Prado’s big week, shutdown bullpen lead IronBirds to five wins in six games over Renegades

By: Michael Marcantonini

The Aberdeen IronBirds dominated the Hudson Valley Renegades with five comeback wins in six games this past week at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium. It’s the second time in their last two homestands that the IronBirds won five out of six games and they outscored the Renegades 33-22 in the series. The IronBirds are now 18-15 and sit just two games out of first place in the South Atlantic League north division.

The IronBirds rallied for a 4-3 comeback win in Game 1, which set the tone for the rest of the series. The Birds were down 3-0 and hitless through five innings, when the bats broke out. Max Wagner led off the bottom of the sixth with an opposite-field home run, Creed Willems ripped an RBI triple, and Tavian Josenberger tied the game with an RBI single. The Birds grabbed the lead in the seventh when Enrique Bradfield Jr. opened the inning with a double, stole third, and scored on a throwing error. Juan De Los Santos protected the one-run lead and earned a four-out save to end it.

Hudson Valley took three separate leads through the first five innings of Game 2, but Aberdeen answered every time on its way to a 6-5 win. Terrin Vavra paced the lineup with a 3-for-5 night that included a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth, and Willems hit his seventh homer of the season in the sixth, which turned out to be the winning run. The IronBirds held onto a one-run lead for the second straight night as Yaqui Rivera recorded a six-out save in two hitless innings.

Aberdeen stayed hot in Game 3 with a 9-2 win. The Renegades scored two in the top of the third for an early lead, but the IronBirds exploded for nine unanswered runs. Josenberger hit a solo homer to get the Birds on the board in the fourth and Elio Prado followed with the first of his two two-run singles to give the Birds the lead. It was the second time this season that Prado drove in four runs in a game. After the Birds gained the lead, Bradley Brehmer led the way with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, six strikeouts and no walks in relief, and the bullpen combined for 5 2/3 shutout innings.

The IronBirds set a new season-high with their fourth straight victory in a 5-3 win in Game 4. The Renegades scored first for the fourth straight night, but it didn’t matter for the resilient IronBirds. With the game tied 2-2, Prado led off the bottom of the seventh with a go-ahead homer, a laser that snuck inside the left-field foul pole, and Mac Horvath added an insurance run on an opposite-field solo shot with two outs in the eighth. The Birds bullpen stayed hot with six scoreless frames, including two from Zane Barnhart and 3 2/3 with six strikeouts from Edgar Portes.

After a nearly three-hour pregame rain delay on Saturday night, the IronBirds finished off a 6-5 walkoff win in Game 5 to extend their season-best winning streak to five games. The Renegades led 4-2 going into the bottom of the sixth when the IronBirds rallied for three two-out runs. Randy Florentino, who went 2-for-3 with three RBI, tied the game with a two-run single and Adam Retzbach followed with a go-ahead RBI single. The Renegades tied it in the top of the seventh, but the Birds eventually pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth, which was extra innings because it was a seven-inning game. Horvath, who was the placed runner on second, stole third on the first pitch of the inning and scored on a throwing error into left field. The IronBirds ran wild for a franchise-record 10 stolen bases, including four from Douglas Hodo III, which tied the individual single-game franchise record, in their second walkoff win of the season.

The winning streak ended on Sunday as the Renegades edged out a 4-3 win in Game 6. Moises Chace pitched three scoreless innings with five strikeouts and no walks, and now owns a 1.05 ERA through seven appearances. Bradfield Jr. had two hits, while Matthew Etzel and Jalen Vasquez each had an RBI single in the only loss of the series.

The IronBirds head up I-95 for a six-game series in Wilmington against the Blue Rocks from Tuesday-Sunday, May 14-19. Following the road trip, the IronBirds are back at Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium for a six-game series against the Jersey Shore BlueClaws from Tuesday, May 21 through Sunday, May 26. To purchase tickets or for information about upcoming games and promotions, visit goironbirds.com.

Contact: Nate Laws, Manager, Marketing & Communications

410-297-8815 | [email protected]