Justyn-Henry Malloy Drives In Five in Águilas del Zulia Debut

MARACAY, Venezuela — Justyn-Henry Malloy drove in five runs in his Águilas del Zulia debut as the visitors broke open a one-run game with an eight-run seventh inning and routed Tigres de Aragua 13-2 on Thursday, October 29.

Malloy went 2-for-3 with a three-run homer, three walks and two runs scored. The 26-year-old outfielder, assigned to Zulia earlier in the week, delivered a two-run single during the decisive seventh before hitting his first LVBP home run an inning later.

Zulia turns a pitchers’ duel into a rout

Águilas led only 1-0 through six innings after Phillip Ervin doubled home Alí Castillo in the third. Juan Villavicencio opened the seventh-inning surge with his first LVBP homer, and Zulia kept applying pressure with run-scoring hits from Malloy, Osleivis Basabe and Víctor Arias.

Luis Castro capped the eight-run inning with a three-run homer that made it 9-0. Zulia then scored four more times in the eighth, with Basabe adding an RBI double before Malloy sent a three-run shot over the center-field fence.

The Águilas finished with 17 hits. Castro went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Villavicencio collected three hits in four at-bats. Alí Castillo also had three hits and scored three runs.

José Dávila gives Águilas five scoreless innings

Right-hander José Dávila supplied the foundation for the breakout, holding Tigres to two hits across five scoreless innings. He walked three and struck out five to earn his first victory of the season.

Aragua scored in the seventh on a throwing error and added a solo homer from Mason Martin in the eighth, but the game was already out of reach.

The win improved Zulia to 5-10 and ended a difficult stretch with only its second victory in seven road games. More importantly, Malloy’s immediate impact gave the Águilas a new middle-of-the-order threat as they try to climb out of the lower half of the LVBP standings.