EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG DOES, BUT ERIE PERSEVERES.
On Tuesday, April 9, the day after hosting an Eclipse block party, the Detroit Tigers’ AA-Affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves, hosted their first home stand of the season against the New York Mets’ AA-Affiliate, the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. Still riding the high of winning the Eastern League AA Championship in September, Erie’s favorite baseball team had great expectations for this homestand. Tensions were high between the teams as fans and players remembered the final game of the 2023 playoffs where Erie beat Binghamton 10-0, successfully earning the championship title for the first time in team history.
As the teams were gearing up to play on Tuesday, disaster struck as the main Erie Events building lost power and Wi-Fi. The stadium itself had power, but members of the production team were scrambling without Wi-Fi, the sales team struggled to sell tickets without computers and printers online, and members of the merchandise and the food and beverage teams wrestled with cash-only payments and written records of sales.
But the show must go on for Opening Night, and the SeaWolves front office team pulled through running necessary equipment on hotspots and taking cash-only payments in the ticket office. Despite the initial hiccup, the SeaWolves won their first game against the Rumble Ponies 2-0, with runs by Trei Cruz and Eliezer Alfonzo in the sixth and eighth innings.
In the second game of the series, on Wednesday, April 10, Erie lost 4-3 in front of a crowd that felt like a total of twelve people. Binghamton scored their first run in the top of the third inning, but the score was quickly matched by Erie’s Hao-Yu Lee in the bottom of the fourth when he scored on Stephen Scott’s single.
The teams continued to fight for the lead and Binghamton scored another two runs in the top of the fifth. Hitting against Erie’s LHP Jake Higginbotham with two outs, Binghamton’s Jett Williams’ RBI triple allows Matt O’Neill to score. Williams then scored on Rhylan Thomas’ single, extending the Ponies’ lead 3-1.
Erie quickly matched the score in the bottom of the fifth with scores by Luis Santana and Ben Malgeri. However, the tie-game lasted until the top of the eighth where Binghamton scored with a leadoff double, allowing Thomas to steal third and score on Kevin Parada’s sacrifice fly. Erie did not score in the last two innings.
Continuing the series was tough for the teams as rain in Erie refused to let up. Thursday’s game was postponed to a doubleheader on Saturday, and Friday’s game was outright canceled. Cancelling Friday’s game was a tough decision for Erie’s team president, Greg Coleman. Erie will only play three more regular season games against Binghamton this summer, so Erie hesitated to cancel and lose this important game against last season’s Eastern League runners-up.
Saturday’s doubleheader was a split day, with Binghamton winning the first game 9-2 in seven innings, and Erie winning 7-6 in eight innings. Highlights of the first game include RHP and Detroit’s first-round pick in the 2021 draft Jackson Jobe’s first start of the season, Stephen Scott’s first home run with Erie in the second inning, and a little league home run by Binghamton’s Brandon McIlwain.
The SeaWolves had another rough start in the second game when Binghamton’s Jett Williams, who led off the game by reaching on Hao-Yu Lee’s throwing error, scored on a wild pitch in the first inning. But Erie quickly responded with a two-run home run by Jake Holton against Binghamton starter Troy Miller. Binghamton led 6-3 in the top of the sixth inning, but in the bottom of the inning, Chris Meyers doubled followed by a walk by Holton brought the tying run to the plate. Gage Workman, facing Trey McLoughlin, blasted a three-run home run to tie the game at six. The game ended in the bottom of the eighth when Meyers scored the winning run to secure the doubleheader split for Erie.
Finally, on Sunday, fans were excited to wrap up the series with Erie’s debut of their newest Fauxback Funday promotion. However, due to a transformer blowing down the street, UPMC Park was without power for the second time of the week. However, this time, the entire park was affected not just the main building. After evaluating the effectiveness of safety procedures without power to the park, the team decided that the game must go on in true fauxback fashion: without power in the ballpark. Luckily, Penelec was fast with the repair, and power was restored to the ballpark shortly before the scheduled first pitch time.
Erie scored early in the game as TJ Hopkins and Stephen Scott hit consecutive solo home runs with two out in the first against Rumble Ponies starter Cameron Foster. The Wolves would score one more run in the bottom of the third on Brady Allen’s double play ground ball. Binghamton responded in the top of the fourth with a solo home run by JT Schwartz against Erie reliever Tim Naughton. Binghamton scored twice more in the top of the fifth, which the SeaWolves answered with a singular run in the bottom of the inning. Jake Holton doubled with two out in the bottom of the eighth and then scored on Brady Allen’s go-ahead triple. Allen added a solo blast leading off the bottom of the eighth inning to extend Erie’s lead to 5-3. Erie pitchers, RJ Petit and Calvin Coker, finished the game with four innings of scoreless relief for Erie.
After a hectic week filled with many hurdles and hiccups, Erie successfully won the series with three game wins to Binghamton’s two, showcasing the SeaWolves’ resilience and proving that the show always goes on.
Erie’s plays again on Tuesday, April 16 in Akron with a first pitch at 6:35. The team will be home again starting on April 23 for a home series against the Harrisburg Senators. For more information and tickets, visit seawolves.com.
