Burgers Fall to Rome; Magic Number to One

Things took a turn for the worst in the race for the South Atlantic League postseason Friday night as the Burgers could not solve Rome’s Garrett Baumann. To compound problems, Dalton Pence and Mailon Felix got rocked, combining to give up 7 runs on 8 hits through 4 innings. Rome went on to win 8-4, with the Burgers’ runs all coming on an 8th inning grand slam from Casey Cook. To make matters even worse, the Greenville Drive erased a 3-1 deficit in the 9th inning to come back and beat Winston-Salem 7-5 in 10 innings, meaning the gap in the standings was cut to just half a game and the magic number to clinch for both teams was at 2 heading into Saturday night.

Hub City would try and change the fortunes with DJ McCarty (2-5, 4.95 ERA) going opposite righty Owen Murphy (2-0, 1.66). McCarty had to labor a bit through 4 innings of what would be shortened to a 7 frame affair thanks to a long weather delay forcing a 9:05 start time. He mustered his way through the first 2 innings unscathed despite the leadoff man reaching in both. First Baseman Cooper McMurray led off the 3rd with a solo shot into the home bullpen in right to give the Emperors a 1-0 lead. They threatened that same inning with 2 away following a single and a hit batsman, but got out of it when the lead runner overslid the bag at third on another single.

The Burgers had their best chance to do some damage in the bottom of the 1st. With one out, Dylan Dreiling and Malcolm Moore singled back to back and John Taylor drew a walk to load the bases. But, Gleider Figuereo flew out to shallow center and Maxton Martin lined to center to leave them on. From that point on, the Burgers mustered just 3 more base runners the rest of the way.

McCarty ended up leaving after 4 innings with a strikeout, 3 walks, 4 hits, and 1 earned run. He gave way to Case Matter, whose struggles of late continued. He beaned his first batter in the 5th and allowed the next to reach on a fielder’s choice where the throw to 2nd was wild into left field. But a strikeout and a 6-4-3 double play got him out of the inning. He had much worse luck in the 6th, walking the bases loaded, forcing a call to the bullpen for Victor Simeon. Rome tacked 2 more to Matter’s line with a 2 run single off Simeon from third baseman Keshawn Ogans to build up insurance they would not need in the end.

Simeon went the rest of the way to finish with 3 strikeouts, no walks, and no hits over an inning and two-thirds scoreless. But, the Burgers’ offense could not muster anything else, falling 3-0 to drop the series.

With the loss, their playoff fate rests on Winston-Salem beating Greeenville once and taking care of business to salvage the series finale tomorrow, which will start at 2:05 PM. Kolton Curtis (3-3, 5.43) will face off against left hander Jacob Kroeger (3-5, 2.03).