(Story courtesy Augusta GreenJackets)
SALISBURY, MD: The Augusta GreenJackets ceded five runs in the third, and struck out a season-high 15 times as they lost to the Delmarva Shorebirds for the first time this week by a 7-2 final.
Augusta scored in the first inning for the third straight game, manufacturing a run despite three Ks from starter Kiefer Lord. Tate Southisene began the day by reaching on a dropped third strike, and took second base on a balk. Southisene made it to third on a Luis Guanipa single, and came home via a sacrifice fly from Nick Montgomery.
The Jackets doubled the lead in the second inning, again with a chaotic feel. Joe Olsavsky blooped a double off the glove of a diving Stiven Martinez in center field, his first extra base hit of the year. Junior Garcia advanced Olsavsky 90 feet with a single, and the pair executed a perfect two-out double steal to enable Olsavsky to sprint home ahead of the tag.
After the second, however, the GreenJacket bats went cold, and Delmarva’s offense came to life against Landon Beidelschies. The lefty went hitless through the first two frames, but unraveled in the third as the Birds sent nine men to the plate and scored five runs. Seven straight men reached after a leadoff groundout, including RBIs from Martinez, DJ Layton, Joshua Liranzo, and Edwin Amparo. Beidelschies was tagged for six hits and five runs, and his second pro loss in his season debut.
After the third inning, both offenses went relatively quiet, as Augusta mustered just one more hit in the final six frames. Lord left the game with the athletic trainer in the 4th after a career-high 10 Ks, and both Todd Kniebbe and Denton Biller were brilliant in relief. Kniebbe worked 1.2 hitless frames to get the win, and Biller picked up an 11-out save with three Ks.
The Shorebirds added on piece by piece, poking an insurance run across in the 4th against Cristobal Abreu before largely going quiet themselves. Luis Arestigueta was dazzling at the back end for the Jackets, working three hitless innings himself with six strikeouts as his velocity peaked at 95 and his slider was as brilliant as it has been in his GreenJackets career.
With their first win of the week now in hand, the Shorebirds look to equalize the series against the GreenJackets tomorrow night on the back of Brayan Orrantia, who will make his first start of the year after serving as a piggyback arm last week. He will face a tough counterpart in Augusta’s Ethan Bagwell, who threw six no-hit innings on Opening Night in a tough-luck no-decision. First pitch is at 7:05, on a night that should be much warmer than the first three of the week.
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