While the parent club Houston Astros were taking care of Red Sox business at Fenway Park, taking two of three from Boston, their Class A Short Season Tri-City ValleyCats grabbed their third New York-Penn League championship title in franchise history.

Previous titles were won in 2010 and 2013 (the latter featuring current Astros Tony Kemp and Tyler White).

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Other Astros to log time with the ValleyCats are George Springer (2011), Jose Altuve and Dallas Keuchel (2009), and more recently, JD Davis and Derek Fisher (2014).

The ‘Cats, who play their home games in Troy, NY (about 7 miles north of Albany), won with a 4-2 victory over the Hudson Valley Renegades (Tampa Bay Rays) on Sunday, September 10, to sweep the best-of-three championship series on the road at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, NY (94 miles south of Troy).

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Catcher Alex Holderbach (Astros’ 16th round 2018 draft pick out of Eastern Kentucky) hit a two-run single in the 12th inning and RHP Jacob Billingsley (32nd round out of Mississippi State) escaped a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the frame for the game’s final out.

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“It was awesome,” manager Jason Bell told the Troy Record after Tri-City jumped out to a 1-0 series lead at home, Saturday. Bell, a St. Louis native, is the youngest manager in minor league ball at 28. “The crowd did wonders for us tonight, especially on a very cold evening that probably wasn’t the best night to watch baseball.”

Hudson Valley jumped out early in Sunday’s second game, scoring twice in the bottom of the first on an RBI groundout and a sacrifice fly.

From there, Tri-City’s pitching staff lived dangerously and escaped several tough spots to give the offense a chance to tie the game with runs in both the fourth and seventh innings. Hudson Valley loaded the bases in the third and again in the 12th after the ValleyCats took a 4-2 lead in the top half of the inning.

The run Tri-City scored in the fourth inning came when 21-year-old Venezuelan catcher Oscar Campos grounded into a double play, scoring Carlos Machado, the 20-year-old Venezuelan left fielder. In the seventh, 18-year-old Dominican shortstop Deury Carrasco lined a single to right field that scored Campos to tie the game. In the 12th, Holderbach came through with the clutch two-run single that plated Campos and 25th round pick, center fielder Logan Mattix.

The bottom of the 12th was touch-and-go for Tri-City, as Hudson Valley loaded the bases when ValleyCats’ 18-year-old Dominican reliever Manny Ramirez walked three consecutive batters after deftly retiring the first two. But, Billingsley came in to get a fly out to center field, sealing the title-clinching victory for Tri-City.