Wood Ducks Fall in Game Three with Astros

KINSTON, NC - A big second inning overshadowed a terrific pitchers' duel in the Astros' (24-12, 61-45) win over the Wood Ducks (17-19, 41-63) on Saturday night 4-1. The bullpen effort of Grant Zawadzki and Jeffrey Springs struck out seven over four scoreless innings of relief in the defeat.

Matt Lipka had his second consecutive multi-hit night and drove in a run in the third. Josh Altmann also had a two-hit game - his 16th of the season.
On the mound, Steven Bruce started for the Woodies and ran into trouble in the second. The first five batters of the inning reached and led to three runs plated in the frame. Bruce had a career-high in walks with five, but still completed five innings to give the bullpen a shorter bridge.
The offense was held at bay by Buies Creek starter Cionel Pérez. He twirled six and a third innings of one-run work without allowing a walk. While the Woodies managed eight hits off of the starter, they only managed two at-bats with runners in scoring position.
Zawadzki and Springs combined to retire the last 10 batters of the game in order with five strikeouts. Springs extended his southern division lead in strikeouts to 114, 18 clear of second place. He slots second in the league for total strikeouts.
Game four of the series is scheduled for 2:00 p.m on Sunday as the Wood Ducks look for their first series win over the Astros this season. Right-handers Emerson Martinez (1-8, 4.73) and Hector Perez (5-4, 2.91) will face-off for Down East and Buies Creek respectively.
You can listen to every pitch of the 2017 season live on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull or streamed live on the TuneIn Radio app.