Loperfido and Whitaker Homer in Close Defeat to Mudcats

Fayetteville, NC - The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (38-52, 7-18) made the game close on Wednesday night scoring three runs over the final two innings, but still fell short in a 7-5 loss to the Carolina Mudcats (47-45, 13-13) at Segra Stadium. Leading the way offensively were Joey Loperfido and Tyler Whitaker, who each smashed homers over the center field wall.

Before the two home runs, Freddy Guilamo gave Fayetteville a second-inning lead with a sacrifice fly off Fernando Olguin (W, 2-2) that scored Cody Orr. Deylen Miley (L, 2-6) started his night with two perfect innings on the mound before surrendering an RBI single to Eduarqui Fernandez and a two-run hit to Oswal Leons in the third that put the Mudcats ahead 3-1.

A bases loaded walk in the fourth to Hendy Mendez upped the score to 4-1 and chased Miley from the game. Fabricio Reina escaped a tough spot out of the bullpen, striking out Fernandez to strand the bases loaded.

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Loperfido’s solo blast off Olguin helped cut the game down to 4-2 while giving the Duke product his seventh HR of the 2022 season.

Carolina stretched the lead with two more runs in the sixth inning against Nic Swanson, and secured their largest advantage of the night at 7-2 with another run of the seventh. Jacob Delabio took over from the bullpen in the seventh and shut down the Carolina offense the rest of the game. The right-hander hurled 2.2 perfect innings and set a new career-high, striking out six of the eight batters he faced.

Behind DeLabio’s perfect pitching, Whitaker changed the tone of the game with a two-run home run off Jefferson Figueroa (SV, 1) in the bottom of the eighth. The deep shot over the center field batter’s eye was Whitaker’s fifth of the season and cut the contest down to 7-4.

With Figueroa still on the mound in the ninth, Guilamo connected for a leadoff single, Jaxon Hallmark followed with a hit, and a wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position. Following a pair of strikeouts, Justin Williams extended the game with a grounder towards third and an offline throw from Jheremy Vargas that scored Guilamo to make it 7-5. With the tying runs on base, Figuera managed to close the game by striking out Whitaker.

The six-game series continues on Thursday night at Segra Stadium with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 pm ET. The Woodpeckers are slated to start RHP Edinson Batista (5-3, 3.18 ERA) and Carolina will counter with RHP Stiven Cruz (3-4, 4.63 ERA)

FULL BOX SCORE: https://www.milb.com/gameday/669742/final/box