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Dash wins with a blast
Johnson hits homer to lift team to 11-10 win over Hillcats
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Published: July 3, 2009
The largest crowd of the season -- out to kick off Independence Day weekend with baseball and fireworks -- was treated to an old-fashioned slugfest last night at Wake Forest Baseball Park.
And Logan Johnson capped things off for the home team with the biggest blast of the game -- a game-winning, two-run homer in the ninth inning that gave the Winston-Salem Dash an 11-10 victory over the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Johnson's heroics came on a night when a crowd of 6,410 -- by far the season's largest -- boosted an attendance average that stood at just 547 a game before last night.
"That was an unbelievable feeling," Johnson said. "That's a big part of the reason we come out here and play -- for the fans -- and any time we get a crowd like this I think it sparks our energy a little bit. We've had some poor crowds here this season (related to a delayed move to a new stadium) and to play in front of a crowd like this was great."
Joe McEwing, the Dash's manager, said he was thrilled with his team's ability to recover from a 9-4 deficit against the only Carolina League team with a winning record against the Dash this season. Both the Hillcats and Dash won division titles in the season's first half.
"Our team is resilient; they're really resilient," McEwing said. "They keep grinding out at-bats and just hanging in.
"It was great for these kids to play in front of a crowd like this and win the way they did. It definitely gets the juices flowing. Hopefully they'll keep coming out after this game, which was a great one."
Johnson's one-out blast to right field capitalized on an errant pitch by reliever R.J. Rodriguez that clipped batter Salvador Sanchez to lead off the ninth.
Johnson -- who was 5 for 5 with a single, two doubles, two home runs and four RBIs -- made short work of a 1-1 pitch by Rodriguez by giving it a long ride.
"It was a sinking fastball inside," Johnson said. "I just picked it up early and dropped the head of the bat on it."
The side-armed Rodriguez was 15 of 15 in save opportunities before blowing last night's assignment. And the Dash won for the first time in 28 games when trailing after eight innings.
Johnson nearly provided another highlight. He came within a hair of hitting for the cycle -- a potential triple was nullified in the eighth inning when his drive to the right-field corner bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double.
"I'm not exactly fleet of foot, but if that ball had rattled around down there a little bit…," Johnson said. "But I'll take the day I had over a cycle. I'd rather hit two home runs than a triple."
Jamie Romak led an early offensive barrage by the Hillcats with a two-run homer in the fourth inning and a three-run homer in the fifth off starter Anthony Carter.
The Dash, which had 17 hits, rallied to tie the score 9-9 in the seventh inning, thanks in part to three Hillcats errors and RBI doubles by Johnson and Sanchez.
The Hillcats jumped back on top in the eighth inning, however, when Jose De Los Santos drew a leadoff walk and scored on Chase D'Arnaud's double off reliever Levi Maxwell.
Reliever Miguel Socolovich took over from there, preventing further damage with a strikeout and double-play grounder, and went on to pick up the victory.
The Dash faced a left-handed starting pitcher for the third straight game but, despite a lineup that features mostly left-handed hitters, fared well against southpaws again.
"It's ironic with all the lefties we have hitting we're doing better against left-handed pitching than we are against righties," McEwing said. "We went through a stretch where we faced eight lefties in a row and it seems like the tendency in this league is for a lot of lefties."
Jimmy Gallagher, the Dash's leadoff hitter, was removed from last night's game after a first-inning tumble in which he turned an ankle.
The Dash had one roster change yesterday. The Chicago White Sox sent right-handed pitcher Henry Mabee to Class AA Birmingham and replaced him with right-hander Gregory Infante, who was called up from low-A Kannapolis.
Infante will join the starting rotation, replacing Maxwell, who will work more from the bullpen.
Both teams headed to Lynchburg, Va., after last night's one-game homestand -- a Carolina League scheduling oddity -- for the first of a three-game set beginning there at 6 tonight.
The Dash will start left-hander Justin Edwards (1-0) against right-hander Matt McSwain (7-3).
■ Tommy Bowman can be reached at 727-7320 or at tbowman@wsjournal.com.
LYNCH. ab r h bi W-S ab r h bi
D'Arnaud 2b 5 2 3 2 Mllher 2b 5 1 2 1
Presley cf 4 0 1 1 Paiml ss 4 2 3 0
Mercer ss 5 0 0 0 Galghr 1b 1 0 1 0
Hague 1b 5 2 3 2 Prschna 1b 4 0 0 0
Fryer dh 2 2 1 0 Morel 3b 4 2 1 1
Romak rf 5 2 2 5 Loman dh 5 0 1 1
Watts c 3 0 0 0 Sanchez rf 4 2 2 1
Keel lf 5 1 2 0 Kuhn lf 4 2 2 0
DLs Sts 3b 4 1 0 0 Jhnsn c 5 2 5 4
Gerst cf 3 0 0 1
Totals 38 10 12 10 Totals 39 11 17 9
Lynchburg 100 332 010 -- 10
Winston-Salem 003 101 402 -- 11
E--Wilson, Mercer, D'Arnaud 2, Morel. DP--Lynchburg 2, Winston-Salem 2. LOB--Lynchburg 8, Winston-Salem 8. 2B--Keel, D'Arnaud 2, Hague, Paiml, Morel, Johnson 2, Sanchez. 3B--D'Arnaud. HR--Romak 2, Hague, Mollenhauer, Johnson 2. SB--D'Arnaud, Kuhn, Paiml. CS--Paiml.
Lynchburg IP H R ER BB SO
Wilson 51/3 10 5 5 0 1
Robles 2/3 2 0 0 0 0
Aguero 12/3 4 4 0 0 2
Garcia 1/3 0 0 0 1 0
Rodriguez, L (4-2) 1/3 1 2 2 0 0
Winston-Salem IP H R ER BB SO
Carter 5 9 7 7 4 2
Santos 1 1 2 2 0 2
Maxwell 1 2 1 1 2 0
Socolovich, W (2-1) 2 0 0 0 1 1
WP--Wilson, Carter, Santos. HBP--by Wilson (Paiml), by Rodriguez (Sanchez), by Carter (Fryer). T--3:25. A--6,410
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