Fayetteville Quiets Salem Bats to Even Series

SALEM, Va. – For the second straight night pitching dominated for the Fayetteville Woodpeckers (11-13) as they shut down the Salem Red Sox (11-13) with a 5-2 win in Salem on Friday night.

In front of a crowd of over 5,400 fans supporting their hometown Red Sox, Fayetteville didn’t give them much to cheer about only allowing four hits and two runs to the hosts.

Quickly putting up a pair of runs in the top of the second, the Woodpeckers were able to score when with runners on second and third the Red Sox committed two errors on a single play scoring one while a Garrett McGowan RBI groundout scored the other.

It looked for a while like Salem was going to be able to fight back, countering with a run of their own in the home half of the second when Cutter Coffey scored on an RBI single from Karson Simas.

However, from there it was the Joey Mancini (W, 1-1) show. The Woodpecker starter went five innings only allowing runners to reach in the second inning when the Red Sox scored their lone run against him. In a move to the bullpen, things didn’t slow down as manager Ricky Rivera handed the ball to Tyler Guilfoil (SV, 1) in the sixth who pitched the remainder of the game shutting down the Sox only allowing a single hit and run on the night.

Mancini and Guilfoil combined for six perfect innings against the Red Sox, at one point retiring 14 batters in a row in the middle innings.

Salem meanwhile only used three pitchers on the night, starter Luis De La Rosa (L, 1-2) and relievers Brock Bell and Jonathan Brand, the trio combined for nine strikeouts and just four walks on the night.

While most of the night belonged to the Woodpeckers, the Red Sox made things interesting in the bottom of the ninth as Juan Chacon led off the inning by being hit by a pitch using a stolen base, wild pitch and sac fly from Miguel Bleis to score to make it a three-run game.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth the Red Sox managed two walks off of Guilfoil bringing the tying run to the plate represented by Albert Feliz, who entered the at-bat with a 0-for-3 line striking out three times. Guilfoil continued the trend striking out Feliz on a called third strike that ended the ballgame tying the series for Fayetteville.

The two sides will battle for a series win with the final two games of the series taking place over the weekend with Star Wars Night on Saturday for “Revenge of the Sixth” and Bark at the Park on Sunday afternoon.

The next game between the Woodpeckers and Red Sox is on Saturday night, first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. from Salem Memorial Ballpark.

Location: Salem Memorial Ballpark

First Pitch: 7:05 p.m.

Time of Game: 2:18