Game Recaps 6/8

Kinston Wins 5-4

The Kinston Indians won their second game in a row and took their second series from the first place Myrtle Beach Pelicans, winning 5-4 Sunday afternoon at Historic Grainger Stadium. Kinston took two of three from the Pelicans back at the beach in May, and does the same here in their last meeting of the first half.

The Pelicans went out in front early in the rubber game, though, when Ernesto Mejia drove in Willie Cabrera with an RBI double in the first inning. Myrtle Beach scored in the first in each of the three games in the series. The K-Tribe responded in the second with three runs on a fielding error by Eric Campbell and an RBI single from Jerad Head.

Myrtle Beach tied things up at three in the sixth on RBI singles from Mejia and Jon Mark Owings. Niuman Romero came up big in the bottom half, however, cranking his second home run in as many games. His fourth home run on the year is a career high.

The birds tied things up again in the top of the seventh on a seeing-eye RBI single by Brandon Hicks. Beau Mills stepped to the dish in the bottom half to put the Indians up for good with his team-leading seventh home run.

In a game that was supposed to showcase two of the best starting pitchers in the Carolina League, they both earn no decisions. Steven Wright (2-3) went six innings giving up two earned runs on nine hits and five strikeouts for Kinston. Pelicans righty Deunte Heath went six innings as well giving up four runs, two of them earned with three strikeouts. Mike Pontius (3-1) gets his third win despite relinquishing the lead in the seventh. Luis Perdomo pitched a perfect ninth for his league-leading 13th save.

The K-Tribe hits the road after this short homestand series victory. They head to Salem for three with the Avalanche starting tomorrow at 7:07. Josh Tomlin (5-1) makes his first start for the K-Tribe since earning a win in a spot start up in AAA Buffalo.

CAPTAINS POUND SUN 15-2

(Hagerstown, MD) – Roman Pena hit a three run home run and drove in five runs and Karexon Sanchez added a three run shot as well and drove in four runs as the Lake County Captains pounded the Hagerstown Suns 15-2 on Sunday. Every Captains batter scored at least one run. With the win the Captains lead in the Northern is back to two games over Lakewood and 2.5 over Delmarva.

The Captains took a 1-0 lead in the second inning off of Suns starter Cole Kimball when Dustin Realini led off the inning with a double. Matt Brown moved him to third with a ground out and he scored on a sacrifice fly by Karexon Sanchez. The Captains added seven runs in the fifth inning courtesy of a throwing error by catcher Travis Reagan and three run home runs by Roman Pena and Karexon Sanchez to push the lead out to 8-0.

The Captains continued their assault in the sixth inning scoring five more runs getting an RBI single from Matt Willard and getting two more RBI’s from Pena and two from Jeff Hehr to make it 13-0. The Suns got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when they scored a run on a sacrifice fly by Michael Burgess off of John Gaub who had relieved Captains starter Chris Archer, to make it 13-1. The Captains made it 14-1 when they added a run in the top of the seventh on an RBI single by Adam White. The Suns scored an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh off Captains reliever John Gaub to make it 14-2. The Captains closed out the scoring in the ninth inning on an RBI double by White to make it 15-2.

Archer went 5.1 innings allowing one run on two hits, walking six and striking out six and picked up the win to go to 2-6. Gaub pitched 1.1 innings and allowed the unearned run on two hits and striking out two. Gary Campfield came on in the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings. Cole Kimball took the loss to drop his record to 1-2.

The Captains return home to conclude the first half of the season hosting Delmarva on Monday at 7:05 PM in the first game of a four game series. The Captains will conclude the half by hosting Hagerstown for four games beginning Thursday.

On Monday, the Captains will send LHP Ryan Miller (7-1, 1.41) to the hill against the Shorebirds RHP Luis Noel (6-1, 2.65). Monday’s game will feature Buck Night at Classic Park with $1 hot dogs, beer, and soda. The game can also be heard on AM 1330 WELW, WELW.COM or CAPTAINSBASEBALL.COM.

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