The Salem Red Sox were swept by the Carolina Mudcats in a doubleheader Wednesday at Five County Stadium, falling in the nightcap 11-5. The Mudcats were 5-1 winners in the opener.
The Red Sox (50-32, 7-6) gained an early advantage on Mudcats (34-50, 5-9) starter Zack Bird with a two-out rally in the first inning. Rafael Devers kicked it off with a double, Nick Longhi collected an infield single, and then Jose Sermo singled to drive home Devers and give the Sox a 1-0 lead.
Carolina struck back in the bottom of the first against Bobby Poyner, when Braxton Davidson tucked a two-run home run into the short porch down the right field line to give the Mudcats a 2-1 advantage. The Mudcats plated an additional three runs against Poyner (0-1) on three base hits in the second frame.
In his first professional start, Poyner lasted three innings, giving up five runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Taylor Lewis (1-1) earned the win in relief for Carolina, tossing 2.1 shutout innings.
Wendell Rijo led off the third with a double, and then scored on a Longhi sacrifice fly, while a wild pitch and a Devers ground rule double in fourth helped Salem cut the advantage to 5-4. Devers finished the second game of the twinbill 3-for-4 with three doubles, an RBI and a run scored.
The Mudcats pulled away in the bottom of the fourth against Jorge Marban. Carolina plated five runs, all with two outs, including a three-run homer from Isaias Tejeda and a solo shot in the next at-bat by Sal Giardina. A fifth inning, bases-loaded single from Omar Obregon off German Taveras ran the Carolina lead to 11-4.
In the seventh, Devers led off with a double off Carlos Portuondo, and he later scored when Danny Mars grounded into a fielder’s choice. Portuondo was able to finish the seventh without any further trouble.
The series at Carolina concludes Thursday night with a 7 pm matchup. Salem has not announced a starter for the game, while the Mudcats will throw Ryan Clark (0-10, 5.94) as they look for the sweep. Follow along with the action on the Salem Red Sox Baseball Network. Pre-game coverage begins at 6:45.
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Chris Graham
