STATEN ISLAND, NY- It was a tough night for the Baby Bomber offense. They came up empty in a 2-0 shutout loss to Aberdeen before 4,691 at Richmond County Bank Ballpark Saturday night.

It was their second consecutive home defeat and third straight as they dropped to 1-4 overall.
In sharp contrast to the previous night, the game took a manageable two hours and 22 minutes to play. Unlike Friday when pitchers couldn’t find the plate, they were in control.

Despite a strong performance from starter Nick Chigges in which he fanned seven in 3.2 innings pitched, he took the hard luck defeat to drop to 0-2.
“I thought he was really good. It really was impressive,” manager Mike Gillespie said. “He tonight were what we were led to believe he is. A firm but not overpowering fastball but real good secondary stuff. He throws a curve and a slider. And he is a four pitch guy. He does throw the change. So that was impressive.”

“[Chigges], [Jason Kiley],[Gabriel Medina] were awesome. They were hitting their spots, getting outs quick,” right fielder David Williams noted. “We made one bad play tonight and it cost us the game. That’s baseball. … You got to give them credit.”

In fact, Chigges gave up only one hit. A leadoff double to Franklin Gonzalez in the third. Unfortunately, his defense let him down in the field which led to an unearned run.

After striking out Douglas Reinhardt, he got Jordan Wolf to bounce to second baseman Damon Sublett. However, Sublett booted it for one error. He then would complicate things with an errant throw for his second miscue which allowed Gonzalez to score the game’s first run.

Chigges was able to get out of further trouble by retiring the final two batters on a groundout to first and a strikeout.

Sublett had a chance for redemption in the bottom of the frame when he came up with runners on second and third with one out. But against Aberdeen lefty reliever Jacob Smith, he bounced into a 1-2 fielder’s choice. Smith then got Williams to ground out to second to escape any damage which summed up a frustrating night for an offense which only got four hits including just one in the final six.

Their last baserunner Luis Nunez was erased when he tried to take second on a throw which got away from first baseman Joe Mahoney. After beating out an infield hit, the shortstop went for second but was easy pickings on a 2-6 putout. The combination of Smith (1-0), Ryan Ouellette and closer Brent Allar permitted only one hit in 6.2 innings of work while retiring the last 11 Staten Island batters.

With the Bomber bats silenced, Aberdeen tacked on an insurance run in the sixth off Medina. After back-to-back singles by Matt Angle and Tyler Henson put runners on the corners, Wally Crancer’s RBI fielder’s choice (6-3) put them up 2-0. It could’ve been more two batters later when Bubba Trammell singled to right. But Williams threw a strike to catcher Brandon Ketron which nailed Henson to end the frame.

“I got lucky. [Trammell] hit the ball hard right at me. So it actually gave me a chance to throw him out at the plate and made a good throw and threw him out. [Ketron] made a good play and that was that,” he said.

The Birds threatened for more in the ninth by loading the bases without a hit thanks to two Nunez errors and two walks. But Nunez atoned by getting a 6-4 force to end it.

After Ouellette gave way to Allar, he retired Nunez, Sublett and Williams in order to notch his second save.

“I think it’s a little harder because a lot of our hitters are coming out of college where they have the metal bat. The pitching is obviously a step up right now,” Williams pointed out. “So I think it’s going to take a little time to jell as a team. We play good defense. We have good pitching. It’s going to take a little longer for the bats to come around. Once they do, I think we’ll be fine.”

“It’s hard when you get great pitching performances,” center fielder Austin Krum mentioned. “It’s one of those things where we probably need a little bit of time to get our timing down and click as a unit offensively and the pitching will be there.

And hopefully we can back them up.

Notes: The seven strikeouts by Chigges were two more than Staten Island pitching had in Friday’s 4-3 loss. … In five innings of relief, Medina permitted a run on five hits while walking two and fanning four. … Twenty three total runners were left on base with Staten Island stranding all 10 while Aberdeen left 13 on. … The final game of the series takes place later today at St. George in a matinee with first pitch scheduled just after 2 PM.