Uwasawa Strong, Kolozsvary Hits First WooSox Homer in Win Over Durham

WORCESTER, M.A. — The Worcester Red Sox (9-11) took a third-inning lead and never looked back on Sunday afternoon, notching a 7-1 win and a series victory over the Durham Bulls (8-13) at Polar Park.

WooSox starter Naoyuki Uwasawa earned his second win as a member of the Red Sox organization, tossing five innings of one-run ball. The right-hander recorded a career-best seven strikeouts and walked just one, recording a whopping eight swing-and-misses on his splitter.

He allowed just one run on a seeing-eye single by Logan Driscoll in the first. Later, after allowing a single to Dominic Smith in the third, Uwasawa retired nine consecutive Durham batters to finish his outing.

Down 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Chase Meidroth walked and Nick Sogard doubled to put two in scoring position. A strikeout brought Jamie Westbrook to the plate, and he delivered, lacing a two-run double down the right field lead to give the home team the lead.

The swing made it 2-1, gave Westbrook his sixth hit of the series and his third extra-base-knock of the week.

The WooSox tacked on five more runs across the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

Worcester loaded the bases in the fifth, in part to Sogard’s second hit of the day, and extended the lead to 3-1 on a Mark Contreras groundout. Meidroth brought home the fourth run on an RBI single in the sixth.

A walk and single put two on with one out in the seventh for Tyler McDonough, who tallied the first double of his Triple-A career—a blooper down the left field line that kicked off the glove of the outfielder, allowing Niko Kavadas to motor home from first. One batter later, Mark Kolozsvary annihilated a 406-foot two-run shot off the scoreboard in left, his first WooSox home run.

The Worcester bullpen combined to toss four runless frames to close the day: one from Vladimir Gutierrez (in his organizational debut), two by Jorge Benitez and a 1-2-3 ninth from Zack Kelly.

The victory gives Chad Tracy’s team its first six-game series victory of the year, improving the squad’s record to 5-6 at Polar Park.

The WooSox are off Monday before going on the road for six games, starting a series with the Toledo Mud Hens on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. On the mound, Richard Fitts (1-0, 2.35) faces Keider Montero (0-0, 0.69). Radio coverage begins at 5:45 p.m. on 100.1 FM The Pike, 98.9 Nash Icon and the WooSox Radio Network.