TROY, N.Y. (May 28, 2025) – The Down East Bird Dawgs rallied late but couldn’t overcome an early deficit, falling 8-5 to the Tri-City ValleyCats on Wednesday morning.

Tri-City came out strong, plating four runs in the first inning. Javeyan Williams singled to center to score Dylan Broderick, then Jake Reinisch doubled to bring in Williams. Amani Larry and Ian Walters followed with back-to-back sacrifice flies, giving the ValleyCats a 4-0 lead.

Jake Reinisch led off the third inning for the ValleyCats with a home run, and Josh Leslie followed with a sacrifice fly to right field to score Amani Larry, to go up 6-0.

The Bird Dawgs got on the board in the fourth with a two-run single by Yassel Pino that scored Cole Hill and Cameron Masterman, cutting the deficit to 6-2.

Emmanuel Tapia hit his seventh home run of the season for the Bird Dawgs, a two-run shot down the right-field line that stayed just fair and scored Stephen DiTomaso to make it a 6-4 game with Tri-City still in front.

The ValleyCats added two runs in the eighth when Cam Jones doubled to drive in Leslie, and Williams followed with a single to right to score Jones and extend the lead to 8-4.

Jaylen Smith launched his first home run of the year for the Bird Dawgs in the ninth but that’s all they could muster as they fell to Tri-City 8-5.

Mikell Manzano (1-0) earned the win on a quality start for the ValleyCats as he gave up seven hits on two runs while striking out four in six innings pitched.

Danny Beal (0-1) took the loss for the Bird Dawgs as he went three innings, giving up six runs on six hits while walking four.

The Bird Dawgs fall to 7-8 as the series is now tied, with the finale against Tri-City set for Thursday, May 29 at 10:00 a.m.