Salem Sweeps Saturday’s Doubleheader to Win Six Straight for the First Time in 2021

SALEM, VA – The Salem Red Sox are playing their best baseball at the right time. Amidst the most amount of player movement all season, Salem (65-42) is enjoying their longest winning streak of the season. They were able to get the best of the Fredericksburg Nationals (37-70) and outscore their foe 15-3 in two games on Saturday.

Game one: The first bout of the doubleheader featured a lopsided contest. The Red Sox dropped three runs on the Nats in the first inning. Matthew Lugo initiated to offensive outburst with a two RBI single driving in Angel Maita and Ceddanne Rafaela. Nick Northcut closed out the three run first inning on a groundout to third driving in Nick Decker.

Leandro Emiliani pulled the FredNats within one on his third home run of the season, a two-run blast to make the score 3-2.

The Red Sox poured it on in the bottom half of the fourth frame putting up a seven spot. Antoni Flores, Tyler McDonough, Nick Decker, and Matthew Lugo all had RBIs, before Brainer Bonacci would bring his biggest contribution to the doubleheader. With the bases loaded, Bonacci cleared them on a triple to right field extending the lead to eight making it 10-2.

The Sox would add four more in the next two innings, highlighted by a Nick Decker two run homer to dead center field. The final tally of game one was in favor of the Salem Red Sox, 14-2.

Game two: In the second battle between these two squads on Saturday, Salem and Fredericksburg entered a pitching duel. After Tyler McDonough’s first career home run, Nationals starting pitcher Gilberto Chu, settled down. He ended up delivering five strong innings of no run baseball following McDonough’s big fly.

By committee, Salem delivered a similar pitching performance. After a three-inning spot start from Robert Kwiatkowski, Yasel Santana delivered his best outing of the season delivering no runs over three innings of work while strikeout out five. The sole run of the game for the Nationals came from a Jake Boone RBI double to left field.

The game would head to the bottom of the seventh tied up at one. The Red Sox ultimately loaded the bases and Nick Decker played hero singling to left field walking it off for the Red Sox for the second time this series. The Red Sox will look to win a season best seven straight games in the Sunday finale at 4:05 PM.

First pitch:

Game 1: 5:02 PM

Game 2: 8:27 PM

Time of game one: 2:44

Time of game two: 2:04

Attendance: 2,481

Venue: Salem Memorial Ballpark