Nwogu’s Walk-Off Bunt Wins it for the Pelicans

By Sam Weiderhaft

It’s the second walk-off suicide squeeze for Myrtle Beach this season

The Pelicans tied their longest winning streak of the season with their third-straight victory 6-5 over the Fireflies in 10 innings on Friday night. Myrtle Beach now takes a three-game to one lead over Columbia in the seven-game set. The win pushes the Birds to a 29-34 record, while the Fireflies drop to .500 at 30-30.

Ethan Hearn (1-3, HR, 3 RBI) became the sixth Pelican to homer in the series with a three-run shot in the second to tie the game. The Birds recorded eight hits, with Jacob Wetzel (2-4, RBI) being the only player with multiple hits. Jordan Nwogu (1-1, RBI) came in as a pinch-hitter for the injured Jonathan Sierra and laid down the walk-off bunt to win the game.

Bailey Reid (3-4) earned the win with two innings in relief of hitless baseball. Didier Vargas started the game for Myrtle Beach and threw five innings with five earned runs off six hits.

The Fireflies collected seven hits as a team with Matt Schmidt (1-3, 2B, 2 RBI) leading the group with two runs batted in. Burle Dixon (1-2, 2B, RBI) and Juan Carlos Negret (1-4, RBI) brought home the other two RBIs for the visitors.

The loss went to Ismael Aquino (0-1) who gave up the walk-off bunt. Adrian Alcantara tossed the opening 4 1/3 innings of the game with five earned runs off four hits.

Columbia took an early 3-0 lead with runs in the first and second innings. After Tyler Tolbert singled and stole second base in the first, Negret knocked a base hit to left field to bring him in as the Fireflies went on top first.

In the second, Rubendy Jaquez led off with an infield single to third base. Gage Hughes would follow by getting hit by a pitch from Vargas to put two runners on. After Dixon laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, Schmidt made contact on a check-swing that went down the right-field line to score both runners.

Myrtle Beach would come right back as Wetzel singled in the bottom of the second inning and Sierra was hit by a pitch to put two runners on. On a 2-0 pitch, Hearn would crush a ball to right field that hit off the clubhouse roof for a three-run homer to tie the game at three. It was Hearn’s second home run of the season.

The Fireflies would answer back in the fourth inning as Hughes hit an infield single and would later score as Dixon hit a double to left field to bring Columbia back in front at 4-3. Dixon advanced to third on the double, and came home to score on a wild pitch by Vargas to make it a 5-3 lead.

The Pelicans grabbed one back in the bottom of the fourth inning with Fabian Pertuz drawing a two-out walk that allowed Luis Verdugo to drive a ball into the right-center field gap to bring in a run.

The Pelicans tied the game up in the bottom of the fifth as Yohendrick Pinango doubled to deep center field with one out to get in scoring position. Two batters later Wetzel floated a ball to center field to score Pinango and tie the game at five.

The game would stay like that until the bottom of the 10th when Pinango started off on second base and Wetzel was intentionally walked with one out. Pinango made an aggressive move by stealing third base, as he made it without a throw to set up Nwogu. On a 1-0 count, Nwogu threw down a bunt back up to Aquino that scored Pinango and won the game for Myrtle Beach.

The Pelicans and Fireflies will play a doubleheader on Saturday evening with game one starting at 4:05 p.m. The two-game set will be Military Appreciation Night, with specialty jerseys being raffled off to service members throughout the game.