Romero powers WooSox past IronPigs with ninth-inning rally
Romero’s three-hit night capped a ninth-inning rally as Worcester broke a 3-3 tie with two runs and escaped Allentown 5-3. Bastardo stranded two IronPigs to seal the road win.
Mikey Romero kept forcing the issue until the ninth finally opened, and the WooSox turned a tied road game into a 5-3 win at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Worcester scored twice in the top of the ninth to break a 3-3 deadlock, with Romero driving in one of the runs and Anthony Seigler the other, before Angel Bastardo finished the save with a strikeout of René Pinto after Lehigh Valley put two runners on.
The victory gave Worcester its first win of the six-game set and improved the club to 34-32, while Lehigh Valley fell to 32-38. It also snapped a four-game skid for the WooSox and set the tone for a stretch that would stay tight the rest of the week, with the teams splitting the next two games after Worcester handled the opener.
Worcester struck first in the third inning when Seigler reached second with two outs and Romero singled to right for a 1-0 lead. Lehigh Valley answered immediately in the bottom of the inning on Felix Reyes’ two-run homer to left off starter Jack Anderson, his team-leading 16th of the season, and Carter Kieboom added an RBI double in the fourth to push the IronPigs ahead 3-1. Worcester had to fight back from there, and Tsung-Che Cheng provided the first burst with a solo homer in the fifth before Vinny Capra and Seigler helped manufacture the tying run on a first-and-third double steal.
From the sixth through the eighth, both bullpens settled the game down, making the ninth inning the entire story. Tyler Samaniego earned the win with a scoreless eighth, Nolan Hoffman took the loss, and Romero’s bat carried the night with a season-high-tying three hits and two RBIs while raising his June average to .375. In a Triple-A setting defined by constant turnover, Worcester’s finish showed more than one hot bat. It showed a lineup that kept finding answers, a bullpen that held the line, and enough depth to steal a road opener when the game was there to be taken.
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