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Saturday's local roundup: Rafaela sets WooSox homer record; Bravehearts break team record for wins

worcester telegram & gazette
·3 min read
Worcester’s Ceddanne Rafaela continues to launch baseballs over the fence, as the Red Sox prospect hit his fifth homer in as many games to set a WooSox record in a win over Syracuse on Saturday.
Worcester’s Ceddanne Rafaela continues to launch baseballs over the fence, as the Red Sox prospect hit his fifth homer in as many games to set a WooSox record in a win over Syracuse on Saturday.

BASEBALL

International League

Worcester 6, Syracuse 3: Boston Red Sox prospect Ceddanne Rafaela continued his torrid streak in Triple-A, blasting a 3-1 pitch over the fence in right field to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth to help the WooSox rally past the Mets in 10 innings.

Rafaela's opposite field blast traveled 366 feet and was his WooSox record fifth homer in as many games. Rafaela has homered 11 times in just 30 games since being promoted to Worcester.

Worcester won the game in the 10th, as Bradley Zimmer was hit by a pitch and scored on a single to center by Caleb Hamilton, which scored Zimmer and automatic runner Narciso Crook when Syracuse's Brandon McIlwain struggled to field the ball, slipped, and fired a hasty throw that banged off the third-base dugout.

David Hamilton followed with a two-run shot to right to make it 6-2. It was his second homer of the week. The WooSox hit three homers on Saturday, giving them 18 in five games this week.

Boston's Tanner Houck started for Worcester in his first rehab start since suffering a facial fracture on a comeback line drive on June 16. Houck threw 46 pitches (27 strikes) and allowed two runs on three singles while walking three and striking out three. Houck worked out of a bases loaded jam in the first by striking out three.

Futures Collegiate Baseball League

Vermont 4, Worcester 2; Worcester 4, Vermont 3: The host Bravehearts set a single-season record with their 38th win of the season as Worcester split a doubleheader against the Lake Monsters.

The Bravehearts, who wrapped up the regular season on the road on Sunday against Pittsfield, qualified for the Futures League playoffs. Worcester is guaranteed at least two playoff games, including one home game, as the schedule will be announced early this week.

Worcester's Tyler Bastunas singled in the first inning of the nightcap, breaking the Bravehearts record for hits in a season with 73. Bastunas scored on a two-run single by Kevin Matos that gave Worcester a 2-0 lead.

Bastunas, who had three hits in the second game, continued his hot streak with a triple in the third that scored Nathan Samii to extend the Bravehearts lead to 3-0.

Vermont rallied for two runs in the third, but Daniel Bucciero doubled in Bastunas in the fifth to extend the lead to two runs. The Lake Monsters threatened in the seventh and final inning of the doubleheader, pushing a run across to cut the lead to won, but Bravehearts reliever Jack Beauchense got out of the jam by stranding two runners.

Former Nashoba Regional star James Borsari, who is a rising sophomore at Merrimack, earned the win, fanning two and allowing three hits over 2⅔ shutout innings of relief for Worcester.

Bucciero had a double in the first game, but the Bravehearts couldn't get any offense going against Vermont starter Francis Ferguson, who scattered six hits and didn't allow an earned run over seven innings.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Rafaela sets WooSox homer record; Bravehearts break team record for wins