For the second straight night, the Salem Red Sox used a late rally to surge ahead of the Frederick Keys at Nymeo Field at Harry Grove Stadium. Andrew Benintendi broke a 4-4 tie with a three-run double in the eighth inning to give Salem a 7-4 win.
Benintendi’s bases-clearing hit came with two outs and was his second hit of the night. The Sox centerfielder extended his hitting streak to 17 games in a row with an RBI single in the seventh inning and ended up setting a career high with four RBI.
Salem fell behind 3-0 early in the contest as Frederick posted single tallies in the first, third and fifth innings. The Sox started their comeback in the sixth inning, plating a pair of unearned runs against Frederick reliever Michael Zouzalik. Rafael Devers reached on a one-out error and scored on a two-out triple from Danny Mars. In the next at-bat, Mars scampered home on a passed ball to cut the deficit to 3-2.
After Frederick added a run in the sixth, Salem evened things up in the top of the seventh. With two on and nobody out, Benintendi slashed a single up the middle and was followed by Nick Longhi, who smacked an RBI single of his own to tie things up at four.
In the decisive eighth inning, Salem loaded the bases with one out on two walks and a single. Mauricio Dubon lined out to first against Jimmy Yacabonis before Benintendi crushed a 1-0 offering to the wall in the left-center to empty the bases.
Austin Maddox (1-0) earned the win for Salem in relief, tossing two spotless innings. Jake Drehoff retired the side in order in the ninth for his third save of the year. Trey Ball started for the Sox, lasting four innings in which he gave up two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out five.
Mitch Horacek started for Frederick and pitched five scoreless frames. However, the bullpen gave up seven runs in four innings with Max Schuh (0-2) taking the loss. Schuh allowed all three runners to reach in the eighth, his lone inning of work.
Salem continues its road trip on Friday night with the first meeting of the year against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Matt Kent (1-1, 7.20) will get the ball for the Red Sox against the Pelicans’ Trevor Clifton (0-2, 4.15). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. Fans can follow along with all the action on the Salem Red Sox Baseball Network, starting with pregame coverage at 6:45.
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Chris Graham
