The Staten Island Yankees dropped the rubber game at Oneonta 5-3 Thursday night to fall to 19-16 and drop five and a half behind first place Brooklyn (rainout).

Tied at three, the Tigers plated the go-ahead runs in the seventh off losing Baby Bomber reliever Jason Kiley (2-2). In his third inning of work, the righthander ran into trouble when he put the first two runners on via a Justin Henry leadoff double and a walk to Kody Kaiser.

After Ron Bourquin successfully sacrificed them over to second and third, Casper Wells drove home the leading run on a sac fly. Jorge Patino then came up and delivered a two out RBI double which plated Kaiser for some insurance.

The Bombers would get the tying run to the plate in the ninth thanks to a leadoff single by Isaiah Howes. However, he was stranded as Oneonta closer Noah Krohl buckled down for his seventh save by getting Justin Snyder and Taylor Holiday swinging before recording the final out when Damon Sublett flied out to center.

The night started out well enough as Staten Island pushed across a run in each of the first couple of frames.

In the first, first baseman Braedyn Pruitt continued to swing a hot bat by driving in the game’s first run with a runscoring single to right which scored Snyder. A one out Jose Gil RBI double to right in the second allowed shortstop Luis Nunez to come around all the way from first for a two-run lead.
But starter Chris Farley couldn’t deal with prosperity in the bottom half when he allowed the Tigers to rally for three runs. Before he even recorded an out, his team was behind. Casper Wells ledoff the inning with a home run to left which cut the margin in half. A batter after Michael Sullivan singled, Chris Carlson brought him home with an RBI double to left. After a wild pitch allowed Carlson to advance to third, he came home when Cory Middleton delivered the fourth straight hit of the inning- a triple.

Farley was able to escape further trouble by getting Devin Thomas to fly to short center and then got what he needed when Kyle Peter grounded into a 6-2 fielder’s choice as Nunez tossed out Middleton at home. After beaning Henry, he got Kaiser looking to finally end it.
Staten Island drew even in the fourth on a Snyder RBI groundout to second which allowed Gil to score after he ledoff the frame with a double and advanced to third on a passed ball.

The Bombers threatened in the next inning to reclaim the lead when Sublett and Pruitt ledoff with back-to-back singles. However, Oneonta starter Guillermo Moscoso got David Williams to fly out and then got an odd inning ending 1-6-5-2 double play in which they nailed Sublett at the plate.

It was the closest they came to retaking the lead and summed up a frustrating night which saw them leave 24 runners on base. In fact, only Pruitt avoided stranding a runner in the lineup.

Staten Island finished with two more hits (11) than their opponents (9) but ultimately fell on the scoreboard.

Notes: In a losing effort, Gil finished with a game high three hits on all doubles while knocking in a run. … Oneonta pitcher Jose Fragoso picked up the win in relief tossing two scoreless while fanning a couple to improve to 2-2. … With two more hits, Pruitt is batting an even .500 (21-for-42) for the season with nine RBI’s. He was 6-for-13 in the series and is 9 for his last 16. … Baby Bombers travel to Tri-City for three starting later tonight before finally returning home to St. George to host Oneonta on Monday.