By: RiverDogs Media
Fayetteville, NC – The Charleston RiverDogs hit four home runs, including three in the fifth inning, to take down the Fayetteville Woodpeckers by a 7-1 score on Friday night at Segra Stadium. Six of the team’s seven runs came courtesy of the long ball. The Columbia Fireflies earned a third straight walk-off win to remain 3.5 games behind the first place RiverDogs.
For the second night in a row, Fayetteville (17-35, 48-69) scored first and then went silent the rest of the way. On this night, Tommy Sacco opened the bottom of the first inning with a double. A pair of groundballs followed to allow him to cross the plate. After that run scored, JJ Goss would keep the Woodpeckers off balance for the rest of the contest, tossing 6.0 innings and recording eight strikeouts on the way to his fourth win of the season.
The RiverDogs (33-19, 79-39) matched their season-high for home runs in an inning and in a game to take control. First, Nathan Perry tied the game with a solo home run to right against his former team in the second inning. The round-tripper was his fourth of the year. In the fifth inning, Shane Sasaki homered for the sixth time to put the RiverDogs on top 3-1. Carson Williams went back-to-back with Sasaki, driving a 3-0 pitch off the batter’s eye for his 17th blast of the campaign. Later in the frame, Oneill Manzueta capped the explosive frame with his eighth of the season, a two-run drive to right for a 6-1 advantage.
The team’s last run came via some small ball. Alejandro Pie reached on an error with one out in the sixth and Sasaki followed with a bloop single to right. The pair executed a double steal with the catcher’s throw bouncing into center field for an error that allowed another run to cross the plate.
The bullpen was stellar once again in relief of Goss. Sean Harney worked a pair of scoreless innings, collecting three strikeouts along the way. In the ninth, Jack Snyder allowed a pair of hits, but stranded a runner at third base with a strikeout and a foul popup.
Sasaki was the only player for either side to register multiple hits with eighth of the nine batters in the RiverDogs lineup collected a hit. The team had previously hit three home runs in the same inning on August 14 against Lynchburg.
Having secured at least a split, the RiverDogs have their sights set on a series win in the penultimate game of the match-up Saturday evening. First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. LHP Antonio Jimenez (9-4, 3.55) will work on the bump for Charleston opposite Fayetteville RHP Deylen Miley (3-7, 5.09).
Single-game tickets are available for all RiverDogs home games at r iverdogs.com.
