep of the BlueClaws to vault the team to a 19-16 record and all of a sudden just 0.5 games out of first, setting up a special month. The Renegades treaded water the next week, splitting a six-game series with the Brooklyn Cyclones, a week that included two postponed games leading to two doubleheaders. From there the Gades returned home for their second two-week homestand of the season: a stretch of 13 games in 13 days against the Hickory Crawdads and the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

That homestand also gave Renegades fans a chance to see for the first time a cohort of new players who joined the team in early August from Single-A Tampa. Yankees 2023 first round draft pick George Lombard Jr., Dylan Jasso, and Jackson Castillo highlighted the lineup which scored a 13-0 win over the Crawdads in the homestand opener. Castillo made his presence felt, finishing 2-for-4 with two home runs -- a three run homer and a grand slam -- and a seven RBI performance, tying the team single-game record.

Hudson Valley went 3-3 against Hickory that week, led by 5.1 shutout innings from newcomer Josh Grosz on August 15, and winning a game on the next night on a walk-off home run by Garrett Martin. Grosz was one of the best starters in the Yankees organization down the stretch of the season, combining in his time with the Tampa Tarpons to sport a 1.27 ERA across his final 11 starts of the season (64.0 IP). He had four quality starts with the Renegades in six appearances in August and September.

Martin also went gangbusters down the stretch of the season, batting .304/.429/.570 with five home runs from August 13 through the end of the season. He picked up South Atlantic League Player of the Week honors on August 26 after a particularly heroic series against the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

That week started with the kickoff of Bhutan Week, with Renegades players and coaches holding a clinic for a group of six baseball and six softball athletes from the Kingdom of Bhutan. The tiny nation nestled in the eastern Himalayas has seen an explosion in the popularity of baseball and softball over the past decade, and this international relations effort by the Renegades featured not only the clinic, but a celebration of Bhutan Night on August 20 as well as Hudson Valley and New York City sightseeing trips, a tour of MLB's office in New York, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience at Yankee Stadium. You can read more about Bhutan Night in this article by Michael Clair of MLB.com.

On Bhutan Night, the Renegades jumped on Wilmington starter Jarlin Susana for seven runs across 2.2 innings, winning 10-0 while throwing a one-hitter. The only Blue Rocks hit in the game was a bunt single by Johnathan Thomas in the top of the eighth inning off Harrison Cohen. Grosz struck out eight across 6.1 one-run innings the next night, and then the teams played a doubleheader to make up for a rainout in June.

The Renegades swept the doubleheader in spectacular fashion, winning game one 7-6 lifted by a Garrett Martin three-run home run, and then two homers by Martin in game two which were overshadowed by Trent Sellers, Mason Vinyard and Thomas Balboni, Jr combining to throw a no-hitter against the Blue Rocks. After having thrown two no-hitters in the first 29 years in team history, it was the second no-hitter of the 2024 season.

The Renegades went on to win the final three games of the series with the Blue Rocks to complete the first seven-game sweep in South Atlantic League history. The hot streak propelled the 'Gades into a 3.0-game lead for first in the SAL North with 12 games to play and an out-of-this-world 24-6 record at home in the second half.

Next up was a six-game set with second place Jersey Shore in Lakewood, which the teams split to keep the lead at three games going into the last week of the season. Aberdeen was also surging into the race toward the end of the year, but they had to play the BlueClaws, setting up an ideal clinch scenario for the Renegades returning home to take on the last place team in the SAL South, the Asheville Tourists.

SEPTEMBER

The Renegades hung on to beat Asheville 4-3 in the Tuesday series opener, and then on September 4 shut out the Tourists 3-0 behind a career-high eight strikeouts from Sellers. After the BlueClaws beat the IronBirds in Aberdeen, the Renegades officially clinched the Second Half North Division title and punched their ticket into the playoffs. Fittingly in the clinching game it was Kelly Austin who picked up the win. Acquired in a trade at the July 30 trade deadline from the Houston Astros, Austin was immediately a force in the Renegades bullpen, posting a 3-0 record and a 1.29 ERA in 10 appearances with Hudson Valley.

The team finished the regular season by winning five of six from Asheville, including setting a team record with 21 strikeouts in a nine-inning game on September 7. Baron Stuart started that game off with a career-high 12 strikeouts, the most in a game this season by a Renegades pitcher and falling one shy of Drew Thrope's team record. Stuart was a stalwart member of the rotation throughout the year, always keeping the team in the game and finishing with an 8-5 record and a 3.63 ERA, leading the team in wins and finishing third among qualified SAL pitchers in ERA.

They finished with a 73-58 record overall, the most wins in a season for the Renegades ever. They went 47-19 at home, the best record at home for a MiLB team since 2019. They also threw 19 shutouts, a new team record surpassing the previous mark of 14.

NORTH DIVISION SERIES

In the best-of-three North Division Series against the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Renegades won Game 1 6-0 with four pitchers led by Sellers (4.0 IP, 1 H, 9 K) combining on the shutout. Dylan Jasso cracked a big three-run home run for insurance in the bottom of the seventh, and George Lombard Jr had three doubles and three RBIs.

The series shifted to Greensboro for the next two games, and the Hoppers struck back with a 3-1 win in Game 2 against Brian Hendry and the bullpen as the bats went quiet. Hendry was a 10th round pick of the Yankees in 2023 and missed most of the season with an injury. When he was healthy he looked good, flashing four pitches he could command and showing the kind of pitching smarts that had the scouts who saw him throw come away impressed.

In the winner-take-all Game 3, the Renegades went in front early on RBI singles by Josh Moylan and Roc Riggio. Kyle Carr threw 4.1 shutout innings, but int he eighth, the Grasshoppers cut the lead to 2-1 on an RBI double by Lonnie White Jr. However, Jackson Castillo delivered a two-run home run down the right field line in the top of the ninth to pad the advantage, and Austin came on for the save to send the Renegades to the SAL Championship Series against Bowling Green.

SAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

The Renegades were overmatched 5-1 in Game 1 of the SAL Championship Series in Bowling Green. The Hot Rods out-hit the 'Gades 16-1,. with the lone HV hit being Roc Riggio's lead off home run in the top of the first.

Game 2 saw the Renegades bounce back with a 6-2 win at Heritage Financial Park. After falling behind 2-0 after the top of the fourth, the Renegades rallied for five runs in the bottom of the fifth, with Omar Martinez blasting an opposite field grand slam to cap the big inning.

The season came to an end on September 18 with the winner-take-all Game 3. Bowling Green scored two off Sellers in the top of the fourth to take a 2-0 lead, but the Renegades fought back with a Lombard RBI double in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 2-1. Bowling Green added two runs in the top of the ninth to go in front 4-1, and the Renegades weren't able to muster a rally, falling by that score for a bittersweet end to the year.

It was an incredible run for Hudson Valley from the bleakness of the end of July through the final playoff game. A lot of credit for the turnaround belongs to the Renegades coaching staff led by manager Nick Ortiz. He along with defensive coaches Derek Woodley and Zak Wasserman helped turn the Renegades from one of the worst defensive teams in MiLB in early June to one of the best by the end of the year. Hitting coach Rick Guarno and pitching coach Spencer Medick also consistently helped players improve throughout the year. From July 30 through the end of the playoffs, the Renegades went 23-5 (.821) at Heritage Financial Park.

The team was able to weather the losses of some of their best hitters and pitchers throughout the season to persevere and play for a championship, and even though they fell short of that goal, it was still a season worth celebrating.