After struggling at the plate in a close 3-2 loss to open the series on Tuesday night, the Spartanburgers looked to take care of business themselves and shave at least a game off the magic number with a win on Wednesday.
Hub City (32-29, 63-63 overall) sent Aidan Curry (3-2, 4.25 ERA) to the bump opposite Rome right hander Luke Sinnard (2-3, 4.03). Curry battled his way through 3 and a third scoreless innings despite not having his sharpest stuff. He worked out of a jam in the first inning after a leadoff walk that was later erased on a fielder’s choice that was followed by a single to put men on the corners, but a fly ball to left got Curry out of the jam. In the 2nd, he walked DH Keshawn Ogans with one out, but struck out the next 2 to leave him on. The third saw another jam when Colby Jones reached on a fielding error that was charged to Curry and stole 2nd. However, back to back K’s retired the side.
On the other side of the coin, Sinnard held Hub City in check at the dish, allowing just 1 base runner through the first 2 innings – a leadoff walk to Gleider Figuereo in the 2nd – with 3 strikeouts along the way. The Spartanburgers finally got a hit off him in the 3rd when Antonis Macias singled with 1 away. He later stole 2nd, advanced to third on a deep fly out to center from Dylan Dreiling, and scored on a balk to give the Burgers a 1-0 lead heading to the 4th.
Curry departed after getting a groundout to short to start that inning, having struck out 5, walked 2, and held the Emperors off the board despite 2 hits. Aidan gave way to newcomer from Hickory Brock Porter, who struggled with his command, throwing 1 strike between his first 2 High A batters faced for back to back walks. But, Porter settled in nicely by striking out the next 2 to evade any damage.
Adrian Rodriguez came on to toss the 5th, and also walked his first batter – Colby Jones – who advanced on a wild pitch, later stole 3rd, and then scored the tying run on another wild pitch. Aside from all that, Rodriguez struck out the side, staked to a 1-1 tie midway through the Fortunately for Rodriguez, the Spartanburgers responded in loud fashion with 2 out in the ensuing half inning when Macias collected his 2nd hit in as many plate appearances and Dylan Dreiling followed with a 2 run blast into the visiting bullpen in right center, giving Hub City a 3-1 lead going to the 6th despite leaving Paxton Kling on 1st after a single.
Rodriguez would get one more inning of work, once again issuing a leadoff walk, this time to left fielder Logan Braunschweig. He tried to advance on a wild pitch, but was gunned out 2-6 on the ricochet. The next 2 went down in order for an unconventional three up three down inning, preserving the Burgers’ lead. Josh Sanders took over to start the 7th, working a 1-2-3 frame with 2 strikeouts.
Sanders came back out to start the 8th, but things turned on him quickly. He beaned Alex Lodise to start the frame, walked third baseman Cody Miller, and then gave up an RBI base hit to Center Fielder Isaiah Drake. Victor Simeon was brought in to try and escape the inning with no further damage after that, and promptly walked his first hitter on 4 pitches, but then struck out the next three to leave the bases loaded and preserve the lead.
Hub City added a big insurance run in the ensuing half inning after Figuereo was hit by a pitch. Casey Cook followed with a single and with 2 out, Ben Hartl delivered a knock into center to plate Figuereo to stretch the lead to 4-2 heading to the ninth.
Victor Simeon returned to the bump to try for a 2 inning save, and he got it in spite of a 2 out single from Alex Lodise with 2 more strikeouts, securing his 5th save of the season and trimming the Burgers’ magic number to 2.
They will try to keep chipping away at that number on Thursday night at 6:35 PM as Rangers’ #8 prospect Caden Scarborough (0-0, 0.00 ERA as a Burger) faces off against Herick Hernandez (3-6, 3.70).
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