American brand

Young power hitters help AL fend off NL in annual meeting

Guy Cipriano

UNIVERSITY PARK — This was designed for fun until two batters walked with no outs in the top of the ninth inning.

Craig Houtz

Former Baltimore Orioles standout Al Bumbry competes in the Celebrity Home Run Derby before the New York Penn League All-Star Game on Tuesday, August 18, 2009.

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• Shining bright
• Bumbry sees game change over years

The team holding the three-run lead became uneasy.

The team trailing by three runs crept toward the front of the dugout steps.

The scarcity of pitching entered minds. The dramatic seemed possible.

The New York- Penn League All-Star Game started to resemble a late-season game.

It then ended so suddenly.

The National League scored during the ninth, but not enough to prevent a 4-2 loss to the American League before 5,401 fans Tuesday at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park.

State College’s Brock Holt trimmed the lead to two runs after Staten Island second baseman Jimmy Paredes committed a throwing error. Cory Burns replaced Clayton Cook, his 19- year-old Mahoning Valley teammate, and induced a game-ending double play on his sixth pitch.

“You don’t want to lose a baseball game, no matter how old you are and what level it is,” Burns said. “All-Star Game, postseason game, regular season game. …You always want to win games.”

Burns has been involved in many wins this season. The Scrappers are tied with Brooklyn for the league’s best record at 36-21.

For players whose teams are playing out 76-game schedules, this was a final opportunity to produce a NY-PL memory.

“To be honest with you, I guess losing hurts a little bit,” said the NL’s J.D. Martinez, whose Tri-City team has a league-worst 18 wins. “You try to take it serious and put a good show on for the crowd. But at the same time, if the game is fun and nobody gets hurt, it’s a successful game.”

Using Martinez’s criteria, Tuesday qualified as a success. The only glitch occurred during pregame batting practice when a thunderstorm sent the teams indoors and knocked out Medlar Field’s main power source.

Speaking of power, the game featured three homers, which entertained a crowd of 5,401, the eighth largest gathering in Medlar Field’s four-year history.

The seventh proved the decisive innings as the AL scored three times off State College’s Zach Foster.

Foster allowed a one-out double to Aberdeen’s Ty Kelly. Staten Island’s Zoilo Almonte singled with two outs, allowing Kelly to score. Paredes then sent a fastball into the left-field picnic deck to give the AL a three-run lead.

“I was looking for a fastball and I got one,” Paredes said translator Levi Carolus of Aberdeen. “I was trying to drive it away.”

The outing contrasted Foster’s entire season. He entered the game with a .98 ERA through 15 appearances. Foster, a Bradford native, hasn’t allowed an earned run for the Spikes since July 24.

“I kind of left a couple of pitches up,” said Foster, the game’s lone Pennsylvania native. “These guys are going to hit mistakes. I made a couple, and I paid for it.”

Paredes wasn’t the only hitter to pounce on a mistake.

Auburn’s Welinton Ramirez homered for the AL off Vermont’s Evan Bronson in the fourth. The NL tied the game when Martinez smashed a fourth-inning fastball thrown by Auburn’s Egan Smith. Ramirez and Martinez sent balls into the left-field picnic, where league executives gathered throughout the night.

The homers represented nearly a quarter of the game’s offense. The teams combined to use 20 pitchers and the hurlers surrendered 11 hits. Only two players — Almonte and Williamsport’s Leandro Castro — finished with two hits each.

Three pitchers tossed perfect innings, including State College’s Phil Irwin, who worked the second. Irwin coaxed two fly outs and a groundout while throwing just nine pitches.

“I used the same approach as always — to get out there, throw strikes, fill up the zone and try to have them put the ball in play,” Irwin said.

Irwin was the first of three Spikes to enter the game. Infielder Brock Holt, who couldn’t play the field because of a groin injury, replaced Tri-City’s Brian Kemp as designated hitter and batted twice.

He grounded out to second base in his first at-bat.

The State College trio received hearty ovations during pregame introductions. They received big applauses again when entering the game.

The crowd’s attachment to the Spikes and NL quickly reached the AL dugout.

“It kind of seemed like they picked their favorite at the beginning,” Burns said. “Most of them were National League fans because of where we are located right now.”

Judging by Tuesday, many of the league’s top prospects play for AL affiliates. Three of the game’s four teenagers — Lowell’s Ryan Westmoreland and Derrik Gibson and Cook — played for the AL.

The presence of prospects from the big-spending New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox also helped the AL. Staten Island’s Adam Warren and Francisco Rondon pitched scoreless innings, and Paredes, who received MVP honors, and Almonte combined for three of the AL’s six hits.

“We have a lot of talent,” said Warren, the Yankees’ fourth-round draft pick out of North Carolina.

Lowell, a Boston Red Sox affiliate, has the league’s youngest roster, with 20-year-old pitchers Jose Alvarez and Yeiper Castillo joining Westmoreland and Gibson in State College.

The victory gives the AL a 3-2 edge in the current format. Four of the league’s top six teams — Mahoning Valley, Staten Island, Lowell and Oneonta — are AL affiliates.

Those details mattered little during a frenzied postgame. Players, who spent two days together, quickly showered and went their separate ways. The entire league returns to regular- season play today.

“There was tons of talent here,” Foster said. “Everybody up and down the lineup could swing. Everybody that pitched could throw.”

And everybody witnessed a competitive game.

Guy Cipriano can be reached at 231-4643.