Cardinals dominate in finale, win 10-3

Johnson City, TN - The Johnson City Cardinals closed out the 2013 season with a 10-3 victory over the Burlington Royals.

Johnson City struck first, scoring three in the bottom of the first. Left fielder Jhohan Acevedo started the scoring for the Cardinals, after reaching on a walk, Acevedo was driven in by consecutive singles by Justin Ringo and Ronnierd Garcia. After advancing to second on Garcia's single, Ringo scored when right fielder Rowan Wick followed suit, singling to center field. Garcia would finish off the scoring for Johnson City when a wild pitch got past the Royals catcher allowing Garcia to come home from third base.

Royals first baseman Bobby Brown cut the Royals lead to 3-1 in the top of the second with a solo homerun but the Cardinals came right back in the bottom of the inning and added four more runs to take a 7-1 lead after two complete.

With two outs on the board lead-off man Vaughn Bryan singled, then Acevedo hit his first home run of the season over the left field wall, the first of two home runs in the inning. Pinch hitting for Ringo, Kyle Grieshaber reached after being hit by a pitch. With Grieshaber on first, Garcia stepped to the plate and blasted another shot over the wall in almost the exact same place as Acevedo's.

Another single run for the Royals in the top of the third made it 7-2 but Johnson City came right back and answered with a run of their own to push the lead back to six, 8-2 Cardinals.

A scoreless fourth inning and a single run by the Royals in the top of the fifth took the game past the halfway mark with Johnson City leading 8-3.

Johnson City added another in the bottom of the sixth pushing the lead to 9-3. Once again it was Bryan and Acevedo combining to plate the run. Bryan singled on a ground ball to third base beating the throw followed by an Acevedo double into the gap in right-center field plating Bryan.

With another run in the bottom of the seventh the Cardinals reached double digits for the sixth time this season. Kenny Peoples-Walls' eleventh double of the year put him in scoring position and catcher Steve Bean drove him in with a single to push the lead to 10-3.

Starter Dailyn Martinez went five innings for the Cardinals. He allowed three runs, one earned, while striking out four and walking one. The win brought his record to 4-3 on the year.

Johnson City used three pitchers out of the bullpen to close out the game. Fernando Baez, Ismael Brito and Kyle Grana combined to throw the final four innings. They allowed no runs and struck out six.

The Cardinals finished the 2013 season 36-31, their sixth consecutive season with 35 wins or more. Over that time the Cardinals have posted a 235-166 record.            

The Johnson City Cardinals and the Johnson City Sports Foundation would like to thank all the fans that came out and showed the Cardinals tremendous support during the year.