SAL1 Charleston RiverDogs

Sand Gnats Drown RiverDogs, 5-1

Published on June 13, 2007 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston RiverDogs News Release


Savannah pounded out 14 hits and Matt Durkin pitched seven solid innings as the Sand Gnats defeated the Charleston RiverDogs, 5-1, in South Atlantic League action Wednesday night in front of 2,448 fans at soggy Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in a game that was delayed 30 minutes due to rain.

With the victory, Savannah takes the three-game series, 2-games-to-1, and improves to 20-46 on the season while Charleston slips to 35-31. The Sand Gnats came into the series with only six road wins all season, but managed to win the first and third games of the three-game set.

Savannah, the league's worst hitting team (.232 batting averaging coming in), collected 14 base knocks in the contest after picking up 15 hits in Monday night's victory. The Sand Gnats were held to only four knocks in Tuesday's 5-2 loss.

The RiverDogs took a 1-0 lead in the third when Kevin Smith opened the frame with a double to right center and later scored on Chris Malec's RBI single. From there Durkin shut the door and allowed only one more hit, an infield single, in his remaining four innings of work.

The Sand Gnats pushed two runs across in the top of the sixth to take a 2-1 lead against Charleston starter Ivan Nova (4-3). Joe Holden, who had four hits on the night, opened the inning with a double to left and advanced to third on Greg Veloz's bloop single. Holden then scored on Josh Thole's groundout to shortstop.

After a fielder's choice left Leivi Ventura at second base with two out, D.J. Wabick, who played collegiately at nearby College of Charleston, ripped a RBI single to left to hand the visitors a 2-1 lead.

The Sand Gnats added a run in the seventh on Daniel Stegall's sacrifice fly, then pushed across two more in the ninth on an RBI double by Juan Lagares and a RBI single by Holden.

Durkin, in balancing his season record to 3-3, pitched seven innings, allowed one run on four hits while striking out three and walking one. Emary Frederick relieved Durkin in the eighth and went the final two frames to earn his third save of the year. Frederick fanned five of the seven batters he faced.

Nova allowed six hits through his first five innings, but was aided by a pair of double-plays and a pickoff to keep Savannah off the board. The right-hander ended up pitching seven full frames and allowed 11. Jesse Hoover threw the last two innings in his South Atlantic League debut and allowed two runs on three hits.

Malec, who along with Seth Fortenberry started for the 65th consecutive game, finished with three of Charleston's five hits marking his 19th multi-hit game of the season.

Brahiam Maldonado had three hits on the night for Savannah, while Wabick and Francisco Pena each had two knocks.

Mitch Hilligoss, who achieved national attention with his recent 38-game hitting streak, went hitless for the first time in the ten outings since the streak's end, and has now had at least one hit in 47 of his last 49 games. Both of his hitless games have come in starts by the Sand Gnat Durkin.

Charleston prepares for a four-game series at home Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. against first-half Southern Division champion Augusta GreenJackets. Manager Torre Tyson has announced that righty Hector Noesi (1-0, 3.75 ERA) will toe the rubber while the GreenJackets are expected to counter with righty Adam Cowart (9-3, 2.04 ERA).

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South Atlantic League Stories from June 13, 2007


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