Mother Nature has not been kind to the Salem Red Sox this weekend. Despite her misery, the Red Sox survived two weather delays to come from behind and beat the Winston-Salem Dash Sunday evening at LewisGale Field, 4-2.
Following a brief 14-minute delay at the opening of the game, Trey Ball of Salem (30-13) and Matt Cooper of Winston-Salem (16-28) were both sharp, keeping the game scoreless through three innings. Cooper retired the first nine batters to face him, before walking Danny Mars to open the fourth inning.
Mauricio Dubon sacrifice bunted Mars to second, and then two batters later, Nick Longhi slid a single through the right side of the infield to plate Mars and hand Salem a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Dash tied the game after Ball issued a pair of walks with one out, and following a double-steal, Gerson Montilla lifted a sacrifice fly to knot the game at one.
At the conclusion of the sixth inning the skies opened up for a second consecutive day, sending the game into an 89-minute rain delay. Ball’s day was finished early because of the rain, but the southpaw notched his fourth straight quality start. He tossed 6.0 innings allowing one run on two hits, walking three and fanning four.
When play resumed, Jamie Callahan allowed a run to the Dash after a walk, a single, and a fielder’s choice to put the Dash ahead 2-1. Callahan (2-1) settled down and twirled a scoreless eighth to eventually earn the win.
Salem responded immediately in the bottom of the seventh, capitalizing on walks to Rafael Devers and Franklin Guzman to open the frame. Devers advanced to third on a Jacob Morris wild pitch, and then a double steal of second and home tied the game at two.
In the eighth, the Red Sox touched up Morris (0-1) when Mars reached on an error, stole second and third base, and Dubon reached on a catcher’s interference and swiped second. Mike Meyers chased both runners home with a double off the wall in center, giving the Red Sox a 4-2 advantage.
Jake Drehoff worked around a one-out single in the ninth inning, earning his team-leading sixth save of the season.
Sunday’s win was the Red Sox’ eighth win of the season when trailing or tied after seven innings. It was also their 10th win coming in their last at-bat, including the last three wins for the club. No other Red Sox team has reached 30 wins faster than the 2016 team.
The Red Sox complete the four-game series against the Winston-Salem Dash Monday night at LewisGale Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm. Salem will send Matt Kent (2-2, 4.05) to the mound, countered by Thad Lowry (2-3, 4.19) of Winston-Salem. For tickets and more information, call (540) 389-3333 or slide to www.salemsox.com/tickets.
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Chris Graham
