The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
Bridgewater, NJ – Kyle Roller hit a walk off roller in the tenth inning to lead the Somerset Patriots (34-26, 72-58) to a 4-3 win over the Sugar Land Skeeters (32-28, 67-63) on Wednesday evening at TD Bank Ballpark.
With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 10th inning, Roller rolled an infield single down the first base line that the pitcher couldn’t handle to plate the winning run.
“I’m just trying to put something in play. It was just one of those grinding at bats and I was lucky enough to put something in play,” Roller said. “ I just wanted to give myself a chance to drive that run in. It wasn’t the prettiest, but I’ll take it.”
The Skeeters opened the scoring in the second inning with three runs. The first run came home on an error, followed by an RBI double by Patrick Palmeiro and an RBI single by Beamer Weems.
Somerset answered with a run in the bottom of the frame on an RBI groundout by Brian Van Kirk that made the score 3-1.
Back-to-back home runs by Van Kirk (3) and Carlos Guzman (12) in the fifth inning tied up the game at 3-3.
With the win, the Patriots completed the sweep of the Skeeters and are currently three games in front of the Bridgeport Bluefish in the Liberty Division second half standings.
“Obviously we are getting to the home stretch of the season. There’s no room for error really. We have to go out and try to win every series,” said Somerset Patriots manager Brett Jodie. “We were fortunate enough to earn the sweep, but our goal is to win series, take care of our own business and not worry about anything else.”
Randy Boone (3-3) earned the win with a scoreless inning. Derrick Loop (1-3) took the loss, allowing a run in 0.1 innings pitched.
The 2016 Somerset Patriots season presented by Ford continues at home on Friday night with a 7:05 pm game against the New Britain Bees. The game features Back To School Folders (1st 1,500 Kids) presented by Somerset County Education Association. For tickets, call 908-252-0700 or visit www.somersetpatriots.com. Download our Mobile App for free in the Apple or Android App store.
