Shorebirds Off On Right Foot

Salisbury, MD - The Delmarva Shorebirds began the second half with a 7-5 victory over the Lexington Legends on Thursday evening. Opening the second half at home, Delmarva (39-31, 1-0) came back from a 4-0 deficit for a late-inning win.

Delmarva fell behind early in the return from the All-Star break. Mauricio Ramos lifted a solo home run in the second inning off Shorebirds starter Mitch Horacek. An unearned run came across in the fourth inning on an error by Creede Simpson at first base. Lexington doubled their lead to 4-0 with two more runs in the fifth inning.

Simpson redeemed himself as the Shorebirds began their comeback. The first baseman was just added to roster earlier in the day after Trey Mancini's promotion to Frederick. Simpson bounced an RBI single to right field to get Delmarva on the board. Conor Bierfeldt delivered a bases-loaded single to score two runs and cut the Legends' lead down to a single tally.

A two-out rally in the seventh inning put Delmarva on top. After singles by Dosch and Simpson, Kevin Perez committed a balk to bring across the tying run. Chance Sisco then singled home the go-ahead run to make it 5-4.

Lexington tied it up in the eighth with a two-out RBI single by Humberto Arteaga. The deadlock did not last long as Delmarva took back in the lead in the bottom half. After a walk and throwing error on a sacrifice bunt, the Shorebirds had runners on second and third. Jeff Kemp rolled a single up the middle to take back the lead, now at 7-5.

Dylan Rheault closed out the victory, earned the win to move to 7-1 on the season. Andrew Edwards took the loss for Lexington, now 2-3. Mitch Horacek took a no-decision for Delmarva, allowing four runs (two earned) in six innings.

The Shorebirds return to action on Friday night in game two against Lexington. Left-hander Steven Brault (7-2, 2.88) will try to make it five in a row for Delmarva as he faces left-hander Cody Reed (1-6, 6.98) for Lexington. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm at Perdue Stadium.