Demeritte Double Decides Contest
Following two rain delays, and a five-inning scoring drought for both clubs, the Charleston Dirty Birds found a way to pull out Sunday’s contest in the late innings.
Travis Demeritte doubled home Joseph Rosa with one out in the eighth as the Dirty Birds knocked off the Lancaster Stormers, 4-3, in the rubber game of a three-game set at GoMart Ballpark.
With one out in the eighth, Rosa chipped a single into shallow left field with three defenders chasing. Demeritte followed with his double into the left field corner off Scott Engler (3-1).
Lancaster could not counter in the top of the ninth, despite the best efforts of Danny Amaral. With one out, the Lancaster center fielder grounded a single into right field. The sneaky thief stole second and third with Andrew Semo at the plate before Semo took a called third strike. Dave Matthews grounded to short to end the afternoon with Rolando Alessandro picking up his first save.
Amaral’s single was Lancaster’s first hit since the fourth inning.
The afternoon started with promise for the Stormers as Yeison Coca walked to open the day, and Mason Martin followed with his league-leading 16th homer.
Charleston tied the game in the bottom of the first inning on four walks from Noah Bremer, the last three coming in swamping rains.
A wild pitch in the top of the second allowed Semo to score a lead run, but Coca grounded into a double play to end the threat. Lancaster also missed out on significant chances to score in the third and fourth innings before the bats went silent.
Charleston had tied the game in the bottom of the second on singles by Demetrius Moorer and James Nelson, a force out and a sac fly by former Lancaster utility man Chad Sedio.
Bremer retired 12 of the last 13 batters he faced before turning the ball over to the bullpen.
Brendan Medoro (1-0) earned the win for Charleston with two scoreless innings.
Lancaster opens a three-game series at Long Island on Tuesday. Max Green (0-2) will make the start for the Stormers against right-hander David Griffin (3-1). Fans may tune into FLoBaseball at 6:30.
NOTES: Martin extended his hitting streak to 10 games…He is 19-for-40 (.475) with seven homers and 18 RBI in that span…Semo had two hits to boost his average back to .311…Amaral now leads the club with 19 steals.