Courtesy The Augusta GreenJackets
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The opening road trip of the season for the Augusta GreenJackets continued into Myrtle Beach on Tuesday night and the opener of a six-game series needed 12 innings to decide a winner. Unfortunately, for Augusta, the GreenJackets were on the wrong side of another walk-off as the Pelicans bested them 2-1.
Pitching dominance was the main story in this game for both teams as GreenJackets’ starter Landon Leach pitched five shutout innings while his mound opponent Porter Hodge dealt four scoreless frames with 6 punch-outs.
The bullpens would carry the torch for the remained of the game as neither team could crack the scoreboard in regulation. The GreenJackets got there thanks to great work from James Acuña who recorded the next five outs and Luis Vargas took care of the rest in regulation to keep the Pelicans in check through nine innings.
Myrtle Beach kept Augusta off the board with Luis Angel Rodriguez, Jake Reidl, and Sheldon Reed who each covered two innings to get the game to extras still tied.
It was Sheldon Reed who kept the GreenJackets off the board in the 10th inning and Luis Vargas hoped to do the same for Augusta but the Pelicans quickly put the pressure on him by loading up the bases with nobody out. With pressure on and his back against the wall, Vargas delivered in a major way by striking out the next three Myrtle Beach hitters to keep the bases loaded and force an 11th inning.
Nothing would change in the 11th frame as Walker Powell stranded a GreenJacket baserunner at third, and Elison Joseph would keep a pair of Pelicans out on the basepaths in his season debut.
The stalemate was broken in the top of the 12th when Adam Zebrowski doubled down the left-field line to score Cal Conley, giving Augusta a 1-0 lead. The GreenJackets would load the bases with one out but Powell struck out the next two Augusta hitters to keep the deficit at one.
Myrtle Beach would quickly answer and then some as Yeison Santana doubled to start the inning, tying the game at one. And then with Santana as the winning run at 3rd, he would be driven in by Kevin Alcantara to walk it off for the Pelicans in their home-opener, 2-1.
The GreenJackets will look for a bounce-back on Wednesday when they square off with the Pelicans again at TicketReturn.com Field with Tyler Owens getting the start for Augusta, Luis Devers gets the ball for Myrtle Beach with first pitch slated for 7:05 p.m.
