Mercedes smacks walk-off homer in twin bill opener

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Aug. 19, 2018) - Yermin Mercedes lifted the Dash to a 5-3, walk-off win in Sunday's doubleheader opener with a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning at BB&T Ballpark.
With the Dash (33-19, 74-48) trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, Mercedes stepped to the plate against Blue Rocks right-handed reliever Julio Pinto (1-4) with runners on first and second and one out. On a 0-2 pitch, Mercedes crushed a 433-foot blast to left-center to propel Winston-Salem to its seventh walk-off victory of the year.

Mercedes drove in all five runs for the Dash, including the first run of the game. After Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal were each hit by pitches from Blue Rocks starter Ofreidy Gomez to begin the first inning, Blake Rutherford grounded out to second to move the runners up. Then, Mercedes stroked a sacrifice fly to put the Dash ahead 1-0.
In the top of the fourth, Wilmington (29-25, 60-64) tied the game against Dash starter John Parke . Following a leadoff triple from Vance Vizcaino, Angelo Castellano hit a sacrifice fly to left to knot the contest at one. 
But, in the bottom of the fourth inning, Mercedes crushed a solo shot against Gomez to left field to make it a 2-1 contest. Sunday marked the first multi-homer game for Mercedes since August 12, 2016, when the 25-year-old hit two homers against Potomac as a member of the Frederick Keys.
Wilmington managed to scratch out another run against Parke in the fifth. D.J. Burt tripled to start the inning, and, two batters later, Emmanuel Rivera registered an RBI groundout to knot the game at two.
Right-hander Tyler Johnson (3-0) earned the victory by tossing 1.2 innings and allowing one unearned run in the eighth. The former fifth-round pick out of South Carolina has now struck out 34 batters and 24 innings pitched at the High-A level. 
The Dash are in the midst of their second doubleheader game on Sunday against the Blue Rocks, and fans can catch all of the action on wsdash.com/broadcast, MiLB.tv and the TuneIn Radio App. Following an off day on Monday, the Dash begin a four-day, three-game series against Myrtle Beach featuring a Free Food Tuesday, a Pups in the Park Wednesday and a Lowes Foods Thirsty Thursday. For tickets and more information, call the Dash at (336) 714-2287 or visit wsdash.com.