Pelicans Crush RiverDogs in 15-1 Blowout

By Sam Weiderhaft

The 15 runs were the most scored by Myrtle Beach at Pelicans Ballpark in five years

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans recorded season highs in runs, hits, and home runs in a 15-1 route of the Charleston RiverDogs on Thursday night. The victory comes one night after the Birds were silenced 11-0 by the RiverDogs in their seventh shutout loss of the season. The win gives Myrtle Beach a two-game to one lead in the series, while their record improves to 33-36. Charleston falls to 47-20 on the year.

Every member of the starting lineup recorded a hit for the Pelicans as the home team set a new season-high with 19 knocks. Ethan Hearn (2-6, 2 HR, 2 RBI) became the first Pelican with a multi-home run game this season. Four other players recorded three-hit games, as Ed Howard (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI), Jordan Nwogu (3-6, HR, 3B, 3 RBI), Fabian Pertuz (3-5, 2 RBI), and Matt Warkentin (3-5, HR, 3 RBI) all helped in the best offensive performance of the season.

The win went to Pelicans’ starter Didier Vargas after the lefty recorded a quality start with six innings pitched and just one earned run off five hits. He also walked three and struck out two.

The RiverDogs started out strong but failed to build off their early lead. Brett Wisely (1-4, HR, RBI) hit a solo shot in the first inning for the only run of the game for Charleston. The visitor’s lineup only tallied six hits after posting 13 last night.

The loss went to starting pitcher Seth Johnson (3-4) as he only lasted 1 2/3 innings with five earned runs off six hits, including two homers. Graeme Stinson came on in relief and tossed 2 1/3 innings with seven runs allowed off eight hits, with five of those being earned.

For the third-straight game, Charleston started off with the lead on Myrtle Beach as Brett Wisely hit a solo home run to left field for his ninth of the season in the first inning. This would be the final run for the RiverDogs.

The Myrtle Beach half of the second inning started off with a bang as Nwogu and Hearn went back-to-back on solo home runs to start it off and put the Pelicans in the lead 2-1. After the following batter struck out, the Pelicans loaded the bases for Howard. Johnson threw a wile pitch in the at-bat, that allowed Warkentin to come in from third. Howard then singled to right field to bring in two more runs in the inning and put the Birds up 5-1.

Three more runs came in the third inning as Hearn led off with his second home run of the game to right-center field to make it a 6-1 lead for Myrtle Beach. Pertuz followed by hitting an infield single to short and moved to second base after a wild pickoff attempt from Stinson. Warkentin hit him in on a fly ball that grazed off the glove of center fielder Alexander Ovalles as Warkentin got to third on a fielding error. Warkentin scored two batters later on a Howard double to left field that increased the lead to 8-1.

The Pelicans kept their foot on the throttle in the bottom of the fourth with four more runs in the inning. Pablo Aliendo led off with a double and scored on a triple from Nwogu in the next at-bat. Nwogu came in on Pertuz’s second single of the game. Warkentin capped off the inning by smashing a home run to center field that sailed over the batter’s eye and was estimated at 440 feet. Myrtle Beach was up big 12-1 after four innings.

The Birds had three more runs cross the plate in the final innings with two in the seventh and one in the eighth. Pertuz came up with the bases loaded in the seventh and hit a line-drive single to right field for his second RBI hit of the evening. With the bases still loaded, Warkentin knocked a single to left field for the second run of the inning. With runners on first and second in the eighth, Nwogu hit a liner to center field that brought in Yohendrick Pinango to finish off the blowout at 15-1.

The 15 runs were the most scored by the Pelicans since July 30, 2016, at Salem in a 15-4 win, and the most at Pelicans Ballpark since June 5, 2016, in a 15-0 shutout against Potomac. The 19 hits allowed were the most by Charleston since the 2005 season.

Myrtle Beach and Charleston will meet for game four of the series on Friday night at 7:05 p.m.