(Story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
SALEM, VA: Hayden Friese’s solo home run was the 108th of Augusta’s season, snapping the record set by the 2022 squad for most home runs in a season as the Augusta GreenJackets (16-13, 51-44) scored six runs in the 9th and 10th innings to shock the Salem RidgeYaks (16-13, 41-53) with a 6-3 comeback win.
Despite entering the game needing just one home run for history, the GreenJackets were held not just without a homer, but without a run for eight innings. Jose Bello kept the Jackets scoreless through five in his best start of the year, before Ethan Walker and Luis Cohen worked in tandem to keep the shutout intact for three more frames.
Though Augusta was scoreless through eight, the Jackets remained within striking distance due to a gritty performance from Derek Vartanian. Vartanian scattered eight hits, but allowed just three runs (two earned) in six innings to post his sixth quality start of the season. Styven Paez followed with a pair of zeroes himself, and the Jackets entered the ninth trailing by three.
Friese’s historic homer led off the ninth against Cohen, breaking the record and the shutout bid in one mammoth swing. But the Jackets were not content with a moral victory, and three batters later, Conor Essenburg unleashed a towering two-run blast that tied the game. Cohen escaped without surrendering the lead, but Daniel Brooks retired the RidgeYaks in order in the bottom of the ninth to force extras.
It was not home runs that won the day in extras, but Augusta consistently passed the baton in the top of the tenth to find victory. The Jackets loaded the bases with one out against Jay Allmer with a walk and catcher’s interference, and it was Luis Guanipa who played hero, smacking a two-run single off the legs of Allmer for the lead. Essenburg followed with an RBI single of his own, and the three-run cushion was too much for Salem to overcome as the GreenJackets completed one of their most dramatic comeback wins of the 2026 season.
Saturday’s win erased a three-game losing streak for Augusta, and gave the team the chance to salvage a series split in tomorrow’s series finale. It will be Carter Holton who gets the ball, fresh off of six scoreless innings last week in Fayetteville. Following the Sunday matinee, the GreenJackets will finally return home to SRP Park, where they will prepare to host the Columbia Fireflies next week in a six-game series.
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