Woodpeckers Drop Series Opener to Wood Ducks in Kinston 

Kinston, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (49-71, 18-37) were unable to overcome a nine-run fifth inning from the Down East Wood Ducks (62-59, 29-26) in the 10-4 loss Tuesday night at Grainger Stadium. The Wood Ducks have now won five of the last six games between the two teams this season.

Fayetteville was quick to open up the scoring in the opening inning. Tommy Sacco, the hero on Sunday afternoon, led off the game with a walk before Jacob Melton advanced him to third on a base hit. Two batters later, Zach Dezenzo extended his hitting streak to 14 games with an RBI single to make it 1-0 Woodpeckers.

In the bottom half of the first, Down East also started strong offensively against Fayetteville starter Nolan DeVos. Maximo Acosta singled and Liam Hicks doubled to put two in scoring position with no outs, but DeVos retired Cam Cauley on a popup before stepping off and throwing out Acosta at the plate. However, Yosy Galan came through with a base hit to score Hicks and tie the ballgame.

DeVos settled in after the shaky first inning and struck out the side in order the following frame. He also held the Wood Ducks scoreless in the third to cap off a strong second outing with the Woodpeckers since joining the club last week. Andre Scrubb, who is in the midst of a rehab assignment from Sugar Land, came on for the fourth and made quick work of Down East to keep the game even after four.

The wheels came off for Fayetteville in the bottom of the fifth inning. Zack Matthews (L, 2-4) took over on the mound in just his second appearance since being activated from the injured list. Matthews surrendered a pair of hits to begin the inning before Hicks delivered a sacrifice fly to push the Wood Ducks ahead, 2-1. Cauley struck out looking for the second out, but Galan took Matthews over the left center field wall for a two-run homer to extend the lead to three.

Matthews walked back-to-back batters and was then lifted in favor of Jayson Schroeder, who walked the first two batters of his outing with the second one bringing in a run. JoJo Blackmon then cleared the bases with a triple to right to bring the score to 8-1. Schroeder uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Blackmon to score before an RBI single from Hicks made it 10-1. After two more walks, Schroeder departed for Shea Barry who got the final out of the inning, but not before Down East scored nine times and sent 15 batters to the plate.

The Woodpeckers’ offense didn’t give up and looked to provide a spark in the sixth after being held to just one run over five innings by Wood Ducks starter Mitch Bratt (W, 5-4). The first two batters of the inning reached against reliever Jackson Leath with Dezenzo drawing a walk and Ryan Clifford singling to left. A one-out pop up off the bat of Jackson Loftin fell on the infield and Zach Cole took advantage by ripping a three-run double into the gap, cutting the deficit to six.

Back on the mound, Tyler Guilfoil put together another impressive performance after earning his first minor league save last week against Charleston. Guilfoil went three shutout innings in relief and struck out five Down East batters while allowing just two hits and a walk. Unfortunately for Fayetteville, the Wood Ducks’ bullpen was equally as strong as Adrian Rodriguez and Dylan MacLean shut down the Woodpeckers’ bats over the final three frames to secure the series-opening win.

Fayetteville will look to exact revenge on Wednesday night as their final road series of 2022 continues. RHP Carlos Calderon gets the ball for the Woodpeckers while RHP Winston Santos tries to make it two in a row for Down East. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00 ET.

FULL BOX SCORE: https://www.milb.com/gameday/669633/final/box