The bullpen faltered down the stretch last night as the Winston-Salem Dash dropped a 7-6 decision to the Lynchburg Hillcats in 10 innings last night at Wake Forest Baseball Park.
The crowd of 1,502 for "Bark in the Park" saw reliever Levi Maxwell give up what proved to be the winning run on a solo home run by Jared Keel. The 7-6 lead held up for the Hillcats, and Harvey Garcia pitched a perfect 10th inning for his first save.
The Dash fought back from a 5-0 deficit in the second inning, all without starter Gregory Infante giving up a hit. The Dash finally took the lead in the sixth off reliever Moises Robles. Greg Paiml led off with liner to center that center fielder Jose De Los Santos had trickle off the top of his glove for a three-base error. Jim Gallagher followed with a sacrifice to center to give the Dash a 6-5 lead.
The lead held up until the top of the ninth. Reliever Santo Luis gave up a solo homer to Alex Presley to tie the game. It was Luis' sixth blown save of the year.
R.J. Rodriguez then came in for the Hillcats and shut down the Dash. Gallagher led off the ninth with a base hit to to right, but Brent Morel followed with a popup to catcher Kris Watts. Then Logan Johnson struck out, and Salvador Sanchez finished the inning with a popup to Jordy Mercer at shortstop.
In the 10th, Maxwell (2-10), who has been mostly used as a starter this year, came in relief of Luis. After striking out Jamie Romak to lead off the inning, Keel hit a blast over the left-field wall to give the Hillcats a 7-6 lead.
"Every loss is a tough loss. We grinded back after being down 5-0, and got ourselves back in the game," Manager Joe McEwing said. "We got ourselves in a position to win the game, and that's baseball."
Garcia came on in the 10th in relief of Rodriguez for the Hillcats. Garcia set down the Dash in order to end the game.
"You've got to give credit to Presley," McEwing said. "He grinded it out. He started 0-2, grinded back and had a quality at-bat, and hit a home run to tie it."
The game started poorly for Infante. a right-handed pitcher from Venezuela. Lynchburg took a 3-0 lead in the first with no hits, three walks and an error. Chase d'Arnaud led off with a walk, and Presley followed with a walk. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch. With Watts batting, Infante had a wild pitch that scored d'Arnaud for a 1-0 lead. Watts then grounded to Brent Morel at third, who let the ball go between his legs to allow Presley and Watts to score for a 3-0 lead.
The Hillcats scored two more runs in the second. Eddie Prasch walked to lead off and went to second after Infante walked De Los Santos. After each runner moved up on a passed ball by Johnson, Prasch scored on a passed ball with Presley batting, which allowed De Los Santos to move to third. With one out, Mercer hit a sacrifice fly to center to give the Hillcats a 5-0 lead.
"That's the beauty of this game," McEwing said. "You're going to see something different every night. Infante was struggling a little bit with his command tonight. After that, he still grinded it out. He competed. He's got to learn from that and make the adjustments."
Infante, who was making just his second Carolina League start, settled down after that, but went five innings. He gave up five runs, three earned, with two hits, seven walks and two strikeouts. Nobody had a hit for the Hillcats until Prasch led off the fourth with a single to left.
The Dash started its comeback in the bottom of the second inning off starter Chi-Hung Cheng. Tyler Kuhn reach on an infield hit with one out, and Tyler Shelton, who is from Charlotte and played at North Carolina, followed with a two-run homer to left-center to cut the lead to 5-2.
Winston-Salem scored three more runs in the bottom of the fifth off Cheng. Gallagher led off with a single to left, and moved to second after Morel walked. Logan Johnson then crushed a three-run homer over the right-field fence that is well beyond the wall in right, and the ball bounced into the street.
The Dash took the lead in the sixth, but couldn't make it hold up.
"You still go out there and play every pitch one pitch at a time. In this ballpark it's tough. One or two runs isn't going to hold up in this ballpark," McEwing said. "This team is resilient. They keep grinding. You've got to tip your hat to the other ball club."
Cheng pitched five innings, gave up five runs, all earned, with 12 hits, two walks and one strikeout.
Reliever Sergio Santos, who threw two pitches to Eddie Prasch in the sixth inning in relief of Infante, left the game with a back injury. The trainer came out and looked at him. Santos threw a warm-up pitch, and McEwing took him out in favor of Jones.
The final game of the three-game series is scheduled for today at 5 p.m. Right-hander Jacob Rasner (2-0, 2.84 ERA) will start for the Dash, and left-hander Jeff Locke (2-6, 5.17) will start for the Hillcats.
LYNCH. ab r h bi W-S ab r h bi
d'Arnaud 2b 3 1 0 0 Mllher 2b 4 0 1 0
Presley lf 4 2 1 1 Paiml ss 5 1 0 0
Mercer ss 4 0 0 1 Galghr 1b 4 1 3 1
Hague 1b 3 0 0 0 Morel 3b 4 1 1 0
Watts c 4 1 2 0 Jhnsn c 5 1 2 3
Romak rf 4 0 0 0 Snchez rf 5 0 0 0
Keel dh 5 1 1 1 Kuhn lf 5 1 1 0
Prasch 3b 3 1 1 0 Shltn dh 5 1 3 2
DLs Sts cf 4 1 0 0 Gerst cf 5 0 2 0
Totals 34 7 5 3 Totals 42 6 13 6
Lynchburg 320 000 001 1 -- 7
W-Salem 020 031 000 0 -- 6
E--De Los Santos, Morel. DP--Lynchburg 1. LOB--Lynchburg 8, Winston-Salem 9. 2B--Watts, Morel. 3B--Gerst. HR--Presley, Keel, Shelton, Johnson. SB--De Los Santos.
Lynchburg IP H R ER BB SO
Cheng 5 12 5 5 2 1
Robles 22/3 0 1 0 0 3
Rodriguez, W (6-2) 11/3 1 0 0 0 2
Garcia, S 1 1 0 0 0 0 2
Winston-Salem IP H R ER BB SO
Infante 5 2 5 3 7 2
Santos 0 0 0 0 1 0
Jones 2 1 0 0 1 1
Luis 2 1 1 1 0 3
Maxwell, L (2-10) 1 1 1 1 0 2
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