After possibly one of the most disappointing offensive showings of the season led to opening the series with an 11th inning 2-1 loss to the Blue Rocks, Hub City looked to get back on track and even things up right hander Aidan Curry (2-1, 5.28 ERA).
Curry did not have his sharpest stuff out of the gate, twice having to work out of a 2 out jam with 2 runners aboard. In the first, Aidan issued back to back walks to shortstop Cortland Lawson and designated hitter Caleb Lomavita. But, a fly ball to left and a grounder to 1st quelled the threat. In the top of the 2nd, catcher Caleb Farmer drew a base on balls with 2 away only to be left on after Curry picked up his first strikeout of the game. The next inning, Lomavita and 1st baseman Branden Boisierre put together consecutive 2 out singles before Dorman alum and Spartanburg native TJ White flew out to center to kill the chance.
Aidan Curry would be on a short leash, departing after just 3 and two-thirds shutout innings with 3 strikeouts, 3 walks, and 2 hits, giving way to Joey Danielson, who finished the top of the 4th on one pitch – a line drive to left.
On a huge positive note, the Hub City offense wasted no time in ensuring that there would be no repeat of the struggle from last night, giving Curry some early run support. Arturo Disla worked a 1 out walk that was followed by back to back hits – a Gleider Figuereo single and an RBI double from Keith Jones II. Yeison Morrobel added on, grounding out to 2nd to plate Figuereo. Cal Stark capped the rally with a run-scoring double, later to become the third out of the inning at the plate when Quincy Scott singled to right and the RF threw a bullet to the dish.
Back to the story of the pitching.. Danielson returned to the hill for the 5th, and kept the trend of no Hub City arm managing to put together a clean inning. Unfortunately, he was the one that playing with fire finally burned. With 1 down, Lawson and Lomavita laced back to back doubles to the right field corner, cutting the deficit to 2. Joey managed to get out with no further damage in spite of a 2 out walk to White, striking out right fielder Teo Banks to leave 2 on.
The Spartanburgers added what should have been 2 huge insurance runs – one in the bottom of the 6th and the other in the 8th. Both came on solo home runs that were absolutely smashed. The first was from Cal Stark – launched onto the concourse behind Chaser’s Corner in left, landing just shy of the left field gate. Figuereo’s 8th inning 4-bagger was a towering moonshot that landed on the grassy hill behind the home bullpen in right.
In the top of the ninth inning, which Hub City entered with a 5-1 lead, the strike zone was hard to hit for Eric Loomis, who was tabbed with 4 earned runs – all without the benefit of a hit. Loomis walked 4 and did not record an out. After being taken down for Josh Mollerus, another walk added on. Josh gave up back to back sac flies, ultimately tying the game at 5. The Spartanburgers offense mustered a 2 out walk in the bottom of the frame from Luis Marquez. But pinch runner Theo Hardy would be left on when Wady Mendez threw his bat at the first pitch for an easy unassisted grounder to 1st.
For the 2nd consecutive night, the game went to extra innings, and this time, Wilmington took the lead in the top of the 10th. Banks led off with a single to out ghost runner TJ White on third, and he would score what ended up being the winning run on a 6-4-3 double play.
Mollerus ended up taking a tough luck 6-5 loss as well as a blown save as the bats failed to produce with the game ending on a loud fly out to center from Gleider Figuereo.
Hub City (30-29) will now have to scoreboard watch again to see if they maintained at least a tie with Greenville for 2nd place in the division before trying to break into the win column again in game three Thursday night. First pitch of the battle between Kolton Curtis (2-1, 5.19 ERA) and righty Travis Sykora (1-0, 1.38) is set for 6:35PM.
