Garin Cecchini and Keury De La Cruz both went yard for the Salem Red Sox on Sunday afternoon, but the Myrtle Beach Pelicans rallied from a pair of deficits to prevail 4-3 on Mother’s Day at TicketReturn.Com Field. After bashing a walk-off hit on Saturday night, Drew Robinson again delivered the game-changing swing, smacking a two-run triple down the right field line in the last of the seventh. Down 3-2 at the time, Robinson’s three-bagger gave the Pelicans their first lead of the day, and Francisco Mendoza tossed two scoreless innings out of the pen for Myrtle Beach, earning his first save in relief of Alec Asher, who tossed seven strong to pick up the victory.
Asher was dinged in the top of the first inning, as Cecchini worked a two-out walk and De La Cruz blasted the first pitch he saw over the fence in right for a two-run dinger. Up 2-0, Salem starter Kyle Stroup made the lead stand up initially with a dominant, seven-pitch bottom of the first.
The Pelicans threatened in the second and third, but Stroup escaped unscathed. The fourth, however, was a different story. The Pelicans punctured Stroup for two runs on five singles, tying the game at two. Edwin Garcia tried to score from second on Luis Sardinas’ infield single, but David Renfroe alertly fired home and Carson Blair applied the tag, keeping the score tied at two.
With one out in the top of the fifth, Cecchini launched a solo home run the opposite way to give Salem the lead again. Just one year after recording four home runs in 455 at-bats, Cecchini’s fifth round-tripper of 2013 occurred in his 116that-bat, lifting the Sox to a 3-2 edge.
The lead stood until the last of the seventh, with Matty Ott striking out the side in the sixth in relief of Stroup. But in his second inning out of the pen, Ott yielded a single to Garcia and then walked Jake Skole, giving the Pelicans two runners with nobody out. In a slash attempt, Sardinas flew out to shallow right, but Robinson laced a bullet over Renfroe’s head into the right field corner. By the time Matty Johnson fired it back to the infield, two runs had scored easily and Robinson stood at third base with his team in front 4-3.
Salem did have a chance in the top of the ninth, but with runners at first and second with one out, Sean Coyle bounced into a 1-6-3 double play, sending the Sox to their fifth consecutive loss. Meanwhile, Myrtle Beach has now won six in a row to rise to 10 games above .500 on the year at 23-13.
The Sox will try to squelch Myrtle’s winning streak and salvage the final game of the series on Monday night, a7:05 first pitch by the Beach. Mike McCarthy will make the start for Salem opposite Nick Martinez.
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