LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The Norfolk Tides defeated the Gwinnett Stripers 4-2 in front of a season-high 8,783 fans at Coolray Field Saturday night.
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - The Norfolk Tides defeated the Gwinnett Stripers 4-2 in front of a season-high 8,783 fans at Coolray Field Saturday night.
Gwinnett took an early lead thanks to offensive leader Carlos Franco. In the second inning, the Stripers' first baseman launched a 425-foot solo home run (6) to straightaway center field, extending his International League-leading RBI total to 28 on the season.
The Stripers scored again in the second against Asher Wojciechowski after Xavier Avery singled and Phil Gosselin walked. With two outs, Ezequiel Carrera singled to right to bring Avery home from second.
It remained 2-0 through six innings as Matt Wisler held the Tides to just three hits in those frames. But in the seventh inning, Joey Rickard led off with a double and Drew Dosch followed with a 427-foot home run (1) that tucked inside the right field foul pole, tying the game at 2-2.
The game's definitive inning came in the eighth, as Wisler (L, 1-2) loaded the bases with no outs. Evan Phillips was called upon to extinguish the situation, but he hit his first batter, Alex Presley, allowing the winning run in Jaycob Brugman to score. Rickard followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-2, but Avery threw out Rubén Tejada attempting to advance to third on the play. Phillips then struck out Dosch to end the inning.
Wisler's final line of 7.0-plus innings, seven hits, four earned runs, two walks and six strikeouts on 97 pitches tarnished what was a solid first six frames.
Wojciechowski, making a spot start in place of recently recalled Jimmy Yacabonis, got through 6.0 innings of three-hit, two-run ball with one walk and nine strikeouts. Joely Rodríguez (W, 1-2) was the pitcher of record when the Tides took the lead in the eighth. He threw a scoreless inning with one hit allowed. Jhan Mariñez (H, 2) and Donnie Hart (S, 4) finished off the game for the Tides.
Gwinnett ended up with just four hits, only one of which came after the second inning. A Gosselin double in the seventh accounted for the hit outside the two-run second.
The Stripers will try to take the series finale Sunday at 1:05 p.m. at Coolray Field. Left-hander Kolby Allard (2-1, 2.12 ERA) goes for Gwinnett, while righty Matt Wotherspoon (1-1, 3.29 ERA) will make a spot start for Norfolk. Tony Schiavone has the play-by-play call on 97.7 and 93.5 FM The Other Side of the River beginning at 12:35 p.m.
