Red Sox get past Dash in 11 innings

The Winston-Salem Dash's hopes for a Carolina League championship are hanging by a frayed thread after last night's 6-4 loss to the Salem Red Sox in 11 innings last night at Wake Forest Baseball Park.

Jon Hee, hitless in five at-bats, slapped a 0-2 fastball from Tyson Corley into right field for a two-out single that beat the Dash and gave the Red Sox their second straight victory in the best-of-5 Southern Division playoffs. Zach Borowiak raced home from third and Che-Hsuan Lin followed from second when the ball bounced past the glove of right fielder Salvador Sanchez.

Kyle Fernandes, the fifth Red Sox pitcher, set the side down in order in the bottom of the inning to push the Dash to the brink of elimination.

The Dash will leave at noon today for the third game at Salem, where right-hander Jacob Rasner (4-7, 4.72) will start for the Dash against right-hander Seth Garrison (8-11, 3.90).

Manager Joe McEwing said he's confident the Dash will win the two games in Salem needed to force a fifth game back in Winston-Salem on Sunday.

"This team's been resilient all year and they're not going to give up," McEwing said. "We've got a tough road ahead of us, but this is a bunch of guys that can do it.

"So hopefully we'll go in there and focus on just having fun and enjoying the experience and the opportunity and going in there and playing good baseball and see what happens."

The Dash was resilient enough last night to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the fifth and a 4-3 deficit in the eighth. Brent Morel laced a two-run single to tie the game at 3 in the fifth, and Justin Greene hustled home from second on an infield single to tie the game at 4 in the eighth.

The Red Sox had already cut down one runner at home in the eighth when left-fielder Chih-Hsien Chiang fielded Greene's double on the warning track and threw to shortstop Ryan Dent, who wheeled and threw a bullet home that nailed pinch-runner Kent Gerst trying to score from first.

But the next hitter, Tyler Kuhn, chopped a grounder to the first baseman and beat it out when pitcher Derrick Loop was slow to cover the bag. The Red Sox fell asleep just long enough for Greene to fly around third and score the tying run.

The play helped extend the game into the 11th, but the Dash couldn't produce any more hits or runs against relievers Robert Coello and Fernandes.

The Dash survived a serious threat in the 10th when Santo Luis gave up a leadoff double to Anthony Rizzo before striking out the next three batters. But it wasn't so fortunate in the 11th.

Borowiak led off the 11th with a double across third base. Corley rallied to retire Tim Federowicz on a groundout and Dent on a strike out, but Borowiak advanced to third on a passed ball by Adam Ricks.

Corley walked Lin, who stole second without a throw. Corley threw two straight inside fastballs for strikes to Hee, and then threw a fastball on the outside corner that Hee, a right-handed batter, poked into right field for the game winner.

Hee said he was unfazed by his previous failures, which included striking out in the third and grounding into a double play in the seventh.

"Right now it's not about the numbers," Hee said. "It's just about helping your ballclub win.

"I didn't even think about it going into that last at-bat."

McEwing said he could find no fault with Corley's pitch.

"He hit a good pitch," McEwing said of Hee. "It was a fastball down and away and he hit a real good pitch. You have to tip your hat.

"Sometimes that happens."

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

SALEM ab r h bi W-S ab r h bi

Lin cf 5 2 2 1 Mllhrer 2b 5 1 3 1

Hee 3b 6 0 1 2 Paiml ss 5 1 1 0

Rizzo 1b 6 1 3 0 Snchez rf 5 0 0 0

Correll 5 1 2 2 Morel 3b 4 0 2 2

Jones dh 4 0 0 0 Loman dh 4 0 1 0

Chiang lf 5 1 3 1 Gerst pr-dh 0 0 0 0

Mailman lf 0 0 0 0 Greene cf 5 1 2 0

Brwiak 2b 5 1 3 0 Kuhn lf 4 1 1 1

Vazquez c 3 0 0 0 Ricks c 5 0 0 0

Fdrwcz ph-c 2 0 0 0 Pschina 1b 4 0 0 0

Dent ss 5 0 0 0

Totals 45 6 14 6 Totals 41 4 10 4

Salem 000 210 010 02 -- 9

Winston-Salem 010 020 010 00 -- 2

E--Hee, Dent, Painl, Mollenhauer, Sanchez. DP--Winston-Salem 2, Salem 1. LOB--Salem 9, Winston-Salem 9. 2B--Rizzo (2), Borowiak, Greene. HR--Correll, Lin, Chiang. SB--Lin. PB--Ricks

Salem IP H R ER BB SO

Weiland 7 7 3 2 1 4

Blackey 2/3 2 1 1 0 1

Loop (BS, 1) 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

Coello 12/3 0 0 0 1 2

Fernandes(W, 1-0) 11/3 0 0 0 0 2

Winston-Salem IP H R ER BB SO

Carter 5 7 3 3 0 4

Burdie 21/3 2 0 0 1 3

Perez 2/3 2 1 1 0 1

Luis 2 1 0 0 0 4

Corley (l, 0-1) 1 2 2 2 1 2