Bullpen Stands Tall, but Woodies Fall to Mudcats

KINSTON, NC - An early lead by Carolina (23-30, 59-62) was never relinquished in its 3-1 win over Down East (26-27, 50-72) on Wednesday night. The bullpen effort of Jacob Shortslef and Jeffrey Springs did not allow a run over the last five innings while collecting eight strikeouts.

Shortlsef's fifth inning was even more impressive considering he inherited runners on first and second with no outs and managed to retire the next three batters.
The Mudcats bats quickly thwarted any thoughts of another no-hitter tease for the a Wood Duck starter. Each of the last three starts at home did not feature a hit until at least the fifth inning. Carolina opened with a double from Trent Clark, then he scored on Monte Harrison's single.
Starter Jonathan Hernández recovered in the second by striking out the side. In the third, another leadoff double resulted in a run after a wild pitch from Hernandez to mark the score at 2-0.
On Wednesday it was the Woodies' offense struggling with a hit against Jordan Yamamoto. DEWD only managed three hits off of the right-hander over his seven innings.
A fielding error by Altmann in left led to the third run scoring for the Mudcats in the fifth and set the stage for Shortslef's relief effort. He would strikeout five in his three innings of work.
Down East got on the board in the sixth thanks to a two-out Matt Lipka double that scored Elio Castillo. They would manage only two more hits in the final three innings and were held in total to four.
Springs had the final two innings and retired all six batters he faced - including striking out the side in the ninth inning.
Buies Creek was victorious in extra innings on Wednesday so the Woodies fall to 7.5 games back of the Astros with 17 games to play.
The finale of the season-series with the Mudcats comes on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. with Adrian Sampson making a rehab start from the Texas Rangers. He will face lefty Kodi Medeiros (4-9, 5.01) for the Mudcats. You can listen to every pitch of the 2017 season live on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull or streamed on the TuneIn Radio app.