Former Salem Red Sox farmhand Francellis Montas dazzled the crowd at LewisGale Field with eight outstanding innings as the Winston-Salem Dash took the series finale 6-3. Montas allowed just two hits and one run, striking out 11 Red Sox. Montas did not allow a hit until the seventh inning.
Pat Light picked up the loss for the Sox. Light worked into the seventh inning, allowing four hit and four runs, without striking out a batter. Kyle Martin relieved Light in the seventh, and surrendered four hits and two runs in two and a third innings of relief.
The Dash offense was paced by three home runs. Nick Basto hit a two run homer off Light in the seventh and Joey DeMichele and Michael Marjama both hit solo shots off of Martin in the ninth. The first two Dash runs came in the fifth. DeMichele doubled in Grant Buckner, and then scored on a Basto sacrifice fly.
The Red Sox finally got on the board in the seventh off of Montas. Reed Gragnani doubled to break up the no-hitter with one out. Then Martinez knocked in Gragnani with an RBI single. The Red Sox tried to mount a rally in the ninth. Jonathan Roof knocked in Bo Greenwell with a double, extending his hit streak to eight games. Then a Martinez groundout got Matty Johnson home to make it a 6-3 game. But that was all she wrote for the Sox in the ninth as Leyer finished off his second save of the year with a strikeout.
With the loss, the Dash win only its second series of the year, both at LewisGale Field against the Sox. Salem welcomes the Potomac Nationals to the Roanoke Valley tomorrow for the first time since the Mills Cup clinching game on September 10th. Simon Mercedes takes the ball for the Sox.
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Chris Graham
