Pabon’s Walk-Off Sacrifice Fly Lifts Pelicans to 7-6 Victory over Red Sox

By Sam Weiderhaft

For the second time this season, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans walked off winners with a 7-6 win on Thursday night over the Salem Red Sox in 10 innings. Miguel Pabon’s sacrifice fly plated the winning run. The win gives the Pelicans a 26-22 record and they sit just two games back of first place in the Carolina League South. Salem dropped to 22-24 with the loss.

The bats woke up following last night’s shutout as the Birds collected 10 hits including solo home runs from Andy Garriola (2-5, HR, RBI) and Felix Stevens (1-5, HR, RBI). Pabon’s (0-3, RBI) sacrifice fly pushed the Pelicans to the one-run victory. Juan Mora (1-3, RBI, BB) brought home a run on a sacrifice fly and later scored on the same play to tie the game.

It was a battle of the bullpens as Johzan Oquendo (5-1) took the win after throwing the final 1 2/3 innings with no earned runs, despite throwing two wild pitches. Starter Marino Santy lasted just shy of four frames with three earned runs. The Pelicans' pitching staff walked 10 batters in the win.

11 of the 12 Salem hits were singles as the Red Sox were led by Enderso Lira (3-5, 3 RBI) with three hits and three runs driven in. Luis Ravelo (3-5) scored two runs while also smashing three singles. Salem left 13 runners on base.

Jonathan Brand (2-1) allowed the final run to cross to take the loss after pitching the 20^th inning. Gabriel Jackson sacrificed two runs in the eighth and ninth innings to let the Pelicans take the lead and tie it back up later.

Both teams opened their scoring in the second inning. With runners on second and third for Salem, Lira lined a two-run single to right to put the Red Sox in front first.

Garriola responded as the first batter of the bottom half by lifting a solo home run on top of the bleachers in left field to make it a 2-1 deficit. It was his fifth home run of the year.

Salem pulled away with a run in the fourth and fifth innings. Lira came up again with a runner on third and grounded a single up the middle for his third RBI of the night.

With runners on first and second in the top of the fifth, Ahbram Liendo lined a single up the middle to plate the runner from second for a 4-1 lead.

The Pelicans responded in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. With runners on second and third, Reivaj Garcia lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Pabon from third. Mora followed with a fly ball to right-center field that hit off Allan Castro’s glove and bounded on the dirt as the first run scored. The throw to third went wild and out of play as Mora came all the way around to score the tying run and made it a 4-4 game.

That score stayed until the bottom of the eighth when Stevens crushed the first pitch of his at-bat to left-center for a solo home run with two outs to give the Pelicans a 5-4 lead. It was his team-leading seventh of the season.

Luis Rujano continued his relief outing as he came out in the top of the ninth and struck out the first batter of the inning. After a walk and a wild pitch, Ravelo hit an infield single to Yeison Santana at second. Santana attempted a throw to first that went wide as the runner scored to tie the game. Oquendo then took the mound and threw two wild pitches to plate Ravelo as the Red Sox reclaimed the lead 6-5.

The Pelicans continued their battle and tied the game in the ninth. Moises Ballesteros grounded a single down the third-base line as the runner from second scored for a 6-6 tie.

After Salem left the bases loaded in their half of the 10^th, the Myrtle Beach capitalized in the bottom half. With runners on first and second, Santana dropped a sacrifice bunt to move both runners to scoring position. Pabon ended it on a sacrifice fly to right-center as Stevens scored the winning run.

The series continues on Friday night as the Pelicans and Red Sox square off for game four at 7:05 p.m.