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CarL1 Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Pelicans Game Notes

September 9, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release


LHP Miguel De Los Santos (6-3, 3.82) at RHP Michael Goodnight (1-0, 1.69)

ABOUT LAST NIGHT...: The Pelicans let a 5-0 first-inning lead slip away and struggled to get a big hit late before Kinston finally broke a 6-6 tie with two runs in the 11th to win Game Two of the Southern Division Championship Series at BB&T Coastal Field on Thursday and tie the best-of-five series at one. The Birds jumped all over starter Francisco Jimenez for five unearned runs in the opening frame, capping the rally with a Chris McGuiness three-run homer. The Indians came back with two tallies in the second and Tyler Cannon's third-inning grand slam put Kinston in front against Chad Bell. A game that was 6-6 through three suddenly went scoreless for the next seven as Myrtle Beach squandered golden opportunites to take the lead. The Pelicans went hitless in their final ten at bats with runners in scoring position, stranding the go-ahead or winning run at second or third in the third, fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth and tenth innings. After reliever Trevor Hurley tossed two and one-third brilliant innings, he went back out for the 11th and gave up the winning run on Jesus Aguilar's single that brought home Bo Greenwell. Casey Frawley added another RBI single before Preston Guilmet worked a 1-2-3 bottom half of the 11th to close out the series-tying win for visiting Kinston.

RISP-Y BUSINESS: The Pelicans went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Game One of the SDCS on Wednesday, but their pitching held firm in a 4-1 win. It was more of the same at the plate in big spots in Game Two, but this time it came back to bite them. Myrtle Beach went 2-for-13 last night with men in scoring position, going hitless in ten at bats in those situations from the third inning on. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Zach Zaneski's double play tied the game at six in the third, but it killed a rally that ended on a Jared Hoying strikeout. With a runner on second and two down in the fourth Jared Prince fouled out, and in the sixth Leury Garcia lined into an inning-ending double play. Zaneski doubled with one out in the eighth, but Hoying and Santiago Chirino struck out to end the frame. Myrtle Beach had two more chances to win it in the ninth, but Travis Adair lined out and Chris McGuiness fouled out. They had another opportunity for a walk-off in the tenth when Hoying doubled with one out, but Chirino and Ryan Strausborger K'd to make the Birds 0-for-6 with RISP in the last three frames.

SWING GAME: After the Pelicans and K-Tribe split the first two games in Myrtle Beach, the SDCS becomes a best-of-three in Kinston. Over the past six seasons in the Carolina League playoffs, there have been six best-of-five sets that were tied at one apiece through two games and in all but one, the team that won the third game not only went on to win the series, but also won in four games. The home team went 4-2 in those pivotal Game Threes and the team that tied the series with a Game Two win kept the momentum with another win in four of the six series as well.

ROAD WOES: If the Pelicans are going to advance to the Mills Cup Championship Series they'll have to win two out of three on the road. The Pelicans have struggled away from BB&T Coastal Field in the second half, going 2-7-1 in ten road series after the All-Star break. The Birds won their first road set of the second half when they took two of three in Salem and they won three of four in Wilmington to win their last road series of the regular season. Those series victories bookend a stretch that saw the Birds go 8-21 on the road from June 28 to August 29. At Grainger Stadium in 2011, the Birds split four games in April, lost two of three in June that included the Carolina League-record 23-inning affair, and also lost two of three in August.

MEANWHILE UP NORTH: There is one other series going on in the Carolina League postseason. The rain that caused the opening game of the Northern Division Championship Series to be cut short on Wednesday stuck around in Frederick on Thursday, forcing a postponement to Friday. The host Frederick Keys beat the Potomac Nationals 5-1 in a rain-shortened Game One that was called in the bottom of the sixth due to rain. On Wednesday, Jake Pettit threw all six innings for the Keys, holding the P-Nats to one run on three hits. Frederick scored four runs in the third inning on back-to-back homers by Miguel Abreu and Brian Ward, then they added one more run in the sixth and loaded the bases when the game was called. They'll try to get Game Two in tonight at Harry Grove Stadium and Games Three and Four are set for Saturday and Sunday in Woodbridge before the series would swing back to Frederick for a possible Game Five.

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