RidgeYaks Fall in Marathon Affair 17-8 to Warbirds

SALEM, Va. – The Salem RidgeYaks (52-66, 27-26) mounted a late comeback attempt Sunday afternoon, but a nine-run sixth inning by the Wilson Warbirds (63-54, 27-24) proved too much to overcome as Salem fell 17-8, at Carilion Clinic Field.

The RidgeYaks trailed by just four runs entering the sixth before Wilson erupted for nine runs in the frame, building a 14-1 advantage. Salem continued to fight until the final out, scoring six times over the final four innings, but ultimately could not complete the comeback.

Wilson jumped on the board in the second inning when Carsten Sabathia launched a solo home run to left-center field, his second of the season. The Warbirds added another run later in the inning on a Kevin Garcia RBI single, taking an early 2-0 lead.

The lead grew to three in the fourth when Trey Ebel delivered an RBI single before Brailyn Antunez followed with a two-run single, pushing Wilson ahead 5-0.

Salem finally broke through in the fifth inning.

After Louis Andujar reached base, Adonys Guzman brought him home with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 5-1.

Wilson, however, responded with its biggest inning of the afternoon in the sixth.

The Warbirds sent 13 batters to the plate and scored nine runs in the frame. A bases-loaded walk to Antunez started the scoring before Handelfry Encarnacion delivered a two-run single. Wilson continued to capitalize on free passes, with walks to José Anderson, Frederi Montero and Juan Ortuno bringing home additional runs.

Ebel then capped the massive inning with a two-run double, giving Wilson a 13-1 advantage. Antunez followed with an RBI single to make it 14-1 before the inning finally came to an end.

The RidgeYaks refused to go quietly.

Salem scored twice in the bottom of the sixth when Andujar and Andrews Opata drew back-to-back bases-loaded walks, cutting Wilson's lead to 14-3.

Wilson added three more runs in the ninth, including a solo home run from José Anderson, to extend its advantage to 17-3.

The RidgeYaks then put together one final push in the bottom of the ninth.

Andruw Musett opened the inning with a double, scoring Starlyn Nunez. Colton Coates then reached on a fielding error, allowing two more runs to score and cutting the deficit to 17-6.

A pair of wild pitches brought home two additional runs, with Kleyver Salazar and Coates crossing the plate to make it a 17-8 game.

That would be all she wrote in the series finale.

Enderson Mercado earned the win after going five innings allowing just one earned run. Meanwhile Jose Bello saw the loss after allowing five earned runs over 4.1 innings.

The teams split their six-game series as Salem now sits five games out of first place with 13 games left to play.

Salem now hits the road for a seven-game series with the first place Fayetteville Woodpeckers before returning home on September 1 to open a new six-game series with the Hill City Howlers in the Battle for 460 to end out the regular season.

Game Notes

• The 17 runs allowed are the most Salem has allowed in a single-game this season
• The 18 hits allowed also marked a new single-game high against
• Salem walked 13 batters for the fourth time this season and is the second-most in a single game this season
• The Yaks scored 67 runs over the six games this week, that is the most runs Salem has scored in a six-game series since the six-game series were adapted in 2021
• Salem scored double digits in three of the six games this week
• Wilson wins the season series over Salem 13-11 and splits the six games set this week in Salem
• Anderson Fermin made his second career pitching appearance and second in the last two nights
• Jose Bello allowed a career high nine hits in his sixth loss of the season
• Harry Blum went 2.1 inning scoreless for his second straight scoreless outing of the week
• Blum over his eight appearances since July 25, is pitching to a 1.93 ERA and has allowed just three earned runs over his last 14 innings pitched
• With the loss and Fayetteville win, the Yaks sit 5.0 games out of first place with 13 games to play
• The RidgeYaks led all of Single-A this week with 67 runs, a .340 batting average and 72 hits over six games this week
• Colton Coates went 2-for-5 with his second multi-hit effort in as many nights
• Coates finished the series seven hits in 19 at-bats over his four games, batting .368 with five RBI
• Adonys Guzman also went 2-for-3 with his 12^th multi-hit effort of the season
• Guzman finished the week batting 7-for-10 (.700) over his three games with five RBI
• Franklin Primera finished the series batting 8-for-20 (.400) with a team leading nine RBI over his five games this week
• Kleyver Salazar also had an impressive week finishing the four game he played in with a .467 (7-for-15) batting average with four RBI and a 1.350 OPS
• Salazar saw a hit for the eighth straight game since August 12
• Andrews Opata failed to record a hit for the first time since August 7, snapping his hitting streak at nine games
• Opata did reach base to extend the on-base streak to 16 games
• Louis Andujar reached base twice to extend his on-base streak to 19 games since July 22

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