Drew Wemple \/ The Troy Record \/ May 2, 2024<\/p>\n
TROY, N.Y. \u2014 Wednesday night\u2019s exhibition contest between the Hudson Valley Community College Vikings and Tri-City ValleyCats came at very different points in the season for the two sides.<\/p>\n
The Tri-City ValleyCats (FL) defeated Hudson Valley Community College (NJCAA), 10-3, in the May 1 exhibition game at Joe Bruno Stadium,<\/p>\n
In the home dugout, for now, were the Vikings, who are in the heat of a postseason NJCAA Region-III chase with just four games to go on their regular season schedule. In the away dugout, until the Vikings wrap up their campaign, were the ValleyCats, who are still within a week of opening spring training.<\/p>\n
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Both managers were there to scout different things from their players and see how they\u2019d stack up for the next chapters ahead, but above all, the sides were just seeking another chance at improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a chance to see some guys in just some different elements. Although it\u2019s an exhibition game, it\u2019s an extension of practice, you are looking for certain things that kind of frees you a little bit,\u201d ValleyCats manager Greg Tagert said postgame. \u201cOne, that\u2019s the most important thing \u2014 getting the guys out in competition and what a beautiful evening. A nice little crowd showed up and the guys got a taste of the environment and I think that was important, certainly for our guys, and I think it\u2019s a nice treat for the Hudson Valley kids. So, it was great. Just a great evening for everybody all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was telling on two sides. On one side, we have a really good availability and we hit with them all game. I think it was tied with hits (seven) at the end of the game, we didn\u2019t make bad mistakes defensively, we played clean baseball there, and then pitching, we were in a major league strike zone,\u201d recounts HVCC head coach Joh Parrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were throwing major league strikes, so it\u2019s really positive to build off of for us, and what a great opportunity and selfless act by the \u2018skip,\u2019 Greg, and Matt (Callahan; VP\/GM) and Rick (Murphy; President) from the ValleyCats; how selfless of that is it for them to give us an opportunity to get better at the time that we need it the most? So, we\u2019re very grateful to the community and the ValleyCats, for making that happen, but for us, what a huge benefit for our guys to prepare for this postseason stretch we\u2019re about to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ValleyCats would come away with the 10-3, \u2018unofficial\u2019 victory over the Vikings, for Tagert\u2019s first taste of winning at Joe Bruno Stadium, since his hiring this past winter. Sporting a roster of nearly 40, plus several invitees, one of whom even getting the start for the Vikings, Tagert also got his first taste of how his potential roster would handle live-action.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first few days had been a very controlled environment, so you could tell the excitement today, along with some of the disappointment for the guys that didn\u2019t get to participate in tonight\u2019s game \u2013 they had to come in the afternoon session. But, we\u2019ll continue this. We have another one Friday night, but there\u2019s such limited opportunities and you got guys who are competing for spots and unfortunately, you can\u2019t control everything,\u201d Tagert said. \u201cSo, you almost have to use the evaluation to pick out moments and say, \u2018Hey, how did this guy handle this situation, in this count? You know, some particulars and that\u2019s really what we were looking for tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was an emphasis on the newcomers Wednesday night, with the first round of roster cuts due on Sunday afternoon as the ValleyCats trim their way down to a max of 24 by opening day, next Friday. Frontier League First Round Selection Rolando Heredia-Bustos (12th overall), out of Northwestern Ohio University, got the start for Tri-City, while fellow first-rounder Easton Klein (sixth overall), from Point Park University, got an inning of work out of the bullpen.<\/p>\n
Infielder Jacob Kline, who came over to Tri-City as a part of an earlier, offseason trade from the Missoula Paddleheads, of the Pioneer League, also drove in a pair with a bases-loaded double.<\/p>\n
Tagert also gave some of the team\u2019s returners a chance to retake the field at \u2018The Joe,\u2019 such as outfielder Lamar Briggs, who spent several innings giving it a go at first base, catcher Cale Jones, who backed a bulk of the young arms Wednesday, and shortstop Robbie Merced, who posted a pair of hits off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to just kind of put guys in a position that helps them succeed and make the club as well,\u201d Tagert said.<\/p>\n
For Parrow, no matter who the Vikings went up against Wednesday, they were pro-level talent, and despite the \u2018unofficial loss\u2019 he was left impressed with their composure, as much as performance, postgame.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery mature. I think the guys overall, they\u2019re very good at handling it game-by-game, pitch-by-pitch, and adjusting to the pitcher and adjusting to whatever the umpire\u2019s zone is that day and dealing with those little adversities outside of the game, because of how committed they are to our process every single day,\u201d said Parrow. \u201cIf you were here earlier, you would\u2019ve seen them outside taking the same (batting practice) they take, whether it\u2019s the ValleyCats, Mohawk Valley, or the New York Yankees; we\u2019re going to take the same approach to every day, to our daily routine, to how we approach them, to how we try to execute our offense and it worked out for us really, really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Published:<\/strong>\u00a0Fri, 03 May 2024 11:30:16 +0000 by\u00a0d.gardner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One team in spring training, another in playoff push; all were there to improve Drew Wemple \/ The Troy…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chronicle.hvcc.edu\/wpdev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}