Howard Collects Four Hits, Pelicans Roll to 7-2 Win over Wood Ducks

By Sam Weiderhaft

Pelicans SS Ed Howard fell a home run short of the cycle in the victory

After the first two innings went scoreless between the two teams, the Pelicans struck first with two runs in the third. Fabian Pertuz, Howard, and Flemin Bautista all singled to load the bases on Gomez. After Ryan Reynolds was retired on a lineout, Gomez was taken out for Tejada. The reliever struggled with location, as he walked Mervis and Wetzel to bring home both runs for the Pelicans to take a 2-0 lead.

Down East responded with one run in the next half-inning. Cody Freeman worked a one-out walk, while Cristian Inoa reached base after Jordan Nwogu dropped a routine fly ball in left field. Alejandro Osuna walked to load the bases, and Espinoza allowed a run by walking Ricumstrict to make it a 2-1 game.

The Pelicans stretched the game out in the sixth with three runs crossing the plate. Hearn led the inning off with a walk and came home to score with Nwogu hitting a double off the left-field wall to make it a 3-1 lead. Sierra flew out for the first out of the inning, and Nwogu advanced to third after the reliever Anderson overthrew a pickoff attempt to second base. Pertuz came up and dribbled a ball back to Anderson, who turned to throw home and fell down allowing Nwogu to score and Pertuz to reach on an error. Howard came up and doubled to right field to move Pertuz to third, and both Bautista and Reynolds walked to bring in another run with the score at 5-1.

Down East added one in the eighth with Moss hitting a single to right field to start the inning off. Moss moved around the bases as the next two batters were retired and scored after Pelicans’ reliever Gabriel Jaramillo threw a wild pitch to the backstop.

Myrtle Beach added two more runs of insurance with Howard smashing a triple to deep center field to get to third and scoring off a Bautista sacrifice fly. Reynolds followed with a double to center field, and Mervis knocked him in with a triple to the wall in right field to make it a 7-2 game.

Game five will take place on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. as both teams have won two games in the series.