SAL1 Delmarva Shorebirds

Shorebirds Win Battle of Wills in Lakewood

Published on May 19, 2016 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Delmarva Shorebirds News Release


LAKEWOOD, NJ - Thursday night's pitchers duel lived up to the hype through the first five innings as Brian Gonzalez and Luke Leftwich matched each other blow for blow. Leftwich blinked first when the Shorebirds posted three runs to knock him out of the game, and Delmarva rolled to a 4-0 win at FirstEnergy Park. The shutout victory was Delmarva's fourth of the year.

Gonzalez (4-1) would be the first to tell you it wasn't easy. Lakewood put Gonzalez in a couple of tough situations, but as he has done in his last several starts, Gonzalez locked in when needed it and he gave the Shorebirds reason to have hope offensively.

Lakewood (15-24) had runners on the corners in the first inning with nobody out, but two ground outs sandwiched around a strikeout got Gonzalez out of the inning. Jiandido Tromp doubled off the left field fence to open the third, but a failed sacrifice bunt and two more punch outs left him at second base. Lakewood drew a walk and added a single in the fourth inning, but once more Gonzalez got a strikeout and pop out to end the inning.

Delmarva's first scoring chance against Leftwich came in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs and runners at first (Alex Murphy) and second (Yermin Mercedes), Natanael Delgado laced a single to right field. Jose Pujols got the ball on one hop and threw a missile to the plate, a step-and-a-half ahead of Mercedes, who awkwardly slid as he tried to avoid the tag. Prior to the third inning, Delmarva managed just one baserunner.

Delmarva (23-16) finally got rolling in the third trip through the order. Leftwich's pitches began to flatten out and caught more of the plate as Cedric Mullins ripped a double to right field to open the frame. After Ryan Mountcastle's single to left field put runners on the corners, DJ Stewart struck out. But Mercedes poked a shallow fly ball into center field and brought home the game's first run. Two batters later, Delgado delivered with a 2-run single to center and the Shorebirds led 3-0. Delgado's hit ended Leftwich's (3-2) night after 5.2 innings.

Mullins wasn't finished offensively, as he cracked hit second homer of the season over the right field fence in the seventh to put Delmarva ahead 4-0. Mullins and Delgado each finished with multi-hit nights, and Alex Murphy extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Murphy also matched his season-long on-base streak of 16 games, which he had done in the first 16 games of the year.

Ryan Meisinger stole the show over the last three innings. He matched Gonzalez with seven strikeouts, but he did it in half as many innings as Meisinger completely overpowered Lakewood. At one point, he punched out six of seven hitters in a row. He earned his second save of the season.

The Shorebirds are a season-high seven games over .500 and have won six of their last eight games. The series continues tomorrow night at 7:05 pm with Cristian Alvarado on the mound. Brendan Gulick will have the broadcast beginning with Shorebirds On-Deck at 6:20 pm on Fox Sports AM 960 and online at theshorebirds.com.

Check out the Delmarva Shorebirds Statistics

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South Atlantic League Stories from May 19, 2016


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