After a huge series win in Greenville over the weekend, the team returned to Fifth Third Park for a 6-game set with the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Tuesday night’s series opener, not so coincidentally on Cinco de Mayo, marked another historic first for the franchise — the debut of the Guzanos de Mezcal del Burg, which is the club’s alternate identity as part of Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión.
Aidan Curry (1-1, 3.06 ERA) looked to continue the momentum of the Burgers’ 4-game win streak as well as his solid start in Greenville a week ago in which he gave up 2 earned runs on 5 hits with 4 strikeouts and 4 walks over 4 and a third innings. He would be opposed by Blue Rocks right hander Bryan Polanco (0-0, 7.13).
Curry ran into an immediate jam when he walked shortstop Devin Fitz-Gerald to start the game and followed it by issuing another base on balls to second baseman Ronny Cruz, who would later be hit in the face by an errant pickoff throw that allowed Fitz-Gerald to advance to third. Former South Carolina power hitter Ethan Petry made the error hurt as he got the Blue Rocks on the board first with a sacrifice fly to right. Curry rebounded with a strikeout, but the Gusanos trailed 1-0 before they ever came to the plate.
Hub City went down in order in the home half of the frame and once again Curry had to deal with some traffic on the base paths after scattering a pair of hits and a walk to load the sacks. But, he got out of it with a fly out to center, which allowed the Gusanos bats to give him some support.
Maxton Martin led off with a 434 foot blast to center that tied the game. Paxton Kling followed with a single and later came around to score on a 1 out double off the wall in left from Gleider Figuereo. With 2 away, Luke Hanson beat the rap at first for a fielder’s choice. Yeison Morrobel, who reached on a walk, was forced at 2nd on the play while Figuereo scored, giving Curry a 3-1 lead heading to the 3rd.
Aidan then turned in his first clean inning before the Gusanos offense put up a crooked number ath the plate. Arturo Disla and Rafe Perich drew consecutive walks to start the rally. After a couple of strikeouts, Malcolm Moore, Figuereo, and Morrobel strung together three straight run-scoring hits.
Moore and Figuereo singled home one each while Morrobel lined a double to right to plate two more. An error on the throw-in by the right fielder allowed Morrobel to get to third, but he would be left there as Hanson went down swinging to end the inning with Hub City up 7-1.
Curry would give two of those runs back after a leadoff walk to Dorman alum and Blue Rock left fielder TJ White when catcher Caleb Farmer lined a homer into Chaser’s Corner with one out. That resulted in a call to the bullpen for Luke Savage, who the inning compounded on.
Right fielder Teo Banks drew a walk and Fitz-Gerald grounded to 2nd. Carter Garate was looking for the force out, but could not come up with the ball, resulting in all hands being safe. Randal Diaz, who came into the game for Ronny Cruz in the first inning, singled to plate a third run. He later stole 2nd and advanced on a throwing error charged to Moore on the play that also scored Fritz-Gerald. A balk brought in Diaz to cap the rally, but the Gusanos’ lead was trimmed to just a run.
The score held at 7-6 until the 7th inning when Anthony Susac gave up a leadoff single to third baseman Angel Feliz and a 1 out no-doubter into the visitor bullpen from center Elijah Green. The Blue Rocks later blew the game wide open in the top of the 8th on an absolute implosion at the hands of Seth Clark and Kai Wynyard.
Clark threw 9 straight balls to start the inning as part of three straight free passes to load the bases. Randal Diaz was also walked to force home a run. That prompted a call to the bullpen, and Wynyard walked Feliz to force in another. Ethan Petry tallied a third on his 2nd RBI sacrifice fly of the night followed by an run-scoring knock from Green. One more would come across in the frame on a wild pitch, giving Wilmington a commanding 13-7 lead.
The Gusanos got one back in the ensuing half inning, cashing in a leadoff beaning of Moore and a single from Figuereo with a 1 out RBI single from Hanson. However, that would be all as Garate was rung up and Disla whiffed to end the inning.
Wilmington added on with 2 out in the top of the 9th on a 400 foot solo shot into the home bullpen from Fritz-Gerald, and in the end, the Gusanos were held to just 1 run on three hits over the last 6 innings. The two clubs combined for 22 runs on 20 hits and 6 errors. But, despite the mutual ugliness, the Gusanos fell 14-8 to snap the 4-game win streak.
The Spartanburgers (13-14) will look to rebound tomorrow night at 6:35 as Dalton Pence (0-1, 3.10 ERA) faces off against righty Josh Randall (2-1, 2.70).
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