Woodies drop third straight in loss at Winston-Salem

Story courtesy of Dominic Cotroneo / Down East Wood Ducks

The newly-crowned Down East Wood Ducks "bash bros" of Anderson Tejeda and Josh Altmann both hit homers, but it was not enough in a 7-3 loss on Thursday night in Winston-Salem. The Woodies (6-9 second half, 41-44 overall) could not solve the Winston-Salem (10-4, 51-33) bullpen for the final six innings of the contest.

Tejeda started the Wood Ducks off on the right track with a no-doubt solo blast to right that traveled an estimated 419 feet. It was the Dominican's 14th home run to move himself into solo second place on the Wood Ducks leaderboard for home runs in a single season.

The Dash managed to respond with two runs in the bottom of the frame to take a lead they would never lose. After adding three more in the second inning, they continued a streak of six consecutive innings with a run going back to Wednesday night.

With the DEWDs down 5-1 in the third, Eric Jenkins led off with a walk. Just two pitches later, Altmann launched his team-leading 16th of the season over the berm in left field. The swing put the Woodies within two and sparked another rally.

With one out, Tejeda, Chuck Leblanc, and Brendon Davis all reached to load the bases. However, Alex Kowalczyk and Melvin Novoa were retired to end the inning stranding three. The Woodies are now just 6-for-48 (.125) with the bases loaded this season.

Both pitching staffs settled down after that. Yohander Mendez received a huge double play from Davis in the third, picked off a runner in the fourth, and had a pair of strikeouts in a 1-2-3 fifth. The wheels came off in the sixth when he allowed a two-out RBI double to Ti'Quan Forbes - his fourth hit of the night.

Las Rivera and Mitch Roman each had three hits to support Forbes while Kyle Kubat neutralized the Wood Ducks offense with three innings of spotless work from the bullpen to set the tone.

The Wood Ducks losing streak is now at three. Right-hander Emerson Martinez (4-7, 4.26) will take the mound opposite lefty Winston-Salem's Tanner Banks (7-2, 2.57) Friday at 7 p.m. from BB&T Ballpark.