RiverDogs Ride Long Ball to 6-4 Victory
The Charleston RiverDogs did all of their damage via the home run ball on Friday night in a 6-4 win over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at TicketReturn.com Field. Taj Bradley earned his ninth win of the season to take over the Low-A East lead. Myrtle Beach mounted a furious comeback
The Charleston RiverDogs did all of their damage via the home run ball on Friday night in a 6-4 win over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at TicketReturn.com Field. Taj Bradley earned his ninth win of the season to take over the Low-A East lead. Myrtle Beach mounted a furious comeback in the late innings, but the RiverDogs held on to even the series.
The RiverDogs (48-20) opened up a 5-0 lead on the strength of two home runs in the early innings. Garrett Hiott hit his second of the season, a solo shot in the second inning, to put the first run on the board. In the fifth inning, the RiverDogs loaded the bases and chased Myrtle Beach starter Tyler Schlaffer from the game. Diego Infante cleared them with the team's first grand slam of the season by driving a ball over the right field wall to reach the 50-RBI mark.
Bradley kept the Pelicans (33-37) offense off-balance all night on his way to earning the win. He tossed 5.0 scoreless innings and allowed just two hits while striking out six. When the right-hander departed, Myrtle Beach came alive. The Pelicans scored three runs in the sixth inning with help from an error and five consecutive singles off Audry Lugo.
The lead was trimmed even further in the seventh when Luis Verdugo led off with a single and scored on Ezequiel Pagan's double that was followed by an error by right fielder Diego Infante. The error allowed the tying run to reach third base with no outs. However, the next two batters grounded out, with the second leading to Pagan being cut down at the plate for the second out of the inning. The Pelicans managed to load the bases, but Angel Felipe retired Ethan Hearn with a groundball to first to end the threat with no further damage.
Heriberto Hernandez's solo home run in the eighth inning afforded the RiverDogs some much needed breathing room. The long ball was his seventh of the season. Felipe shut down Myrtle Beach in the eighth and ninth innings on his way to his seventh save in seven opportunities. Lugo allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits in 1.2 innings.
Eight of the nine players in the RiverDogs lineup collected at least one hit. Hiott, Brett Wisely and Johan Lopez each provided two. The teams each finished with 11 hits. Wisely has strung together nine consecutive games with a hit.
In game five of the series on Saturday night, the RiverDogs will hand the baseball to LHP Ian Seymour (1-0, 1.42) in a battle with Myrtle Beach LHP DJ Herz (1-4, 3.96). First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.
All RiverDogs games are broadcast worldwide on riverdogs.com. A television broadcast of all 60 home games during the 2021 season will also be available via MiLB.TV. Games are also available on the MiLB First Pitch app.