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John Burke captures third consecutive Giants Despair title

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Billy Feist drives Giants Despair Hillclimb in honor of the late Donnie Bachman

BUFFALO, N.Y. &#8212; Lately when Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has won games, it&#8217;s been with Luis Severino on the mound to start.The trend continued on Sunday as the top prospect in the Yankees organization pitched five shutout innings leading the RailRiders to a 8-1 win over Buffalo to close out the first half of the season and help the team avoid a sweep.The 21-year-old Severino (5-0) who retired 15 of the 17 batters he faced over five scoreless innings, allowed one hit, walked one and struck out four in efficient fashion on 64 pitches (41 strikes).The RailRiders head into the break having lost 13 of 18 games and are in second place, 1.5 games behind first place Rochester.SWB&#8217;s first runs came in the third inning when 22-year-old Greg Bird smashed his second home run in as many days, a three-run shot to right-center off starter Daniel Norris (2-9). Bird would collect another RBI with a single in the fifth as part of a 2 for 3 day with four RBI, two walks and two runs scored. Bird has hit safely in eight straight games and has reached base safely in all of his nine Triple-A games.Kyle Roller snapped an extended hitting funk with a three-hit performance that included a run-scoring single in that same fifth frame. He doubled twice to match his extra-base hit total over his prior 16 games. Dan Fiorito drove home a third run in that fifth inning as Norris allowed six runs on nine hits over 4.2 innings.Ramon Flores&#8217; sac fly made it 7-0 in the sixth and Jose Rosario connected on an RBI single in the seventh for his first Triple-A hit and an 8-0 margin.Former SWB star Melky Mesa was hit by Caleb Cotham&#8217;s first pitch out of the bullpen to begin the ninth. He would later spoil the shutout by scoring on Ryan Schimpf&#8217;s sac fly that made for the game&#8217;s penultimate out.RailRiders 8, Bisons 1RailRiders`AB`R`H`BIGamel cf`5`3`3`0Pirela 2b`5`0`2`0Flores lf`4`0`0`0Bird dh`3`2`2`4Austin rf`5`1`0`0Roller 1b`5`1`3`1Fiorito ss`4`0`2`1Rosario 3b`4`0`1`1Graterol c`4`1`1`0Totals`39`8`14`8Buffalo`AB`R`H`BIMesa cf`3`1`0`0Burns 3b`4`0`0`0Hague 1b`3`0`1`0Hassan lf`4`0`1`0Schimpf rf`2`0`0`0Ochinko c`4`0`0`0Gindl dh`2`0`0`0Diaz ss`2`0`0`0Kawasaki 2b`3`0`0`0Totals`27`1`2`1RailRiders`003`031`100`&#8212;`8Buffalo`000`000`001`&#8212;`1E: Mesa (3). DP: Bisons 1, RailRiders 1. LOB: Bisons 5, RailRiders 9. 2B: Roller 2 (13), Gamel (13), Hague (24). HR: Bird (2). SF: Flores, SchimpfRailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SOSeverino (W, 5-0)`5.0`1`0`0`1`4Goody`1.2`0`0`0`0`1Pazos `1.1`0`0`0`2`1Cotham`1.0`1`1`1`1`0Buffalo`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SONorris (L, 2-9)`4.2`9`6`6`2`1Jenkins `1.1`3`1`0`1`0Burke`1.0`2`1`1`0`1McFarland`1.0`0`0`0`0`1Infante`1.0`0`0`0`1`3HBP: Mesa (by Cotham)WP: JenkinsUmpires: HP: Tom Honec. 1B: Jonathan Bailey. 3B: Carlos TorresT: 2:41. Att: 8,802<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</shirttailMeta></div>

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders close out first half with win