Woodies improve to 7-0 at home vs. Mudcats

The cure for the Down East Wood Ducks ills all season at home has been the Carolina Mudcats. That trend continued Tuesday night in the first of a three-game set at Historic Grainger Stadium as the Woodies (16-35 second half, 51-70) shut out the Mudcats, 8-0.

In front of 1,320 fans, all nine offensive starters finished with a hit to roll to the victory. The Woodies are now 7-0 this season at Grainger Stadium against the Mudcats (23-26, 57-62).

The Wood Ducks banged out 12 hits, led by Anderson Tejeda (2-for-4, two runs), Andretty Cordero (2-for-4, two RBIs, run) and Eric Jenkins (2-for-4). Besides Cordero, five other Woodies – LeDarious Clark, Leody Taveras, Chuck LeBlanc, Yanio Perez and Brendon Davis – had RBIs, with Davis’ RBI the result of a sixth-inning home run.

The DEWDs led 1-0 after one inning, 3-0 after two and 6-0 after five innings before adding a single run in the sixth and seventh frames.

While the Wood Ducks’ offense was plugging along, the pitching staff was wearing out the Mudcats. Left-handed starter Joe Palumbo, the lone Texas Rangers’ 40-man roster player on the Woodies, earned his first victory of the season with 5.1 innings of two-hit baseball. He struck out nine and walked three.

Kaleb Fontenot gave up a hit in 2/3 of an inning and Tyler Thomas only surrendered one hit and two walks while striking out three in three full innings to earn his first save of the season for the DEWDs.

The Woodies and Mudcats will play Game 2 of their set at 7 p.m. on Wednesday; gates open at 6.