Braves Surrender Two in 9th, Fall to Pulaski 7-6

DANVILLE, Va. - In a back-and-forth contest on Thursday night, the Danville Braves came up short of a comeback in the ninth inning.

With one out in the bottom of the ninth inning, CJ Alexander roped a triple of the evening to deep right-center field. However, the next two batters couldn't get him home.
Danville (15-13) held two different leads during the game, but lost their first game of the season when leading after eight innings, falling to 12-1 this season in such games.
The D-Braves scored three in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead. Justin Dean opened the inning with his seventh double of the season. Andrew Moritz reached with a botched catch from Pulaski outfielder Everson Pereira, making it second-and-third with nobody out. Greg Cullen, at the time being, seemed to be the hero of the game with a two-RBI bloop single to shallow left field, knotting the game at 5-5.
Alexander gave the D-Braves the go-ahead RBI triple with a slashed hit down the right field line. Overall the first-year professional went 3-for-5 on the evening with two triples and an RBI.
After the D-Braves had taken a 6-5 lead in the bottom half of the eighth, the Yankees scored two in the top of the ninth inning on four pitches from D-Braves pitcher Zach Daniels. Pulaski opened the inning with three consecutive hits, scoring one on an RBI double from Everson Pereira and one on a RBI single from Max Burt.
Danville held an early 3-1 lead with timely hitting from Nick Shumpert and Rusber Estrada.
In the bottom of the second, Shumpert knocked in Brett Langhorne with a line drive to left, tying the game at 1-1. Dean picked up his 12th RBI of the year on a groundball force out to give the D-Braves a 2-1 lead.
The next inning, Estrada smacked a single up the middle to extend Danville's lead to 3-1. Estrada finished 2-for-4 on the evening, raising his average to .341 on the year.
Starter Jose Montilla pitched five innings and gave up three earned runs with six strikeouts. The product of Neyba, Dominican Republic gave up his first homerun of the year on a 1-2 count to Pulaski's Juan De Leon in the top of the second inning.
Danville will finish up its first of two series during this homestand. First pitch against Pulaski is at 7 p.m.