CarL1 Salem RidgeYaks

Red Sox Snare Action-Packed 9-8 Victory

Published on July 29, 2010 under Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem RidgeYaks News Release


The Red Sox scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to take their first lead and hung on for a thrilling 9-8 victory on Thursday night in front of a boisterous 3,777 fans at Lewis-Gale Field. The baseball nearly took a back seat in the third inning when the benches cleared after Brock Huntzinger tossed up and in to Denis Phipps, one pitch after the previous two pitches were sent out of the park for Hillcat homers. Though tempers flared and both dugouts emptied, the teams stayed separated and no physical confrontations developed. Salem trailed by as many as five runs in the game, but used two four-run innings to catapult itself to a series-opening victory against their Route 460 rivals.

The Sox trailed 8-5 entering the bottom of the seventh, but erupted for an improbable two-out rally. After the first two men were quickly retired, five straight Salem batters reached to surge the Sox into the lead. Nick Christiani walked Oscar Tejeda on four pitches, and Tejeda scored on Will Middlebrooks' double off the center field wall to pull Salem within two. Alex Hassan then smacked a single to left to bring home Middlebrooks and make the score 8-7. After Hassan advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt, Tim Federowicz laced his first professional triple past the dive of center fielder Efrain Contreras to score Hassan and tie the game at eight. Dan Butler finished the rally with a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield to plate Federowicz and put the Sox up by a lone run at 9-8.

Lynchburg was poised to tie and possibly retake the lead in the eighth, but Pat Ryan came through with a number of clutch pitches to escape the inning unscathed. Ryan entered the game with a runner on first and subsequently walked Brodie Greene to put runners on first and second with nobody out. After a sac bunt advanced both runners 90 feet, Ryan forced Chris McMurray to pop out to first and then struck out Josh Fellhauer to slam the door on a potential Hillcat rally.

Ryan then worked a perfect 1-2-3 ninth to earn his second save of the season for Salem.

Aside from the seventh inning comeback, the other highlight of the night was a wild third inning. With Lynchburg leading 2-1, Salem starter Brock Huntzinger served up back-to-back home runs on consecutive pitches. Cody Puckett's two-run bomb preceded Neftali Soto's solo shot to put the 'Cats up 5-1 in the blink of an eye. On the very next pitch, Huntzinger threw over the head of Denis Phipps, who took exception by throwing his bat down and taking a couple of steps toward the pitcher's mound. Both benches and bullpens cleared, but nothing but words were exchanged in the altercation. Phipps later flew out to deep right-center field, but kept jawing with Huntzinger and home plate umpire Jay Pierce on the way back to the dugout, so much so that Phipps was ejected from the ballgame. On the first pitch after the ejection, Chris Richburg launched the third home run of the inning for Lynchburg to put the 'Cats up 6-1 and end Huntzinger's night.

Trailing by five, the Red Sox rallied for four of their own against Curtis Partch to bring the deficit back to one. Salem utilized four hits, a walk, and an error to trim the margin to 6-5. The Hillcats added single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, but Salem battled back to hand Lynchburg its second razor-thin setback in as many days.

The five-run comeback set a new season-high for the Sox, who improved to 59-44 on the season. The 4-5-6 trio of Middlebrooks, Hassan and Federowicz went a combined 7-for-12 with four RBI, four extra base hits and five runs scored. Middlebrooks' two doubles increased his season total to 28, fourth-most in the Carolina League. Salem went 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position and won despite giving up the first runs of the game for the 12th time in their last 13 games. The Sox have gone 8-5 during this stretch.

The Sox and Hillcats tangle in the middle game of the three-game set on Friday night at 7:05 PM. The pitching matchup is a repeat of Sunday's 6-5 Hillcat victory as Michael Lee starts for Salem against Lynchburg's Jordan Hotchkiss.

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Carolina League Stories from July 29, 2010


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