Pelicans Take Control of Carolina League South with Win over GreenJackets

By Sam Weiderhaft

The hot streak continued for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans as they won the second game of the series over the Augusta GreenJackets 7-3 for their sixth win a row. With the win and Columbia’s loss, the Pelicans stand alone atop the Carolina League South division standings. The Pelicans now stand at 31-22 while the GreenJackets dropped to 26-27.

The bats were awake from the start as Juan Mora (3-5, HR, RBI) and Moises Ballesteros (2-4, HR, 2B, RBI, BB) both went deep in the first inning. Felix Stevens (1-4, HR, RBI) added a solo homer in the third inning for his second of the series. In his Pelicans’ debut, Jefferson Rojas (2-4, 2B, RBI) smashed a pair of doubles and brought one run in.

In his first start since being named Carolina League Pitcher of the Week, Michael Arias (1-4) grabbed his first win of the year with five shutout frames with just one hit allowed and five strikeouts. Saul Gonzalez took the save after striking out the two batters he faced to end the game.

Augusta was silenced until the ninth as E.J. Exposito (1-3, 2B, RBI, BB) brought in the first run with a double. Cory Acton (0-4, RBI) also drove home a run in the final frame. The GreenJackets racked up just four hits but walked eight times in the loss.

Starter Spencer Schwellenbach (2-2) took the loss with six earned runs across his 4 1/3 innings off seven hits and two walks. Schwellenbach also allowed three home runs after not allowing a single big fly in his first nine starts.

It was an explosive opening frame as Mora led off the game with a solo home run to right field. Two batters later, Ballesteros cranked his sixth home run of the year to left center as the Pelicans went up 2-0.

The next two innings saw the Birds score a run in each. With a runner on third base, Pedro Ramirez lifted a sacrifice fly to right field to score the run.

With two outs in the bottom of the third, Stevens blasted his ninth home run of the year to left center for a solo shot as Myrtle Beach extended their lead to 4-0.

A three-run fifth for the Pelicans broke things open in Augusta. With runners on the corners and two outs, Cristian Hernandez lined an RBI single to right. Rojas followed with a double on a line drive to left as both runs came in to score and the Pelicans extended their lead to 7-0.

The GreenJackets broke the shutout in the bottom of the ninth. With runners on first and second, Exposito hit a double to deep center field to plate the first run. Two more runs scored as Acton reached on a fielding error by Pedro Ramirez at second base to make it a 7-3 Birds’ lead. The following two batters struck out to end the game.

Game three of the series is set for Thursday night at 7:05 p.m.