Friday evening, Hub City’s offense put together their best offensive inning of the season, starting the fireworks early with an 8-run bottom of the 8th inning. That push was highlighted by a go-ahead grand slam from Gleider Figuereo and set the stage for Victor Simeon to finish off a 10-5 victory – the Spartanburgers’ third straight – securing no worse than a split in this 6-game series with the Winston-Salem Dash.
Saturday night, Mason Molina (2-4, 3.56 ERA) took to the bump for his second home start as a member of the Burgers, hoping that the offense could keep that momentum going and give him more than one run of support – which he got in the bottom of the first after retiring the side in order in the top half.
Anthony Gutierrez started with a leadoff single, followed by a knock from Malcolm Moore. After a passed ball gave both runners a free 90 feet, Gleider Figuereo notched his 6th RBI in his last 3 plate appearances with a grounder to 2nd. Dylan Dreiling kept the train chugging along with an RBI knock and Casey Cook put up the fourth hit of the frame to put men on the corners for Yeison Morrobel. But, those 2 runs were all the early damage Hub City could do as a fly ball to left and a tough luck comebacker hit 107 MPH off Winston-Salem pitcher Dylan Cumming’s thigh (3-4, 4.23) went for an inning-ending 1-3 putout.
Cumming settled in after that tough opening frame, allowing just one more base runner over his three innings of work on a leadoff single from John Taylor, who was later taken down on a 5-4-3 double play that ended the 2nd. On the other side, Molina did not allow a base runner until the top of the 4th, where he walked Samuel Zavala and Jackson Appel back to back with 2 out. He escaped by getting Arxy Hernandez to line out to center. In the 5th, he once again allowed the first 2 hitters to reach as Alec Makarewicz started by breaking up the no-hitter with a single followed by a Cole McConnell walk.
Molina came back with a strikeout of the day and a fly out to right, exiting after 4 and two-thirds innings of shutout ball with 5 strikeouts, 3 walks, and just the lone hit. Joey Danielson took over and 2 pitches later, Jeral Perez grounded out to 2nd to leave 2 on and preserve the 2-0 Spartanburgers lead.
Danielson came back out to try and notch a full inning in the top of the 6th, getting two quick strikeouts before running into some trouble. Consecutive singles from Appel and Hernandez followed by a walk to Makarewicz loaded the bases for McConnell, but Danielson came back with a swinging strikeout to retire the side.
Hub City gave some run support to Joey in the ensuing half inning, cashing in a leadoff single and fielding error that was coupled with a fielding error on the center fielder and a walk to Casey Cook. Arturo Disla came up with a 2 out RBI base hit on his third 100+ MPH piece of contact of the night to make it 3-0 in favor of the Burgers heading to the seventh. After Willian Bormie struck out the side, Figuereo struck again in the bottom of the frame with a 1 out three-run shot that narrowly snuck inside the right field foul pole, doubling the lead to 6-0.
Willian Bormie struck out 4 and walked just 1 in 2 shutout innings while Mailon Felix surrendered the game’s only run for the Dash on 2 hits sandwiched around a passed ball and an RBI fielder’s choice with a strikeout as Hub City went on to win their 4th straight and their first series since taking 4 from the Greenville Drive at Fifth Third Park in mid April.
With the win, the Spartanburgers moved to 8-6 in the 2nd half, and are now just a half game behind Bowling Green for first place in the SAL South Division standings. This series will wrap up with a chance to stretch the streak to 5 Sunday afternoon with a 2:05 first pitch as Jose Gonzalez (1-6, 3.14) is due to face a yet-to-be-named Winston-Salem starter.
