Winston-Salem Bats Falter Against Wilmington

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (July 7, 2022) — Winston-Salem dropped game three against Wilmington by a final score of 8-1.

Ricardo Mendez opened the scoring for Wilmington in the top of the first inning, with his solo home run out towards the Foothills Flight Deck in right field.

Winston-Salem had a counterpunch in the bottom of the first, which began with

Duke Ellis drawing a full-count walk. He then stole second base, his 34th of the season. Tyler Osik, batting second for the first time this season, plated Ellis with an RBI single to center to tie the game at 1-1.

Neither side could scratch across a run in the second inning. In the top of the third, Yasel Antuna worked a one-out walk. A ground out pushed Antuna on to second, and he scored on an RBI single off the bat of Jose Sanchez**.* The very next batter, *Israel Pineda**, cranked a two-run home run to push the Blue Rocks ahead 4-1.

Darren Baker opened the fourth inning with a single, and Jordy Barley singled right behind him to put runners on first and second. A fielder’s choice groundout pushed both runners to second and third, and later a wild pitch allowed Baker to score from third.

With Wilmington ahead 5-1 now, Israel Pineda blasted a leadoff home run in the fifth inning to make it a 6-1 game.

Barley singled in the top of the sixth inning, and stole second base as well. Later in the frame, Ricardo Mendez doubled home Barley to put the Rocks ahead 7-1.

One more run came for Wilmington in the seventh inning, on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 8-1.

Wilmington’s starter Mitchell Parker was instrumental in limiting the Dash offense, as he fired 5.2 innings while punching out a season high 12 batters. He got the official win in a 8-1 victory for Wilmington, while Matt Thompson suffered the loss.