After Hub City’s pitching combined to strike out 19 Rome hitters and Dylan Dreiling provided the draft to help the Spartanburgers pass the Emperors in the 12th inning for a 3-2 walkoff win, Josh Trentadue (1-1, 1.64 ERA) looked to help keep the momentum going and force a tie for 2nd in the South Atlantic League South Division standings. He would oppose lefty Riley Frey (0-1, 4.29 ERA).
Both starters locked in from the beginning for the kind of game a lot of fans can’t appreciate – a pitchers’ duel. Trentadue tossed 5 shutout innings, striking out 7 while walking just one with 1 hit. Frey matched him with 5 strikeouts, a walk, and 2 hits through his first four frames before Gleider Figuereo led off with his 2nd homer in as many days, taking it to the grassy hill above the home bullpen in the right field corner. That gave Hub City a 1-0 lead heading to the 6th. Frey went one more scoreless inning to put his final line at 6 innings, 3 hits, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks and 1 earned run.
Hub City turned to Kolton Curtis to start the 6th, and despite walking three and giving up a hit through his first 2 frames, managed to wiggle out of trouble and hang a couple of zeros. However, the scoreless inning streak came to an end in the 8th when Curtis beaned shortstop Lizandro Espinoza. Center fielder Patrick Clohisy followed it with a double to the right center gap, scoring Espinoza from first to tie the game at 1. Curtis rebounded and left the go-ahead run on third, sending the game to the bottom half in a deadlock.
Hub City failed to score as Rome reliever Cory Wall, who came into the game to start the 7th and went the rest of the way, struck out 2 in a three up three down frame. Curtis came back out for the 9th for the Spartanburgers and worked a 1-2-3 inning of his own, setting the stage for some heroics from an unlikely source.
Yeison Morrobel doubled with 1 out in the bottom of the ninth and took third on the play as the center fielder threw the ball away trying to hit the cutoff man. But he would not end up coming home as Casey Cook grounded right to the first baseman, who went home on the fielder’s choice to force Morrobel for the 2nd out. Gleider Figuereo was pitched around, drawing a walk on 4 straight balls. After Quincy Scott worked a second straight base on balls to put Burgers on the grill for catcher Jhocsuanth Vargas – who was just called up from Hickory back on May 18th and had not logged a hit all season. He swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a dribbler up the third base line that Wall fielded on a slide, but by the time he gathered himself there was no play to be made as Vargas reached on a single and Cook scored standing up to walk it off.
Curtis got the win as well as a blown save to go to 1-1, finishing with 4 complete innings, 4 strikeouts, 5 walks, 2 hits, and just the 1 earned run. With the 2-1 victory, Hub City (22-20) took a 2-1 lead in the series and did manage to move into a tie with Rome for 2nd.
The series continues as the Burgers will have a shot to guarantee at least a split in the series on fireworks Friday. David Davalillo (2-0, 1.08 ERA) will face off against right hander Logan Samuels (0-0, 6.75) with first pitch set for 7:05 PM.
