Down East's Offense Shines in Victory over Hillcats

KINSTON, NC -Brett Martin's longest start of the season propelled the Wood Ducks (31-31, 55-76) over the Hillcats (80-51, 40-22) by a 6-2 final on Saturday night. Matt Lipka also matched a career-high with four hits on the night - including a two-run home run.

Down East's offense started hot, with each of the first three batters reaching with hits capped off on Yanio Perez's two-run double.
Martin awarded the offense by retiring the first seven batters of the game. After a triple and a run scored in the third, he retired another eight in a row before the next baserunner reached. In the sixth, the Hillcats tied the game on a Willi Castro RBI single.
The game would not remain tied for long as two unearned runs scored in the bottom of the sixth, plating Preston Scott and Ti'Quan Forbes. With two outs in the inning, Lipka connected on a laser to left for his 8th home run of the season to make it 6-2.
Martin returned for the seventh - marking a season-high in innings this season. Despite a leadoff single to Andrew Calica, Martin induced a fly out and a ground out before striking out Ka'ai Tom to end his night with eight K's.
After the southpaw exited, Steven Bruce retired all six batters he faced with two strikeouts to seal the victory for the Woodies.
Adding to the win, Buies Creek lost to Winston-Salem to allow the Woodies to gain a game on the Astros with eight games to go. Now Down East is 3.5 games back, which is the largest deficit the Woodies can have before the final four games of the season at Buies Creek.
Game three of the series comes on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. for fan appreciation day at Grainger Stadium. Right-handers Kyle Cody (2-0, 2.41) and Dominic DeMasi (6-3, 2.90) will face-off in the final home game of the regular season at Grainger Stadium.
You can listen to every pitch of the 2017 season live on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull or streamed on the TuneIn Radio app.