Jackets Collapse Late in Series Opening Loss to Charleston

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Jackets Collapse Late in Series Opening Loss to Charleston

Unearned Runs Prove to be the Difference as Lead Slips Away

NORTH AUGUSTA, SC: The Charleston RiverDogs (24-19, 61-48) scored seven unanswered runs over three offensive innings, with the final two being the difference as they came back to outpace the Augusta GreenJackets (22-19, 57-50) 7-5 in the series opener Tuesday night.

Augusta started the game a bit slowly on offense, but the bottom of the order picked up the slack against Alex Wallace and Efrailin Ramos. The Jackets picked up their only run against Wallace in the fourth, putting men at the corners via two walks before Yamvier Carrero poked a single through the left side to open the scoring. Luis Sanchez added what was at the time key insurance in the sixth, with a two-out single against Ramos that scored two and saddled Ramos with his first earned runs in nearly twenty innings with Charleston.

Despite a disheartening end to his night, Derek Vartanian was the star of the show through six scoreless innings on the mound for the GreenJackets. Vartanian struck out six batters without allowing a walk, and allowed just one baserunner past second in the first six frames.

Vartanian’s luck ran out in the seventh, as a pair of singles put men at the corners before Andres Torres secured his first Single-A hit and RBI in one swing with a run-scoring single. One batter later, the lead was gone for the GreenJackets, as Tom Poole crushed a high fastball from Vartanian over the right field wall for a three-run blast.

Though Poole’s long ball gave the RiverDogs the lead, it was the three unearned runs allowed late by the GreenJackets that secured the Charleston win. A one-out E6 in the eighth led to two runs against Adiel Melendez, and an E5 in the 9th with Ryan Heppner on the mound pushed the lead to four in the game’s final inning.

To their credit, the GreenJackets did not surrender, and put pressure on Charleston in the bottom of the ninth. An error and hit put two aboard, before two wild pitches from Riley Stanford brought a run home. Tanner Smith stepped in as the tying run with one out, and lobbed a sacrifice fly to halve the deficit, but Stanford induced a sharp groundout from Matt Scannell to leave the tying run in the batter’s box and give the RiverDogs the victory.

Tonight’s loss is the first time this year the GreenJackets have lost a series opener at home, with the Jackets previously 9-0 beginning the week at SRP Park. The loss continues the opposite directions being traveled by the two clubs, as Charleston has won three straight while Augusta has lost four in a row. One loss shy of tying the season’s longest losing streak, the Jackets entrust the baseball to Gensi Angeles tomorrow night at 6:35 PM.

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