Bullpen tosses three scoreless innings

Thanks to six runs over the first two innings, the Down East Wood Ducks came away with a 6-5 win over the Charleston RiverDogs, Thursday night. Cristian Inoa tallied three hits with four RBIs, including a home run to earn the Suddenlink Player of the Game.

Charleston (81-36) plated the first runs of the game for the third night in-a-row and took a 2-0 lead after the top of the first.

Down East (70-47) responded in the bottom of the first. Jayce Easley walked and advanced to second on a one-out single by Luisangel Acuña. Cristian Inoa followed with a three-run home run (11) to put the Woodies ahead 3-2.

The RiverDogs again responded with two runs to take the lead back, 4-3 in the top of the second.

The Wood Ducks went punch-for-punch with Charleston and took another lead in the bottom of the second. Keyber Rodriguez led off with a walk but was thrown out at second as Randy Florentino reached on a fielder’s choice and then advanced to second on a throwing error. Daniel Mateo doubled to score Florentino, which tied the game at four. Mateo advanced to third as Easley reached first on an error charged to Charleston third baseman Ben Troike. With runners at the corners, Aaron Zavala hit a sac fly to score Mateo from third as Down East took the 5-4 lead and Easley tagged up from first to second. In the following at-bat, a wild pitch allowed Easley to move on to third and he scored on a single by Inoa for the 6-4 lead.

Charleston plated one more run in the sixth to pull to within one, 6-5 but the bullpen for the Woodies shut them down for the next three innings.

John Matthews (W, 5-4) earned the win, pitching five innings while allowing four runs on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts. Michael Brewer pitched 1/3 of an inning, allowing one run on two walks with one strikeout. Destin Dotson pitched 1 2/3 innings, allowing two hits with one walk and two strikeouts. Leury Tejada (S, 2) pitched the final two innings and tallied three strikeouts.

The series continues tomorrow with first pitch set for 7:00 p.m. RHP Mason Englert (6-3, 4.70) toes the rubber for the Woodies and Charleston will turn to RHP Victor Munoz (0-0, 1.50). Tomorrow is the final Friday home game of the season, with post game fireworks, presented by WNCT 9!

Fans can purchase tickets on woodducksbaseball.com, by calling the Wood Ducks Team Offices at (252) 686-5164 or in the Wood Ducks Team Offices located at Grainger Stadium (Mon-Fri – 9am - 4pm). Make sure to follow your Down East Wood Ducks on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook so you don’t miss anything!