Justin Haley and Kyle Martin combined to hold Wilmington to just two runs Saturday night in a 4-2 Salem Red Sox victory at LewisGale Field. Haley picked up his sixth win of the season, surrendering two runs on five hits in six innings of work. Kyle Martin was even better in relief, pitching three shut out innings with just one hit allowed for his fifth save of the season.
Jonathan Dziedzic lost this pitchers duel for Wilmington. The left-hander fell to 5-5 on the year after five innings of six hit, four run ball. Dziedzic fell behind early when Jantzen Witte knocked his first home run with Salem since his all-star break call up to give the Sox a 2-0 first inning lead.
Salem pushed across the eventual game winning run in the third. Aneury Tavarez was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Ryan Dent and Jordan Weems followed with back to back singles to load the bases with no one out. Jose Vinicio hit a sacrifice fly to straight away center which was enough to score Tavarez and give the Sox a 3-0 edge. Dziedzic would Mike Miller to ground into a double play to end the inning and keep the score within reach.
Salem’s final run came in the fifth. Miller reached on a fielders choice and picked up a clutch stolen base to get in scoring position with two outs. Reed Gragnani’s second double of the game scored Miller from second to push the Sox up 4-0.
Wilmington’s only two runs came off Haley in the top of the sixth. Bubba Starling started the inning with a single. Then Jared Schlehuber doubled down the left field line which got Starling to third. Starling would score after the ball was bobbled in left by Dent. Wilmington then cut it to 4-2 when Schlehuber moved to third and scored on consecutive groundouts. But that was as close as the Blue Rocks would get.
Salem and Wilmington return to LewisGale Field Sunday afternoon for game two of the three game series. Pat Light gets the ball for the Red Sox with Christian Binford going for the Blue Rocks. First pitch is at 4:05.
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Chris Graham
