Highlighted by Juan Soto’s 6th HR, Potomac snapped a 2-2 tie with a three-run 3rd and held on for a 5-2 win over Salem.
The no-longer-a-secret 19-y.o. also singled twice and went 3-for-4 overall to raise his line to a Nintendo-esque .388/.492/.857 in 12 games for Potomac, surpassing his .373/.486/.814 mark in 16 games for Hagerstown. Cobmined, it’s a ridiculous .380/.489/.833 with 11HR and 39RBI with 24BB and just 17K.
Following Shawn Kelley’s seven-pitch 1st, in which he retired the side and appeared to be touching 110 (kilograms), Wil Crowe took over in the 2nd but was knocked for two runs on two hits and a walk in the first frame he threw. Errors by Telmito Agustin and Jake Noll rendered both runs unearned, but, as noted in the comments, he is still struggling when faced with adversity and still has not put together a truly dominant outing.
Crowe followed that shaky first inning with four scoreless frames but gave up two more hits and two more walks to finish with a line of five innings pitched, two unearned runs on four hits and three walks while fanning five and won for the fifth time in six appearances.
Both teams settled down and in after the first three innings. Potomac only truly threatened once more, with Soto and Noll hitting back-to-back singles in the 7th before Ian Sagdal flew out to left and Soto ran the team out of the inning when he was caught taking too large of a lead off second.
Likewise for the Red Sox, as Jorge Pantoja took over for Crowe in the 7th and put up two goose eggs but then threatened in the 9th against Gabe Klobosits. Kyri Washington doubled to lead off the inning and after a strikeout and a tapper back to the mound, gave up a single to right that enabled Soto to atone for his baserunning blunder with a 9-2 putout to end the game.
The win pulls the two teams even atop the Carolina League North at 17-13 with 40 games to go in the first half. Potomac hits the road again with three against Wilmington and four against Frederick before returing to [No Free Advertising] Field at Pfitzner Stadium next Tuesday to rematch against Salem for three games on May 15-17.