Frederick Keys knock off Salem Red Sox, 6-2

The Frederick Keys grabbed an early 3-0 lead and never looked back on Sunday afternoon at Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium, knocking off the Salem Red Sox 6-2.

The game was scoreless through three innings as both Ty Buttrey and David Hess were strong early. Buttrey was the first to face trouble with Frederick plating a pair in the fourth. Adrian Marin led off with a double and moved to third on a Chance Sisco single. Jeff Kemp knocked in Marin with a grounder to short for the first run of the game. Kemp reached on a fielder’s choice on the play and scored when Wynston Sawyer singled two batters later, giving Frederick a 2-0 lead.

The Keys added to their lead with an unearned run in the fifth. Jay Gonzalez reached on an error by Tzu-Wei Lin and advanced to third thanks to a pair of wild pitches from Buttrey. Marin singled to drive him in, pushing the lead to 3-0.

Salem got on the board in the sixth but wasted a chance for more as they loaded the bases with nobody out. Wendell Rijo earned an RBI thanks to a fielder’s choice groundout that scored Jose Vinicio from third base. Salem put one more runner on base in the inning, but left the bases loaded and trailed 3-1.

Frederick extended its lead in the home half of the same inning on one swing. With two runners on, Tad Gold crushed a Buttrey offering over the right-center field wall for his first professional home run. Gold entered the game with one professional RBI, but his three-run bomb extended the Frederick lead to 6-1.

The Sox were able to add one more run on an RBI single from Yoilan Cerse that scored Rijo in the eighth inning.

Mauricio Dubon went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and Cerse was 2-for-4 with a run scored. Buttrey (7-3) took the loss with six runs, five earned, allowed on ten hits with three strikeouts over 5.2 innings pitched. Hess (4-4) was the winning pitcher thanks to five one-run innings with four hits and four strikeouts. Matt Taylor scooped up his second save of the year with 1.1 scoreless frames.

Salem dropped to 45-42 overall and 7-10 in the second half with the loss. Frederick improved to 39-48 and 7-10. The Sox lead the four-game series 2-1 and look for the series victory on Monday night at 7 p.m. Salem will hand the ball to Trey Ball (6-7, 3.68) as Frederick trots out Ariel Miranda (0-1, 7.36). Fans can listen to the game on 1240 AM ESPN Roanoke, online at salemsox.com or via the TuneIn Radio app.