CarL1 Salem Red Sox

Special Delivery: Mailman's Homer Propels Sox

June 9, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release


Lynchburg, VA (June 9, 2011)- David Mailman launched a solo homer to lead off the top of the eighth, breaking a one-all tie to send the Salem Sox to their second straight victory over Lynchburg, triumphing 3-1 at City Stadium on Thursday night. The win secured a split of the four-game set and was also Salem's 10th win in 14 tries against their 460 rivals in 2011.

Tied at one in the eighth, Mailman blasted a 3-2 pitch over the right field wall for his first dinger since April 30th against Potomac. Three of Mailman's four homers have broken ties in the sixth inning or later this season. The Sox outfielder has now hit safely in five straight games and nine out of the last 10.

The swing came after a controversial end to the bottom of the seventh. With the bases loaded and two outs, Lynchburg's leading hitter, Andrelton Simmons, came to the plate against reliever Tom Ebert. On a 2-2 pitch, Simmons tried to check his swing, but home plate umpire Aaron Roberts signaled that Simmons swung the bat, thus striking him out. At the same time, though, base umpire Matt Jones assumed Roberts was asking for an appeal and declared a safe sign to say that Simmons did not swing the bat. Acting Lynchburg manager Bobby Moore contested the call, but to no avail as Ebert worked out of the jam to preserve the tie.

Both teams got on the board early with a tally apiece in the first. Salem strung together back-to-back-to-back base knocks with Kolbrin Vitek singling home a run to put the Sox up 1-0. Lynchburg countered in the bottom of the first, as Simmons doubled to left-center to score Todd Cunningham from first and tie the game at one.

After rocky first innings, southpaws Chris Hernandez for Salem and Chris Masters for Lynchburg tossed dueling zeros. Masters retired 20 of the final 21 batters he faced, yielding just a leadoff single to Zach Gentile in the top of the fourth. He struck out nine in his seven innings and retired the Sox in order in five of the seven frames he was on the bump.

Hernandez was solid for Salem, allowing just the first inning run in five frames. He tossed 75 pitches, 49 of which were strikes, consistently inducing ground balls to escape precarious situations. Named a Carolina League All-Star earlier in the day, Hernandez dropped his ERA to 2.45, the fifth-best mark in the circuit.

Salem was able to push across an insurance run in the top of the ninth, when Vitek led off with a double and later scored on a passed ball with two outs. Jeremiah Bayer slammed the door in the bottom of the ninth, striking out two to preserve the victory for Ebert, who authored two scoreless innings to pick up his second win of the season.

The Sox improved to 3-5 through eight games of their 19-game, 18-day odyssey to end the first half of the season, winning back-to-back contests for the first time since May 20-21. Salem makes its third stop on the adventure with the first of three at Pfitzner Stadium against the Potomac Nationals on Friday. Drake Britton will take the ball for the Sox against Potomac's Mitchell Clegg in another clash of southpaws. First pitch from Woodbridge is scheduled for 7:05 PM.

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Carolina League Stories from June 9, 2011


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