Potomac scored in each of its first three turns at bat but couldn’t keep up with Myrtle Beach, as the Pelicans scored the last eight runs of the game to hand the P-Nats an 11-5 defeat.
Brian Dupra took the hill in a spot start created by Monday’s rainout, but fell victim to his own mistakes. With a little luck, one or none of the first three runs might not have scored.
Tip your cap to Myrtle Beach for making him pay for a two-out walk with a two-out double in the 1st. Gnash your teeth at the wild-pitch strikeout that put the leadoff man on in the 3rd. But give the Pelicans credit for stealing second to take away the double play, and exploiting the extra out with a two-run home run to the fourth batter of the inning.
At the time, neither mistake seemed critical. Three extra-base hits in the bottom of the 1st erased the 1-0 deficit as Michael Taylor doubled with one out, Jason Martinson tripled with two down, and Adrian Nieto plated Martinson with an opposite-field, ground-rule double that might have gone for an inside-the-park job had it not bounced out of play. Pelican RF Preston Beck dove and missed and was slow to get up and was eventually removed from the game, though three K’s in three AB’s might have been a factor as well.
Back-to-back two-out RBI singles by Billy Burns and Taylor (set up by Burns’s 13th SB) extended the lead to 4-1. Adrian Sanchez served up the fifth and final run with an opposite-field liner to right, which has become something of a trademark for the Venezuelan this season.
Potomac put two runners on in the 4th but it was the last true threat as starter Victor Payano stranded them and turned in two more scoreless for an ugly line of five runs on nine hits over six innings, but got the win nevertheless.
Dupra hit the wall in the 5th, giving up a single, walk, then a double and leaving with runners on second and third. Matt Grace was the first man out of the ‘pen but couldn’t strand either and was charged with three runs of his own over three innings on six hits and no walks.
Greg Holt followed Grace and retired four straight batters before giving up a single with one out in the 9th and was on the verge of finishing the night with two scoreless frames until Kellin Deglan took him deep for a two-run shot that capped off the Pelicans onslaught.
With the loss, Potomac falls to 14-15 and two games off the pace in the Northern Division of the Carolina League. Taylor Hill (3-1, 2.43) gets the start in this afternoon’s rubber match and a chance to win both the series and close out the homestand with a 5-2 mark. Myrtle Beach will send Jerad Eickhoff (2-2, 4.44) to stop him and go for win no. 18 in game no. 30.