Down East wins, evens series with River Dogs

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Down East Wood Ducks stormed to the lead moments into the ballgame on Wednesday night at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park and held on for the remainder of the game, evening the series with a 7-5 win over the Charleston RiverDogs.

Starting pitcher Santiago Suarez departed the game in the fifth inning after being hit in the leg with a 105-mph line drive off the bat of Marcus Smith. The RiverDogs left 10 men on the bases to send a crowd of 2,813 home disappointed.

The Wood Ducks (21-19) jumped on Suarez quickly at the outset of the contest. The first three batters to step into the box delivered line-drive singles to load the bases. The right-hander rebounded to strike out Arturo Disla. Marcus Smith worked a four-pitch walk in the next at-bat to force in the first run of the night. Julian Brock and Marcos Torres followed with back-to-back two-run doubles and the lead ballooned to 5-0.

The lead grew larger in the fourth frame. Wady Mendez tripled to deep center field with one out and scored moments later on a base hit from Chandler Pollard. In the bottom of the same inning, the RiverDogs (18-22) reached the board on a leadoff home run to the opposite field by Woo Shin. The next three hitters each worked a walk from starter Brayan Mendoza, forcing him from the game. Carlos Colmenarez bounced into a fielder’s choice groundout to make it 6-2 and Cristopher Barete worked a walk from Bryan Magdaleno to reload the bags for the top of the lineup. Odalys Peguero bounced into a double play to end the inning without further damage.

The 6-2 margin stayed in place until the bottom of the eighth. The frame started with singles from Shin and Raudelis Martinez, forcing another move to the bullpen. Ricardo Gonzalez cut the deficit to 6-4 with a two-run single to center off Case Matter. He would come around to score when Colmenarez hit a groundball to short that led to a fielding error and throwing error on Echedry Vargas.

Down East added a big insurance run without the help of a hit in the top of the ninth. Dalton Fowler walked Pollard with one out and watched him steal both second and third bases. On the steal of third, Martinez’s throw from behind the plate caromed into left field and allowed Pollard to cross the plate. The RiverDogs brought the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, but Angel Mateo struck out to end the game.

Eight of the nine hitters in the Wood Ducks batting order registered at least one hit. Vargas went 3-5 from the top spot and Gleider Figuereo added two hits. The RiverDogs received two hits from Shin and Colmenarez, finishing with seven total.

Suarez took the loss after allowing six runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings. Adam Boucher was solid as the first man out of the bullpen, spinning 2.1 scoreless innings. Fowler allowed just the unearned run in 2.0 innings to close the game.

The teams will continue the six-game series on Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. RHP T.J. Nichols (1-4, 4.76) will work on the bump for the RiverDogs against Down East RHP Paul Bonzagni (1-0, 1.66). $1 beers will be available throughout the park on a Budweiser Thirsty Thursday.

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