(April 30, 2023 – Lexington, KY): Pitching and defense led the way as the York Revolution earned their first victory of the season with a 3-2 win over the Lexington Counter Clocks on Sunday afternoon at Counter Clocks Field. The victory was the 888th in the managerial career of Rick Forney and his first as manager of the Revs. York salvages the opening series finale and will travel to Lancaster to kick off a series Tuesday night before returning home to WellSpan Park for Friday’s home opener.
Nick Raquet (1-0) turned in a spectacular effort in his Revs debut, holding the Clocks to just one run on three hits (two bloops) over six strong innings. The lefty walked just one and struck out seven.
York grabbed a first inning lead as Alejandro Rivero lined an RBI single to left, spotting the Revs their first lead since the second inning in Friday’s opener.
Lexington answered in the second as J.D. Osborne reached on a bloop double to right and scored on JC Encarnacion’s base hit through the right side, tying things at 1-1.
It remained that way into the sixth when Troy Stokes Jr., looking for his first hit of the season, lofted a fly ball to right that carried out over the short porch for a solo homer. It was Stokes Jr.’s 20th home run in a Revs uniform, and it gave the Revs a 2-1 lead.
York plated a big insurance run in the seventh when Rivero was hit by a pitch for the second time in three games, this time with the bases loaded, bringing home Trent Giambrone for a 3-1 lead. The Revs had loaded the bases on walks against reliever Cooper Brune and managed to score the run without needing a hit.
Andrew Gross caught a line drive comebacker to strand two in a scoreless seventh out of the Revs bullpen, and Blake Rogers made his Revs debut with a three-up, three-down eighth which included a brief rain delay, the second of the game.
Victor Capellan surrendered a run on a wild pitch in the ninth, but retired Logan Brown on a ground out to first base to end it with the tying run at third, logging his first save in a Revs uniform since 2021. Capellan also got a big play from Rivero who had made a terrific barehand play on a slow bounder to third off the bat of Encarnacion for the second out.
Each team managed just five hits as the Revs scraped out the low-scoring victory.
York righty Noah Zavolas makes his Revs debut on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Lancaster, opposite Barnstormers righty Jacob Lemoine. Revs fans can catch the action live on SportsRadio 98.9 FM & 1350 WOYK, 989woyk.com, The New WOYK app, and via FloBaseball.TV beginning at 6:10 p.m. with Darrell Henry and Keith Noonan on the call.
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