Woodies Walk It Off 

4/16/2022

by: Jackson Pass

Tonight was a Saturday night doubleheader starting at 4:00pm in the afternoon, drawing in 2743 people, for the first jersey giveaway of the season.

In game one, Kannapolis got off to a quick start, scoring on a wild pitch from third, after a double by the two hole batter, Colby Smelley, continuing his hot hitting, posting a .500 AVG after the doubleheader. The Woodies tied the game back up in the bottom of the second with Yenci Pena hitting a sacrifice fly to center field as Osuna came across the plate to score. Starting pitcher for the Wood Ducks, Larson Kindreich settled into the game in the second and third innings with two strikeouts in the second and a nine pitch inning in the third. For the first play of that third inning Junior Paniagua made a slick sliding play to pick the ball on the edge of the infield, saving a potential hit for Colson Montgomery. Johnny Ray also settled in, in the third going three up three down.

The Woodies had Maximo Acosta leading off in the fourth, singling up the middle for his second hit of the game, but was gunned down at third before he could score. Playing off that momentum, Kannapolis scored four in the fourth, all charged to Nick Lockhart, the reliever, throwing two innings for the Woodies. The Wood Ducks do not get anything going in the later innings, leaving the bases juiced to end the game with a loss at 5-1.

In game two the tables turned. Daniel Mateo records his first hit of the night and swipes two bags as the Woodies bats were unable to bring him in. The Cannon Ballers struck first, as a walk and a double by Tarrell Tatun of the Cannon Ballers moved runners to second and third, and Misael Gonzalez got his second hit in as many at bats to earn an RBI, putting the Cannon Ballers up 1-0. Winston Santos got a ground ball to second, ending the top of the third inning in a 463 double play. Woodies hit three one out singles in the bottom half, with Paniagua to score Acosta from second and Osuna with a RBI groundout to second to score Mateo from 3rd. Tucker Mitchell walks with Paniagua on third, as Brooks Gosswein strikes out Narvaez on a 2-2 slider. Woodies are up 2-1.

A lot went on in the middle innings, as Santos regained his composure for the fourth striking out the side with three Kannapolis batters fanning at Santos’ pitches. Cannon Ballers starter, Gosswein was replaced by Tyson Messer pitching after 3.0 innings, giving up four hits, and two Woodies runs. Woodies get two on and Yosy Galan is out at third on a double steal attempt with Derwin Barreto trailing. Messer then gets out of the inning with a strikeout. The top of the fifth started with a Logan Glass double and was driven in by Ivan Gonzalez to tie the game up 2-2.

Destin Dotson is brought in to replace Santos in the sixth, Santos ending the night with 5.0 innings pitched, five strikeouts, and two earned runs. Dotson strikes out three in his first relief inning before handing off the ball, after getting one out in the seventh to Michael Brewer, who pitched his way into the eighth, where the extra inning rule was put in place. The last out of the previous inning starts on second base, with Brewer causing Kannapolis to have two groundouts and a strikeout, to keep the Cannon Ballers off the board, leaving a runner third to go into the bottom of the 8th.

Kannapolis brings in Adisyn Coffey to try and thwart the Woodies from scoring, but Daniel Mateo records his second hit of the game on a first pitch hit down the left field line to score Jose Acosta, making it 3-2. WOODIES WIN!!! WOODIES WIN!!!

The first series between Kannapolis (6-3) and Down East (3-6) comes to a close, as the teams tie the series 3-3. The Woodies go on the road next week to face the Columbia Fireflies (4-4). The next Woodies home game is Tuesday April 26th versus the Carolina Mudcats (4-4) for a first pitch set at 6:00pm.

Fans can purchase tickets on woodducksbaseball.com, by calling the Wood Ducks Team Offices at (252) 686-5164 or in the Wood Ducks Team Offices located at Grainger Stadium (Mon-Fri – 9am - 4pm). Make sure to follow your Down East Wood Ducks on Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and Facebook so you don’t miss anything!