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In the week since the New York-Penn League’s season started, the Aberdeen IronBirds’ 19-year-old infielder Garabez Rosa has already connected for a pair of game-winning hits, with the most recent coming in his team’s extra-inning, 4-3 victory over the visiting Staten Island Yankees on Wednesday.

The win improved the IronBirds record to 3-2 on the season, good for second place in the McNamara Division.

Aberdeen opened the 2009 season last Friday night, dropping the first contest of a three-game road series with Hudson Valley, 4-2. Sunday night saw the IronBirds get back to the .500 mark by beating their hosts, 8-3, while Saturday’s game was postponed because of inclement weather. The IronBirds’ won their home opener on Monday 2-0, then dropped their Tuesday game 5-1.

Rosa, the Aberdeen club’s youngest member, came to the plate in the 10th inning of Wednesday’s game with teammate Levi Carolus on first base and the score tied 3-3. After watching the Yankee hurler miss the strike zone on his first three offerings, Rosa connected with a breaking pitch and drove the ball to the alley in left center, scoring Carolus and ending the game.

“[I got] the ‘swing away’ sign,” Rosa said through a translator, teammate Arthur Bonevacia, after the game. “I was looking for a fastball, but also thought he might throw a curveball. It was a curveball [that I hit]. It felt really good to get that hit.”

Rosa’s first game-winner came on Monday when he cracked a two-run homer in the sixth inning of Aberdeen’s 2-0 win against the Yankees.

Wednesday’s contest saw the IronBirds held to three hits and zero runs through their first five turns at bat.

After surrendering only a single in the opening three frames, Aberdeen starter Colin Allen (0-1), started the fourth inning by plunking the leadoff man and walking the next batter. The third Yankee hitter of the inning slashed a base-clearing triple, then was tagged and scored on a sacrifice fly to put his team up 3-0. Allen walked one more batter, but managed to retire the side without any more trouble.

In the bottom of the sixth frame, Aberdeen second baseman Buck Britton reached base on a fielder’s choice, then made his way to third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Rosa, who played both third base and shortstop, drove Britton in after stroking a 1-2 slider up the middle, then scored on first baseman T.J. Baxter’s double. After stealing third base, Baxter plated the tying run when designated hitter Zach Booker grounded out to second.

The IronBirds’ had a chance to take the lead in the eighth after Baxter laid down a one-out bunt and made his way all the way to third base when the Yankee’s catcher fired the ball into deep right field. With Booker at the plate, Baxter broke for home in an attempted suicide squeeze. Booker, however, popped his bunt to the Yankee pitcher and Baxter was doubled up at third to end the inning.

Both teams went scoreless in the ninth frame, setting the stage for Rosa’s walk-off hit in the 10th.

Aberdeen’s Scott Mueller (1-0) came in to pitch in the eighth and tossed three perfect innings, striking out four and walking zero to pick up the win. Stephen Procner relieved Allen in the fifth and stayed on the mound for three frames, allowing one hit, striking out two and walking one.

The win improved the IronBirds’ record to 3-2.

‘Birds offense a no show

In the second contest of their six-game homestand, the IronBirds were undone by a lack of offense and a season-high number of errors, losing 5-1 to the previously winless Staten Island Yankees on Tuesday night.

Abereen managed just four hits on the night, and on the defensive end, the IronBirds had three fielding miscues.

Starting pitcher Nick Haughian (0-1) was effective in his five inning stint, allowing one earned run on four hits and striking out six Yankee batters.

Right-handed pitcher James Brandhorst, the Orioles’ 20th-round pick in the MLB draft, made his first appearance as a professional, and retired each of the three batters he faced for a perfect inning.

The IronBirds lone run came in the fourth frame while they were trailing 2-0. Lance West made it to second base after reaching base on an infield error, and then scored when Mike Giosio rifled a base hit to right field.

In the eighth frame, while trailing 3-1, the IronBirds looked ready to put themselves back in the game as the bases were loaded with just one out. The Yankees, however, managed to slip the noose by retiring the final two Aberdeen batters on a groundout and a strikeout.

In the ninth frame, the Yankees tacked on a pair of insurance runs before blanking Aberdeen in the bottom half of the inning.

Pitchers duel in home opener

Playing in front of a capacity crowd in their home opener Monday night, the IronBirds did not fail to please the Aberdeen faithful, winning a pitchers’ duel with the visiting Staten Island Yankees, 2-0.

In the IronBird’s Monday night game, Aberdeen starter Ken Moreland and relievers Jose Barajas and Mick Mataliano combined to hold the Yankees to a paltry five hits, four of which were singles, and didn’t allow a runner past second base in the shutout.

Moreland (1-0) lasted six full innings, struck out two, gave up no walks and surrendered four base hits and a double to pick up his first win of the new campaign. Barajas began his relief appearance by issuing a walk in the top of the seventh frame, but he quickly settled in and got through the next six Yankee batters in succession, striking out two. Mataliano, a 24-year-old submarine-style hurler who scratched out 27 saves in Delmarva last year, walked the first batter he faced in the ninth before retiring the side to earn the save.

The IronBirds offense came alive in the bottom of the sixth frame when shortstop Blake Davis cranked a two-out single to left field; it was Aberdeen’s second hit of the contest. Rosa came to the plate next, and after taking a called strike, jumped on a high fastball from the Staten Island reliever and sent it bouncing off the roof of the visitors’ clubhouse, 420 feet in left center field.

Aberdeen’s hurlers were aided several times during the game by slick defensive plays. In the fourth inning with one out and Yankees on first and second, Rosa fielded a hot grounder and started an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play. In the third frame, center fielder Steven Bumbry raced down a drive to the deepest part of the ballpark and made an over-the-shoulder catch, then made a nearly identical play in the fifth frame.

Offensively, Bumbry was the lone IronBird to reach base twice, going 0-1 with a pair of walks and one stolen base.

Aberdeen evens up

In their Sunday night road game, the IronBirds came back from a disappointing loss in their season opener by dropping the host-team Hudson Valley Renegades, 8-3.

Down 2-0 in the top of the third, the IronBirds scored their first run when second baseman Rosa doubled home third baseman Ty Kelly, who had reached second with his own two-bagger. Later in the frame, Rosa scored on an RBI groundout hit by center fielder Bumbry, evening the game at two runs apiece.

Aberdeen went down again in the bottom part of the third when starter Brandon Erbe allowed one run on two hits.

In the fifth inning, IronBird first baseman Baxter scored the tying run following a pair of Aberdeen walks and a base hit, and Bumbry, who had made it to third base, put his team up by one when the Renegades’ hurler uncorked a wild pitch.

In their next turn at the plate, the IronBirds were treated to a leadoff double from right fielder Bonevacia, which was followed by an RBI fielder’s choice by Kelly. Rosa came to the plate and laced a triple which scored Kelly, then made it home himself when Baxter lofted a long sacrifice fly.

The final Aberdeen run of the evening came in the top of the ninth when Tom Edwards tagged and scored from third on a sacrifice fly by Bonevacia.

The pitching win went to Aberdeen reliever Tyler Sexton, who tossed six innings and held the Renegade batters to one run on six hits, struck out six and issued just one walk.

‘Birds start with loss

Playing on the road in their season-opener Friday evening, the IronBirds allowed Hudson Valley Renegades four first-inning runs, then shut out their hosts for the remaining eight frames. Unfortunately the Aberdeen men could only push two runners across the slab and wound up dropping the contest 4-2.

Allen, the IronBirds starter, surrendered the Renegades’ four tallies, three of which were earned, on three hits. Over the next four innings, Allen was much more productive, holding his hosts to a pair of hits and finishing his stint on the mound with five strikeouts and one walk allowed.

Procner came in to relieve Allen in the sixth inning and tossed three innings of one-hit ball while recording three strikeouts.

Center fielder Bumbry, the Baltimore Orioles’ 12th selection in this year’s MLB draft, was appearing in his first professional game Friday, and he wasted no time making his presence known, blasting a solo home run in the top of the fourth frame to put Aberdeen on the board.

Also making his first pro debut was Baltimore’s 13th-round selection, third baseman Kelly, and in four plate appearances he managed to rap out three base hits.

Davis scratched out one base hit and scored the IronBirds’ final run in the top of the fifth frame.

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