Frederick doubles up Salem
Mike Wright remained the panacea to all of Frederick’s problems, outdueling Drake Britton in the Keys’ 6-3 victory over the Red Sox on Friday night at LewisGale Field.
While the Keys have gone just 7-22 in games started by other pitchers, Frederick improved to 6-2 with the Wright guy on the mound, improving their league-worst record to 13-24 in the series opener in Salem. Britton matched Wright through five scoreless innings, but the Keys broke through in a four-run sixth and never trailed to spoil the beginning of the Sox’ homestand. Read more
Sox mow down Mudcats, 2-0
Matt Barnes struck out a career-low five batters, but still overwhelmed another opposition with six scoreless innings in Salem’s 2-0 shutout victory over Carolina on Thursday night.
Allowing just two hits, Barnes let his defenders make plays behind him, scattering six groundouts and two fly balls amidst his 74-pitch, 47 strike performance. In eight professional starts, Barnes now possesses a 4-0 record and 0.60 ERA (3 ER/44.2 IP), with 67 strikeouts and six walks. Read more
Salem hangs on to beat Mudcats, 5-4
Envisioning their third shutout of the season when the ninth inning began, the Salem Sox felt fortunate to escape with a slim 5-4 win on Wednesday night at Five County Stadium.
The Mudcats managed nothing against Ryan Pressly or Pete Ruiz, but found an offensive groove in the ninth, batting around and scoring four times against Andrew Jones to push Salem to the brink. With the tying run at third and the winning run at first, Jeremie Tice laced a high line drive to deep right field, but Shannon Wilkerson—Tice’s high school teammate—backpedaled and made the catch to finalize Salem’s one-run triumph. Read more
Salem, Carolina split twinbill
Thrilled to finally return to action after back-to-back rainouts, the Salem Sox raced past Carolina for an 8-6 win in Tuesday’s opener. In the nightcap, however, the Sox ran out of gas and fell 4-1, managing just three hits, a new season-low.
In game one, Salem led 2-zip on Sean Coyle’s two-run bomb just two batters into the game. Jackie Bradley Jr. led off with a line drive double before Coyle unloaded on Mike Rayl’s delivery, depositing his fifth jack of the season over the fence in left. Miguel Celestino dealt a perfect first and struck out the leadoff batter in the second, but Carolina’s Jeremie Tice launched a solo shot to left to slice the gap in half. Jake Lowery followed the homer with a single, scoring two batters later on Anthony Gallas’ RBI knock that tied the score at two. The Mudcats loaded the bases with two outs, but were unable to take the lead as Tony Wolters skied to left to end the threat. Read more
Bradley powers Salem
Jackie Bradley Jr. delivered hits in each of his first five at-bats, pacing Salem’s 16-hit barrage in Saturday’s 9-4 triumph over Myrtle Beach at TicketReturn.Com Field.
Bradley finished 5-for-6 and drove in three runs as the Sox moved within a game of the first-place Winston-Salem Dash. At 19-14, Salem is five games above .500 for the first time all season. Read more
Salem wins in 14
Matt Barnes struck out eight to increase his minor league lead in punchouts, but the Salem Sox bullpen did the heavy lifting, refusing to allow an earned run over its special eight-inning performance on Friday night in Myrtle Beach.
The Sox punched two across in the top of the 14th inning, breaking a three-all stalemate and prevailing 5-3 at TicketReturn.Com Field in the series opener. Brandon Jacobs sprinted first to third on Xander Bogaerts’ single, racing home when the errant toss skipped away from Pelicans third baseman Christian Villanueva. With the error charged to left fielder Jared Hoying, Jacobs scored the first run since the seventh inning and crawled the Sox to a 4-3 edge. One batter later, Christian Vazquez pounded an RBI single off Zach DeVore to add an insurance tally, and Salem’s righthanded relievers did the rest. Read more
P-Nats take down Salem in finale
A single swing produced three runs and proved to be the difference in Thursday’s series finale, with Kevin Keyes’ three-run blast in the second inning catapulting Potomac to a 5-2 victory over Salem at LewisGale Field.
Matt Swynenberg tossed five solid innings for Potomac and the Nationals bullpen dominated Salem over the final four innings to salvage the final game of the series and prevent a Red Sox sweep. Salem outhit Potomac 8-6, but the Sox left nine runners on base and their streak of seven straight wins at home came to an end. Read more
