OFFICIAL FRONTIER LEAGUE BOX SCORE

TROY, NY - Despite taking an early 3-0 lead, the Ottawa Titans (7-10) dropped their second in a row to the Tri-City ValleyCats (8-10) by an 8-4 final on Thursday, falling in the rubber match of the series.

Facing righty Zeke Wood (ND, 0-0), the Titans' offence came out in full force in the series finale - working solid counts and loading up the bases with nobody out. For the first time all series, the Titans got on the board first with Jake Guenther drawing the second walk of the inning against Wood. Later, a sacrifice fly from Jamey Smart scored another to double the lead. The Titans held a 2-0 lead without recording a hit in the first.

In the second, the Titans added another as a lead-off double from Jackie Urbaez tagged up and came across courtesy of a sacrifice fly from Jason Dicochea. Wood was knocked out of the game after just an inning plus - turning it over to the bullpen the rest of the way.

Following a clean first inning - the ValleyCats blew it open against Titans lefty Bryan Peña (loss, 0-3) in the bottom of the second - seeing 11 come to the plate. Three walks and a pair of hits led to the ValleyCats scoring six runs to take a 6-3 lead before the inning drew to a close.

Peña's day ended after just one and a third - allowing six runs, four earned on just three hits, walking three and striking out two.

The Titans couldn't recover from the six spot - and had their hands full against Ronaldo Heredia-Bustos (win, 1-0) - who allowed just one run in six innings of relief.

Scott Prins put together the longest outing of his professional career - working five and two-thirds - giving up a solo homer to Demias Jimerson in the fourth - then walked Jimerson in the fifth to plate another run.

The lone run the Titans could scratch across against Heredia-Bustos came with an RBI double from Jamey Smart in the seventh - making it an 8-4 game.

With the loss, the Titans have dropped four of their six series of the 2024 season.

Jamey Smart led the offence by going 2-for-3 with a double and a pair of RBI - while Jackie Urbaez posted a multi-hit game and AJ Wright extended his hit streak to 12 consecutive games.

The Ottawa Titans return home to open another six-game homestand with the opener of a three-game set against the Windy City ThunderBolts on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. from Ottawa Stadium. All the action can be heard on CKDJ 107.9 and 94,5 Unique FM and live-streamed on Flo Baseball.

For information on tickets, group outings, and nine-game mini packs, visit the Titans’ official website at www.ottawatitans.com.