Saturday's game: Down to their final strike, Wood Ducks plate two and come away with win
Kinston, N.C. – Entering the ninth, the Down East Wood Ducks (12-5) scored three runs and came away with the 3-2 win against the Charleston RiverDogs (9-8) Saturday night. This marks the second time this series, the Wood Ducks had a come-from-behind win entering the ninth inning or later.
With runners at the corners in the bottom of the third, a balk scored the first run of the game as Charleston took the 1-0 lead. The RiverDogs managed to push another run across in the bottom of the sixth off an RBI single by Diego Infante who homered twice on Friday night.
The Wood Ducks had their chances, having runners on third in the top of the first and top of the fifth but ended up stranding the runners. They finally broke through in the top of the ninth as Evan Carter reached on a throwing error by RiverDogs reliever Colby White. After a pop out, Dustin Harris reached on a throwing error by second baseman Brett Wisely, which allowed runners to advance to second and third. Keyber Rodriguez hit a sac fly to score Carter to cut the deficit to 2-1. For the second time this series, Cody Freeman came to the plate with a chance to tie the game or take the lead and for the second time he gave the Woodies the lead. Down to the final strike, Freeman launched a two-run homerun to put the Wood Ducks ahead 3-2.
Nick Krauth took the no-decision but pitched extremely well. He finished with one run allowed on three hits with one walk and tying a team-high eight strikeouts. Joshua Javier was first out of the bullpen pitched 1 1/3 innings allowing one run on three hits with two walks and a strikeout. John Matthews pitched 2/3 of an inning with two strikeouts. Nick Starr (3-0) earned the win and pitched one shutout inning, allowing only one hit and tallied one strikeout. Joe Corbett earned his second save of the season, pitching the final inning while issuing one walk and striking out one.
The series concludes tomorrow with first pitch at 5:05 p.m. Down East will send RH Mason Englert (0-0, 2.57) to the mound to face off against Charleston LH José Lopez (2-1, 5.11).
