After 2 hard-fought victories on the road at Winston-Salem in the first three games of the series, the Hub City Spartanburgers (6-6) returned to Fifth Third Park to celebrate America’s birthday with a weekend full of fireworks, food, baseball, and fun.
Trying to stretch the winning streak to 3 games in the 4th contest of this split 6-game set on Friday night, Dalton Pence (4-1, 3.83 ERA) took to the hill opposite Dash righty Jake Bockenstedt (4-6, 5.48). Pence, who has never gone more than 3 innings in a start for Hub City, kept that trend alive. He worked out of trouble twice– runners on the corners with 2 out in the top of the first and a bases loaded 2 out jam in the third.
He struck out 4, walked 2, and gave up 4 hits in three shutout innings before giving way to DJ McCarty, who also escaped a jam with the sacks full and 2 away in the 4th. But, as the adage goes and we have seen so many times this season, when you play with fire you eventually get burned.
Bockenstedt mowed down the Hub City bats like a weedeater to tall grass, efficiently retiring 12 straight to start the game with 5 strikeouts. That was rewarded in the top of the 5th when each of the first three batters singled off McCarty, the third of which scored Samuel Zavala to break the goose egg. That was followed by an RBI groundout, and after a 1 out single from Juan Gonzalez, Terrell Tatum reached on a fielder’s choice to add on, making for a 3-0 deficit to overcome – a significant challenge when a pitcher is as on point as Bockenstedt was.
After McCarty wiggled out of another tight spot with runners on the corners and 1 out in the top of the 6th, the offense finally broke the perfect game up with a 1 out base hit from John Taylor followed by Quincy Scott II reaching on a fielding error on the 3rd baseman. After Casey Cook went down swinging, the Burgers broke their goose egg with an opposite field single through the left side from Malcolm Moore. Gleider Figuereo kept the train going with an RBI knock, taking 2nd on the throw home to put 2 in scoring position for Dylan Dreiling. But that was all the damage that could be done as Dreiling struck out to end the inning, sending the game to the 7th with Winston-Salem up 3-2.
McCarty ended up pushing his way through one more inning, in the end departing after 4 frames with 5 strikeouts and a walk to go with his 3 earned on 6 hits. Anthony Susac took over to start the 8th, and unfortunately for Hub City, he could not find the zone, walking each of the first four batters of the inning to extend the lead to 4-2 and forcing Chad Comer to go deeper into the bullpen, opting to go with Seth Clark.
A 4-3 double play and a strikeout got Hub City out of the inning with just 1 more run allowed, making for a 5-2 hole heading to the bottom of the 8th – a fateful half inning that would go down as the best in Spartanburgers’ history as far as offensive production goes. Hub City batted around, sending 12 to the dish while hanging an 8-spot that was highlighted by a go-ahead grand slam from Gleider Figuereo – upping his RBI total on the night to a team-high 5 and putting the Burgers up 10-5 heading to the ninth.
Victor Simeon came on for the 2nd time in as many nights to finish the game. He issued a leadoff walk to Matt Hogan, but struck out 2 of the next three to secure the Spartanburgers’ third straight win and no worse than a split in this series, which continues tomorrow night at 6:35 as Mason Molina (0-1, 2.00) faces against a yet-to-be-named pitcher for the Dash.
