(Story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
CHARLESTON, S.C.: The Augusta GreenJackets (5-2, 40-33) received home runs from Tanner Smith and Michael Martinez, but a big lead for the RiverDogs (4-3, 41-32) was too much to respond to and Augusta dropped the contest 7-4.
Charleston raced out to an early lead against Landon Beidelschies, who gave up a career-high eight hits in four innings that led to six runs. The Dogs jumped ahead in the 2nd on a two-run blast from Angel Mateo, and then parlayed five hits in the fourth into four more runs to hand Beidelschies his seventh loss of the year.
While the RiverDogs took their lead, Augusta was unable to put a man aboard against Aidan Cremarosa. After throwing a no-hitter last time he saw the Jackets, Cremarosa retired the first thirteen batters of the night before Smith ended the no-hitter and shutout bid at once with a towering solo homer. Cremarosa would walk the next man he saw, before leaving the game with the athletic trainer.
Augusta cut further into the lead on a two-run homer against Alvaro Mejias, before Mejias himself left the game due to injury. Charleston already has a league-high 18 men on the Injured List, and continue to see players drop like flies. The Jackets would bring the tying run to the plate in the inning, but Cesar De Jesus got a key strikeout to strand two.
Neither side got on the board again until the seventh, when Augusta loaded the bases against Jacob Hartlaub. With two outs, Alex Lodise poked a single to left that scored Cooper McMurray and looked like it would score Martinez as well, but Luis Guanipa was thrown out advancing to third before Martinez crossed home, negating the run and ending the inning.
Charleston responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning, and that would prove to be enough for the win. The Jackets failed to score against Jayden Voelker in the final two innings, as Voelker responded from allowing six runs in less than an inning on Wednesday to secure his second save of the season tonight.
Both Augusta and Charleston have now won two games this week, and both have won five of the ten games against the other so far this season. This week’s series has two games left, with the penultimate of those coming Saturday at 6:05. Jeremy Reyes makes his second start of the year for the GreenJackets, while Ethan Storm toes the rubber for the RiverDogs.
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