TROY – The Tri-City ValleyCats aren’t the same team without injured outfielder Josh Broughton.
The Empire State Greys certainly aren’t the same club they were last season.
In the opener of their three-game series, the Greys pummeled the ValleyCats 9-3 on Friday night before 1,707 fans at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium.
The Greys (6-12) are in their second year as the Frontier League’s travel team and have already matched last year’s win total. They began last year 0-35 and finished 6-90.
“They’re greatly improved,” ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia said. “They played a great ballgame last night. They played great defense. They got seven solid innings out of their starter (Andres Rodriguez), shut us down. Sometimes you’ve got to just tip your hat. They played really well.”
Meanwhile, ValleyCats starter Bryant Garrison lasted six innings and gave up 10 hits and nine runs, all earned. He allowed a solo homer to Luis Atiles in the third inning and a solo homer to Jordan Scott and a two-run blast to Josh Sears in the fourth.
“He didn’t have his location today,” Incaviglia said. “Everything was belt-high and up. Just one of those days where he didn’t have his good stuff and couldn’t get it down and didn’t have command of a couple of pitches. But he’ll be OK.”
Carson McCusker, who is leading the league with a .455 average, drove in all the ValleyCats runs with a two-run homer in the sixth and RBI double in the eighth.
The ValleyCats (9-10) played their third straight game without Broughton, whom Incaviglia said will likely miss two months with a broken right hand. Broughton was injured fouling off a pitch on Tuesday against Trois-Rivieres. X-rays showed his hand is broken in two places, Incaviglia said.
Tri-City did recover to win the final two games of the Trois-Rivieres series, but will miss Broughton, the leadoff hitter who was batting .426 this…
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