Pelicans Fall Victim to GreenJackets Pitching, Fall 4-0 

By Sam Weiderhaft

Myrtle Beach was shut out for the 11th time this season

Facing some of the best pitching they’ve seen all year, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans fell 4-0 to the Augusta GreenJackets on Wednesday night in the final game of the series. The Pelicans’ Wednesday record finishes at 9-9, while their overall record slips to 57-59. The GreenJackets improve to 52-64 with the victory. Augusta has now taken the first two games of the final series of the season.

The home team’s lineup collected just four hits and struck out 10 times against Augusta. Kevin Made (1-4) tallied his third hit of the series in the defeat. All four hits were singles.

Tyler Schlaffer (2-5) lasted five innings and struck out seven in his final outing of the season with one earned run. Luis Devers came on in relief and gave up three runs with two being earned in his first inning as a Pelican.

Augusta turned seven hits into four runs with Cal Conley (2-4, RBI) leading the group with a multi-hit performance and an RBI. Bryson Horne (1-4, RBI) also brought in a run while Christian Robinson (1-4, RBI) posted his fourth RBI in the first two games of the series.

Andrew Hoffman (2-2) was stellar on the mound for the GreenJackets as he tossed seven innings of shutout baseball with just three hits allowed and a career-high eight strikeouts. The bullpen of Kenny Wells and Lisantro Santos held down the final two innings with one hit allowed and two strikeouts.

The Pelicans best chance to score came in the very opening frame as Made struck out but reached first on a wild pitch by Hoffman. He moved to second on a groundout, and the Birds put runners on the corners with a single to right by Jordan Nwogu. With one out, Owen Caissie grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Augusta scored one run in the top of the third as Braulio Vasquez was hit by a pitch to lead off. He stole second and advanced to third by tagging up on a fly ball by Connor Blair. Conley followed and grounded out to first as Vasquez scored the first run of the game.

Devers came in to replace Schlaffer in the sixth and gave up three runs to break the game open. Cade Bunnell led off with a single. Justyn-Henry Malloy then lined a ball to Made at short for the first out with Bunnell off the bag at first. Made’s throw for the double play skipped under the glove of Jonathan Sierra and went out of play. Bunnell would advance to third on the throwing error and scored on a single by Horne. Later with runners on first and second, Robinson singled to left field to drive in a run. Caissie’s throw to third went wide as another run crossed home to make it a 4-0 game.

The Pelicans will try for their first win of the series on Thursday night against the GreenJackets at 7:05 p.m.