Beyond the Box Score: Renegades 1, IronBirds 0

After a tough road trip, the IronBirds troubles continued as they returned home Wednesday night to square off against the Hudson Valley Renegades. The game was close throughout as the two teams combined for 14 hits, but the Renegades walked away 1-0 winners.

The McNamara division leaders took an early lead, as Coty Blanchard came around to score off the bat of Casey Gillaspie. Gillaspie hit a weak ground ball off the glove of IronBirds RHP Tanner Chleborad which forced Federico Castagnini to charge. Castagnini's throw went wide of Riley Palmer at first which allowed Blanchard to score. The score was 1-0 and that's all Hudson Valley would need.      

IronBirds RHP Tanner Chleborad took the mound for his seventh start of the season and was strong early. Chleborad went 3.2 innings where he allowed one run (that was earned) off seven hits and tied a season high in strikeouts with three. After getting out out of a bases loaded jam in the second inning, Chleborad was relieved by Nigel Nootbaar for the final out of the fourth inning following a bases loaded situation.

RHP Bobby Bundy made a minor league rehab appearance with the IronBirds Wednesday. Bundy went two complete innings where he gave up just one hit, walked one and struck out one. He threw a total of twenty-one pitches, 13 of those were strikes. 

"Everything felt great, it was good to pitch in front of fans again," said Bundy. "Its been 25 months since I've been on an actual game mound, I had a blast out there."

Bundy was able to dominate in his two innings of work by having good control of his pitches. "I felt like I kept the ball down well tonight, I mixed in some of my pitches really well and I got ground balls when I needed them most," said Bundy.

The IronBirds' offense struggled to get things going all night against the Renegades. After returning from the New-York Penn League All-Star Game, Jay Gonzalez was the only IronBirds hitter to have a multi-hit game. Gonzalez went 2-4 with a single in the third and sixth, and picked up his twelfth multi-hit game of the season. Steve Wilkerson, Hector Veloz and Randolph Gassaway all collected a hit in the contest.

The IronBirds will look to split the series against the Renegades tonight at 7:05 before welcoming the Lowell Spinners into town. 

(Photo of Bobby Bundy by Bob and Corey Rinker)