Winston-Salem Warthogs Edge Salem Avalanche 4-3 - Adv A, Carolina League

MLN Newswire - www.mlntherawfeed.com - WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Warthogs closer Kanekoa Texeira induced a double play ball with a runner on first base and one out in the ninth inning to preserve Winston-Salem’s 4-3 win over the Salem Avalanche on Saturday night at Ernie Shore Field.  The Avalanche entered the ninth trailing by three runs, but reduced their deficit to one against an ineffective Matt Davis. Winston-Salem manager Tim Blackwell quickly pulled Davis in favor of Texeira, who garnered his fifth save of the season by recording the final three outs.

The two teams have split the first two games of this three-game series as the Warthogs bullpen was able to preserve the first win of the season for starting pitcher John Ely.  Ely (1-4) tossed six innings and limited Salem to one run on four hits without walking a batter and striking out five.  Ryan Rote tossed two shutout innings to preserve the lead before Salem made it interesting in the ninth.

The Warthogs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning off Salem starting pitcher David Qualben.  Paulo Orlando led off the inning with triple and scored on a single by John Shelby III.  Two batters later, Brandon Allen crushed the first pitch he saw from Qualben over the right field wall for a two-run home run.  Allen extended his season-high hitting streak to 11 with the blast.

Salem brought a run across in the fourth inning when Tim Torres singled and Jordan Parazz reach on an error.  Next, Mark Ori lined an RBI single up the middle to cut the Warthogs lead to 3-1.  Winston-Salem answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fourth when Orlando lifted an RBI sacrifice fly with the bases loaded that scored Lee Cruz.

Qualben (1-5) was pulled from the game with two outs in the fourth inning after he surrendered four runs on eight hits to take the loss.  He has dropped all four starts on the road this season.

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