Sports stats

CarL Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Howard Collects Four Hits, Pelicans Roll to 7-2 Win over Wood Ducks

July 2, 2021 - Carolina League (CarL)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


The Myrtle Beach Pelicans kicked off the Fourth of July weekend with a bang by beating the Down East Wood Ducks 7-2 on Friday night. The win evened the series as the Birds have won two straight and move to 23-28 on the season. Down East drops to a 29-22 record after losing their second consecutive game. Friday started the Red, White, and Blue Weekend at Pelicans Ballpark, with a fireworks show following each game this weekend to celebrate the holiday.

The hitting was the catalyst for the Pelicans in the victory with 10 hits on the night, and all but one player reaching base. Ed Howard (4-5, 3B, 2B, 2 R) posted his first four-hit performance of his career falling a home run short of the cycle. Matt Mervis (1-4, 3B, 2 RBI) brought home two runs while Ethan Hearn (1-3, RBI) continued his hot hitting with his fourth RBI of the series.

Manuel Espinoza (3-4) took his third win of the year by going the minimum of five innings with just one unearned run off two hits while walking four and striking out one. Jarod Wright was once again impressive, facing nine batters and retiring eight with one hit and one earned run allowed.

Down East starved for offense with only four hits on the evening. Keithron Moss (2-3, R) led the effort with the only multi-hit game for the visitors. Obie Ricumstrict (1-3, RBI, BB) picked up the only RBI of the game for the Wood Ducks.

In his first start of the season, Orceli Gomez (0-1) took the loss after giving up two earned runs off four hits in his 2.1 innings. Leury Tejada sacrificed two more runs in his three innings, while Ben Anderson saw three more runs cross the plate in his outing.

After the first two innings went scoreless between the two teams, the Pelicans struck first with two runs in the third. Fabian Pertuz, Howard, and Flemin Bautista all singled to load the bases on Gomez. After Ryan Reynolds was retired on a lineout, Gomez was taken out for Tejada. The reliever struggled with location, as he walked Mervis and Wetzel to bring home both runs for the Pelicans to take a 2-0 lead.

Down East responded with one run in the next half-inning. Cody Freeman worked a one-out walk, while Cristian Inoa reached base after Jordan Nwogu dropped a routine fly ball in left field. Alejandro Osuna walked to load the bases, and Espinoza allowed a run by walking Ricumstrict to make it a 2-1 game.

The Pelicans stretched the game out in the sixth with three runs crossing the plate. Hearn led the inning off with a walk and came home to score with Nwogu hitting a double off the left-field wall to make it a 3-1 lead. Sierra flew out for the first out of the inning, and Nwogu advanced to third after the reliever Anderson overthrew a pickoff attempt to second base. Pertuz came up and dribbled a ball back to Anderson, who turned to throw home and fell down allowing Nwogu to score and Pertuz to reach on an error. Howard came up and doubled to right field to move Pertuz to third, and both Bautista and Reynolds walked to bring in another run with the score at 5-1.

Down East added one in the eighth with Moss hitting a single to right field to start the inning off. Moss moved around the bases as the next two batters were retired and scored after Pelicans' reliever Gabriel Jaramillo threw a wild pitch to the backstop.

Myrtle Beach added two more runs of insurance with Howard smashing a triple to deep center field to get to third and scoring off a Bautista sacrifice fly. Reynolds followed with a double to center field, and Mervis knocked him in with a triple to the wall in right field to make it a 7-2 game.

Game five will take place on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. as both teams have won two games in the series.

Check out the Myrtle Beach Pelicans Statistics



Carolina League Stories from July 2, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Myrtle Beach Pelicans Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central