ValleyCats open Frontier League season with 7-4 win

PHOTOGRAPHER: Stan Hudy

Tri-City ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia

FLORENCE, Ky. — The Tri-City ValleyCats wasted no time powering their way into the 2022 Frontier League season on Thursday.

Denis Phipps hit a two-run home run, and Brad Zunica hit a solo shot in a four-run top of the first inning, and Tri-City went on to beat the Florence Y’Alls 7-4.

Phipps set a ValleyCats single-season record for home runs last year, with 21.

Carson McCusker’s RBI double in the first gave Tri-City a 4-0 lead, and the ValleyCats extended it to 5-0 in the top of the third on an RBI single by Juan Silverio.

Silverio finished with three RBIs, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to push the lead to 7-1.

Florence made it interesting by scoring a run in the eighth and another in the ninth, but Trey Cochran-Gill, Tri-City’s sixth pitcher of the night, got Andres Rios on a grounder to third to end the game.