Augusta Walks Off Winners over Pelicans

By Sam Weiderhaft

Cam Shepherd hit a walk-off two-run homer in the bottom of ninth to hand Myrtle Beach their fourth straight loss

For the second time this season, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans fell victim to a walk-off home run as Augusta’s Cam Shepherd ended it in the ninth inning with a two-run shot to win 5-3. The Pelicans have now lost four straight games, their second-longest losing streak of the season, and fall to 33-40. The GreenJackets come within one game of the Pelicans for the third-place spot in the South Division standings and move up to 32-41.

While collecting 10 hits, Myrtle Beach left 12 runners on base to tie a season-high and only posted three runs. Matt Mervis (1-3, HR, 3 RBI) accounted for all three runs with a home run in the seventh inning to give the Pelicans a 3-2 lead. His team-leading number moves up to seven homers on the year. Jacob Wetzel (2-4, R) and Ezequiel Pagan (2-4) both posted multi-hit performances while Kevin Made (3-4) hit three singles for his first three-hit game of the season.

Jarod Wright (1-2) gave up his second walk-off home run of the season and took his second loss of the year. He threw 2 2/3 innings while allowing three earned runs off two hits with two strikeouts and one walk on the mound. Manuel Espinoza started the game and lasted just four innings while allowing two earned runs off five hits.

Five of Augusta’s seven hits were extra-base hits as Shepherd (1-3, HR, 3 RBI) hit his first career home run in the walk-off victory. Landon Stephens (1-4, HR, RBI) hit his third home run in the first inning. Vaughn Grissom (2-3, 2B, RBI) was the only GreenJacket with a multi-hit game.

The GreenJackets took an early lead as Stephens hit a line-drive home run to left field as the second batter faced by Espinoza. The lead was extended as Bryson Horne and Willie Carter hit back-to-back singles to give way to Stephens who doubled to left field to bring in another run.

It took until the seventh inning for the Pelicans to get on the board as Wetzel and Pablo Aliendo hit singles with one out to put two runners on. Mervis then turned on a 1-2 pitch and took it over the right-field wall to give Myrtle Beach a 3-2 lead.

Augusta quickly tied the game in the bottom half as Wright entered the game out of the bullpen and gave up a double to Braulio Vasquez to start off his outing. Vasquez got to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Shepherd to tie it up at three.

With two outs in the ninth, Vasquez drew a walk on Wright with a 3-2 count to keep the inning alive. Shepherd followed by launching a walk-off home run to left-center field to end the game.

Myrtle Beach and Augusta will meet for game two of the series on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.