ValleyCats storming into contention after rough start | The Daily Gazette
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TROY Carson Maxwell couldn’t pinpoint the date, but he could zero in on the moment when it felt like the Tri-City ValleyCats went from feeling like a collection of individual players to an actual, honest-to-goodness team.
“It was a home game, for sure,” the ValleyCats’ outfielder said prior to Tuesday’s opener of a three-game series against the Washington Wild Things at Joe Bruno Stadium. “We won by three or four, and it just kind of felt like something shifted.”
What shifted, exactly?
According to Maxwell, it was the ValleyCats’ entire mentality. After a calamitous start to the team’s inaugural season in the independent Frontier League, the club has turned the corner.
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After one bad inning, Tri-City threw out those plans. We beat ourselves today in the eighth inning, said Valleycats manager Pete Incaviglia. We didn t get in the right position on a cut-off down the right field line. We over-threw first base. We just didn t play well.
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While still getting the series win, Tri-City dropped the third game by a score of 7-4.
The game was scoreless until the top of the fourth, when Bralin Jackson hit a solo home run, giving Washington a 1-0 lead.
The Cats answered with three runs in the bottom half. Denis Phipps doubled to lead off the inning and then Carson Maxwell drove them both in with a go-ahead, two-run home run. Nelson Molina then drove in Daniel Angulo with a RBI double, making it 3-1.