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CarL1 Salem Red Sox

Pressly Shines in 7-0 Salem Shutout

April 30, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release


Salem, VA - The Salem Sox finished the month of April with a bang. Well, actually, four bangs!

The Red Sox tied a LewisGale Field record with four home runs in a 7-0 shutout victory over the Potomac Nationals in front of 4,432 on Saturday night, giving Salem its 16th victory of the season. The explosive offense perfectly complemented a masterful pitching performance from Ryan Pressly, who retired 18 of the 20 batters he faced over six dominant scoreless innings. The Nationals managed just one hit off Pressly and one more off reliever Will Latimer, who threw the final three innings to complete the impressive blanking.

For five innings, Potomac starter Ryan Demny was almost as good. The Nationals righty permitted three hits and three walks, but stranded six over the first five, holding the Sox offense at bay. It was Demny's second straight scoreless outing, but the Nationals staff encountered trouble when Demny departed.

Scoreless through five innings, the Red Sox broke through in the last of the sixth when David Mailman launched a two-run homer off Nationals reliever Rob Wort. Mailman's second homer of the season made it 2-zip and was a harbinger of things to come.

Ryan Demmin replaced Wort in the bottom of the seventh and was greeted by a hard-hit single to right field by Zach Gentile. Jeremy Hazelbaker followed and blasted Salem's second two-run bomb of the ballgame, a towering fly that cleared the right-field fence with ease, making it 4-0.

Demmin retired the next two Sox batters on ground balls, but then yielded a single to Reynaldo Rodriguez. That set the table for Dan Butler's two-run dinger, Salem's third two-run blast of the game. Not to be outdone, Mailman crushed his second round-tripper in as many innings, going back-to-back with Butler to give the Red Sox a 7-0 lead.

In two and two thirds innings against Salem over two outings, Demmin has been drilled for 11 runs on 11 hits, which tabulates to an ERA of 37.13.

With a comfortable cushion to protect, Latimer earned his second save by setting down nine of the ten men he faced over the final three frames. Potomac finished with just two hits, a leadoff single from Stephen King in the fifth and a two-out double from Jeff Kobernus in the ninth.

Pressly improved to 3-0 in four starts and shrunk his ERA to 2.33, striking out a season-high five Nationals in six superb innings. Neither Pressly or Latimer walked anyone, the first time this season that Salem pitchers did not walk a soul.

Mailman led the Red Sox with two homers and three RBI, while Kolbrin Vitek went 2-4 to raise his average to .341. Butler and Hazelbaker each picked up two RBI on their homers, with Butler's total swelling to 24 driven in this season, tops in the Carolina League.

With the best-ever record through 21 games that the Roanoke Valley has ever seen, the Sox (16-5) will strive to sweep their three-game weekend series from the Nats (8-13) in Sunday's matinee finale. Chris Hernandez will start for Salem opposite Potomac's Evan Bronson in a matchup of lefthanders, with the first pitch scheduled for 4:05.

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