Rochester Red Wings win series, but hometown star Ernie Clement has big week for Buffalo

Never mind playing it cool. When Brighton’s Ernie Clement launched a long home run over the left-field wall at Innovative Field Sunday afternoon, he was wearing a smile all the way around the bases.

“Oh my God, I think I had a pretty big smile on my face,” the Buffalo Bisons infielder admitted after a 9-6 victory over the Rochester Red Wings. “That was really cool. I pointed to a couple of my buddies in the stands who I played baseball with growing up so that was pretty cool.”

Losing four out of six games wasn’t exactly ideal, but it was still quite a week for the former Section V star and three-time All-Greater Rochester player who had a private cheering section of family and friends for each of the four games he played during a remarkably beautiful mid-April weather week.

“The Red Wings had the bats going all week,” Clement said. “I was a big Red Wings fan growing up so a little bit of me was pretty pumped that they got some wins but it was against us, unfortunately. Overall, it was just such a cool experience. I had so many family and friends show up and it means the world to me that they showed up for me. I just had such a blast.”

Playing for the first time as a professional at the downtown ballpark, Clement capped his return to Rochester in style Sunday. He had an RBI fielders’ choice in the second inning and proceeded to steal second base; he singled and eventually scored on a double by Otto Lopez in the fourth; he ripped his two-run homer to left in the sixth inning off Jose Mujica which put the Bisons up 7-2; and he walked in the seventh.

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Oh, about that walk. Clement was the designated Taco Bell K-man Sunday, so if he had struck out, everyone in the crowd would have had the chance to get a free taco. While he was at the plate, as the crowd usually does, it was cheering for a whiff.

“Yeah, I couldn’t tell if they were cheering for me or the fact that I was the K-man today,” Clement said with a smile. “I was hoping that they were cheering for me but at the same time, I was like, ‘Maybe I’ll strike out right here to give them some tacos because they’ve been so nice to me all week.’”

Competitiveness won out and he took the free pass, closing out his batting line for the week. He went 5-for-15 with a double, a homer, a stolen base and four RBI.

“I just tried to play hard and help the boys win and we had a blast,” said Clement, who for the season is batting .273 with a .333 on-base percentage, two homers and eight RBI as he tries to make an impression in the Toronto Blue Jays system.

As for the Wings, it wasn’t a great end to the series, but it could not dampen the progress Matt LeCroy’s struggling club made in winning four of the six games.

“Oh absolutely,” LeCroy said. “I think just getting Jake Alu (who had been injured) here gave some spark to our lineup and guys started having better team at bats, situational hitting was really good, we stayed on the ball really good. Coming in facing a good team like Buffalo and to win a series is a step in the right direction and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”

The Wings had gotten off to a horrific 1-8 start as they dropped their first two home games two weekends ago, lost five of six in Syracuse, and dropped the opener of this series to the Bisons 7-2 on Tuesday.

Nothing was going particularly well, but the offense was a clear problem. In that Syracuse series, the Wings scored 11 runs in their only victory, but in the five losses they managed a mere three runs total. Yes, three total. At that point, they ranked dead last in all of Triple-A with just 48 hits.

However, after another somnolent game in the opener against Buffalo, the bats finally came to life as the Wings ripped off a four-game winning streak - one of which was a walk-off 9-8 victory Thursday when newly-signed catcher Kevin Plawecki delivered an RBI single.

Across those four games they scored 30 runs on a whopping 57 hits. There was more traffic on the bases than 490 West at rush hour which led to a rather incredible 59 at bats with runners in scoring position, and they had 18 hits for a .305 average. Sunday they scored their six runs on 10 hits and five walks.

Alu joined the team Thursday and in the last four games he went 7-for-17 and drove in two runs. The Wings also got a tremendous week from second baseman Darren Baker who went 14-for-28 (yes, that computes to .500) as he raised his average for the season to .365 and his OBP to .400.

“I think when you add a guy that can hit like Alu, I think it’s one of those things that people feed off of it,” LeCroy said. “I think our approaches have been a lot better than they were early. I think we’re starting to come together as a group which is a good thing but we gotta keep fighting every day to get back in it and hopefully move up in the standings.”

The Wings head to Norfolk for six games starting Tuesday, and that won’t be an easy assignment as the Baltimore Orioles’ top farm team is loaded and leads the International League East Division with a 10-4 record.

“It’s gonna be a good challenge for us to see where we’re at,” LeCroy said. “Looking forward to seeing those guys and seeing how we match up. We’ll give it everything we got and hopefully we’ll win a series.

“These guys are gonna fight and that’s all you can ask for as a manager. They work hard every day and go out there and give you everything until the final out and hopefully we’ll continue that way. Really excited with the direction we’re going.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during the offseason, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bisons' Ernie Clement has big week against hometown Red Wings