Silva, Baddoo Muscle Win for E-Twins

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- Kingsport dropped its eighth game of the season to Elizabethton Wednesday night as the Twins cruised to a four-run victory at 7-3 over the Mets in Game 2 of the final three-game series of the season at Hunter Wright Stadium.
Kingsport (28-37) has now lost eight of its last 10 ballgames and is 0-8 against the Twins (41-26) on the season. K-Mets have dropped three-consecutive series in-a-row after winning the previous four-consecutive dating back to the beginning of August.
Elizabethon jumped out of the gates with a run in the first inning following a leadoff triple from the leadoff man, Akil Baddoo. Standing at third base with no outs, Ariel Montesino sent a fly ball to deep right field. The drive was plenty long enough to bring in the runner from third as the Twins jumped out 1-0 early on.
The Twins struck again in the top of the third inning with a leadoff home run from Gorge Munoz. The bomb was the first of the season for the short stop as it handed the visitors another run as they led the Mets by a score of 2-0 midway through three innings of play.
Kingsport finally responded in the bottom of the third inning after blowing chances in the second when Mark Vientos doubled in his first Appalachian League RBI with a two-bagger to left field that brought in Angel Manzanarez from first. The Twins' lead was then cut in half at a 2-1 tally thanks to the run-scoring hit from the Mets 2017 second-round selectee.
The E-Twins got two runs in the fourth thanks to an RBI single from T.J. Dixon and a fielding error by Grabiel Jimenez in right field. Kingsport countered with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame when Hansel Moreno walked with the bases-loaded to bring in the second run of the day, but the Mets left them loaded while only scoring the one run in the frame.
After four innings in the books, Elizabethton continued to lead by two at 4-2.
Flash-forward two innings into the sixth, the red-hot Twins plated three more runs to take a 7-2 lead.
Baddoo's ground-rule double over the left-center field wall brought in a pair of runners-Andrew Bechtold and Carson Crites-while a wild pitch allowed Rainis Silva to come in and score another run. In all, Elizabethton scored three runs off four hits in the inning as the bases were loaded to kickoff the frame with no outs.
A scoreless seventh and eighth set the table for the Mets in the ninth as Gavin Garay came across to score on single from Moreno on a play deep in the 5-6 hole at short. Other than that, Juan Gamaz (S, 2) was effective in working around the two hits in the inning.   
Kelvin Faucher (3-0) picked up the win after tossing a scoreless sixth inning of relief while Gamaz recorded his second save of the season. Ryley Widdell started the game for the Twins and allowed only two runs off five hits in four innings on the bump.
Ezequiel Zabaleta (2-3) took home the loss for Kingsport in his final start of the 2017 campaign. The righty surrendered the seven runs off 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings of work. Ronald Sanchez and Yuedy Colon combined to toss the final 3 2/3 innings of the game.
Offensively for Elizabehtton, the Twins pounded out seven runs off 13 hits while five players recorded multi-hit days. Silva paced the club with four knocks on the night while Baddoo recorded two extra-base hits in the win. Munoz slashed his first home run of the season in the third inning.
Kingsport, who tallied only three runs of eight hits on the night, Vientos recorded a pair of doubles with an RBI in the loss. Garay tallied another multi-hit day while Juan Uriate had a pair of singles.
The regular season finale and the conclusion to the 2017 Kingsport Mets campaign will be held Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. with Game 3 against the Elizabethton Twins. Coverage of the contest can be found once again on the Kingsport Mets Baseball Network with Eric Cain for the final broadcast of the season.