TROY – After a powerful rally came up just short Tuesday night, the Tri-City ValleyCats returned to Joseph L. Bruno Stadium about 12 hours later on Wednesday morning and just kept swinging.
Cito Culver hit two homers and Juan Montes added a two-run blast to support pitcher Rafi Vazquez’s seven-inning start as the ValleyCats beat the Trois-Rivieres Aigles 9-2 in front of an Education Day crowd of 3,757 comprised of local students.
First pitch was at 10:21 a.m. following the ValleyCats’ 12-11 loss on Tuesday night when Tri-City nearly came all the way back from a 10-0 deficit.
“You never get used to these, 10 ‘clock in the morning,” ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia said. “One o’clock games are fine, but those 10 o’clock in the morning games, man, just kind of throw a wrench in your routine. I was proud of our guys. We came back, played well, got some guys starting to swing the bat a little bit. I think we’re going to be fine.”
The ValleyCats improved to 8-9 entering Thursday’s series finale.
Montes had the ValleyCats’ first hit on Wednesday, a homer to left-center that made it 2-0 in the second inning.
“I just think we’re hitting a lot better, we’re feeling a lot more like a team, a lot more like family,” Montes said. “Road trips help in that sense. We’re at home and I think we’re building up and feeling better as a team and we’re going to starting hitting a lot more like we’ve been doing the past few games.”
Montes, a native of Guatemala who also has Nicaraguan citizenship, said he likes the early start because it reminds him of weekend doubleheaders back home. The ValleyCats played three straight morning starts at Windy City last week.
“Kind of used to waking up early and being ready early and all that stuff,” he said. “Always ready to play.”
Culver had his first multi-homer game in independent ball. He most recently hit two homers in a…
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