Scorpions finish home slate with win

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The details of Wednesday’s 4-3 victory by the Scottsdale Scorpions over the Salt River Rafters at Scottsdale Stadium will be mostly forgotten one day.

Few will talk about the game’s hero or what went right and what went wrong in Scottsdale’s final home game of the 2021 Arizona Fall League season. What the prospects will remember is the experience of playing with and against some of the sport’s best young players and how much fun they all had.

That’s the hope, anyway.

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“I hope they take with them that they played for a coaching staff that cared a lot about who they are as people,” said Scorpions manager Greg DiCenzo, who manages in the Cleveland organization. “I hope they take back some friendships that are going to last a lot longer than a 30-game season from guys in different [organizations].”

For the time being, the hero was either Boston’s Christian Koss, who scored the game-winning run, or Minnesota's Andrew Bechtold, who plated Koss with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to break the 3-3 tie.

What’s certain is that DiCenzo didn’t measure his team’s progress or success on its win-loss record alone. He wanted his players to take advantage of the opportunity to get better while in Arizona. And that’s exactly what they did.

“The effort that they put forth coming out here every single day for early work has been really impressive,” the manager said. “You put that as 'optional time slot' in the schedule, and guys are taking advantage of it. Every guy at some point was coming out here -- and some guys more than others -- but at the end of the day, everybody got better and everybody had a picture they wanted to color in, and hopefully that picture is going to pop off the page to get ready for next season.”

Milwaukee's No. 16 prospect, David Hamilton, led off the game with a triple and scored on a single by Arizona’s Buddy Kennedy to put the Rafters ahead, 1-0. Kennedy came home on a double by Detroit outfielder Eric De La Rosa. In the bottom of the frame, San Francisco’s No. 15 prospect, Will Wilson, crossed the plate on a bases-loaded walk to cut the lead to 2-1.

The very next inning, Mets prospect Wilmer Reyes hit a solo home run to extend Salt River’s advantage to 3-1, and the score stayed that way until the Scorpions tied it up with two runs in the fifth.

“The guys came out to play today,” DiCenzo said. “It’s always a little easier when you know it’s a seven-inning sprint. With one game left, the guys can see the sunset on the horizon here as it relates to being able to go home and be with their families and such. It’s the same with the coaching staff.”

The Scorpions will conclude their season on Friday against Mesa. Wednesday’s victory improved the club’s record to 12-17.

“To me, it’s always been about the guys,” DiCenzo said. “I love being in the dugout with the fellas, whether it’s a Red Sox or Twin, an Indian, a Ray or a Giant, it doesn’t really matter. You've got baseball players up and down this roster that are really good kids and really good players. It’s been a lot of fun working with them.”