Shorebirds Sweep Doubleheader 

Delmarva Takes Down Salem Twice on Saturday

Shorebirds Sweep Doubleheader

SALISBURY, MD: The Delmarva Shorebirds (12-7) took care of business against the Salem Red Sox (9-11) twice on Saturday night as they took both games of the doubleheader, winning game one 5-3 and game two 4-2.

GAME 1

Delmarva grabbed an early lead in the first game as a groundout off the bat of Samuel Basallo plated Carter Young to give the Shorebirds a lead of 1-0 after an inning.

The Red Sox tied the game in the next half-inning as Albert Feliz scored Cutter Coffey on a sacrifice fly to make it a 1-1 game.

The Shorebirds reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly of their own off the bat of Anderson De Los Santos, Stiven Acevedo came into score on the play, putting Delmarva back in front 2-1.

The Red Sox would continue the back-and-forth affair as they tied the game in the fifth on a groundout by Miguel Bleis with Ahbram Liendo coming home. They'd then take the lead in the top of the sixth on a solo home run by Luis Ravelo to give Salem a 3-2 advantage.

But Delmarva counterpunched in the bottom of the sixth as they started the inning with three straight walks to load the bases. Carter Young pushed across the tying run on a single to center to bring in Elio Prado, squaring the game at three apiece. With two outs in the inning and the bases still loaded, Samuel Basallo dropped a base hit into left-center to score both Douglas Hodo and Roberto Martinez to give the Shorebirds their largest lead at 5-3. Basallo finished the game with 3 RBIs, his third such game of the season against the Red Sox.

In the final inning, Deivy Cruz handled the Red Sox in order to seal a two-run victory in the opening matchup of the twin bill.

Cruz (2-0) was the winning pitcher for Delmarva by recording the final nine outs with Salem reliever Marques Johnson (1-2) taking the loss.

GAME 2

The Shorebirds carried the momentum of game one into the nightcap as they jumped ahead in the first as Samuel Basallo kept his run production going with an RBI double to score Douglas Hodo. Anderson De Los Santos then singled home Basallo on a single to left to give Delmarva an early 2-0 lead.

The Red Sox used a wild pitch in the second to score Albert Feliz to cut the Shorebird's lead in half at 2-1.

Delmarva would add two more runs to their total in the fourth on a double by Luis Gonzalez as he whistled one into the left-center gap to score Carlos Rodriguez from first base. Samuel Basallo then scored Gonzalez as an error by Albert Feliz at first base helped Delmarva score an unearned run to up the lead to 4-1.

Salem looked to fight their way back in the fifth as Allan Castro scored Miguel Bleis on a groundout in the infield, but the Shorebirds bullpen locked it down from there as Darlin Alcantara retired five straight Red Sox after the run scored in the fifth to get the game to the seventh with Delmarva ahead 4-2.

Yaqui Rivera entered for the save in the final frame and after a lead-off walk to Miguel Bleis, Rivera went on to strike out the next three hitters, all of them looking on curveballs to finish off a double-header sweep of Salem as the Shorebirds took game two by a score of 4-2.

Darlin Alcantara (2-0) was the winning pitching in relief with Yaqui Rivera (2) converting his second consecutive save chance by getting the final three outs in the seventh. Red Sox starting pitcher, Noah Dean (0-1) was the losing pitcher for Salem.

The Shorebirds will now look to make it five in a row over the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon as Juan Nunez is set for his second start of the week against Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz for Salem with first pitch slated for 2:05 p.m.