NORTH AUGUSTA, SC: The top offense in the Carolina League had no answer for Augusta’s pitching staff, as Kendy Richard, Samuel Mejia, and Trent Buchanan combined for 16 strikeouts and just 3 hits allowed in a 3-0 shutout win.
Richard got the game going on the mound in his GreenJackets debut, fresh off a season where he lit up the Florida Complex League with a 1.81 ERA.
Richard jumped into Single-A play with confidence, and navigated slightly shaky command to hold Carolina at bay. The Mudcats put a man on in each inning, but Richard totaled a career-high nine strikeouts, the most by a pitcher in their GreenJackets debut since joining the Braves’ organization.
Despite the strikeouts, Richard would not make it past the fourth inning, as he walked three of five hitters in the inning and departed with the bases loaded in a scoreless game.
Mejia emerged from the bullpen, and forced leadoff man Josh Adamczewski to pop out to left to negate the threat.
With the Mudcat rally stopped, Augusta’s offense turned around and took the lead in the bottom half of the inning against Wande Torres.
Eric Hartman began the inning with a single, then took second on a groundout from Owen Carey. Hartman swiped third base, and Juan Mateo shot a ground ball past the drawn-in infield for the opening run.
Now operating with a lead, Mejia was thrillingly impressive in his work against Carolina. The right-hander allowed just one hit in 3.1 innings, mixing in four strikeouts of his own and picking up his 4th win of the year for his efforts.
Augusta doubled the lead in the bottom of the 6th, a highly helpful insurance run on Mateo’s second RBI single of the night.
Augusta entrusted the final two frames to Trent Buchanan, and he emphatically announced his presence in the 8th with a pair of Ks in a 1-2-3 frame.
The Jackets tacked on one more time in the bottom half, as Nick Montgomery cracked a two-out, two-strike single to center to score Mateo, who had previously picked up his third hit of the day, the first time he has done so in Augusta.
Buchanan had no difficulties in the ninth, securing his second save of the season and handing Augusta its second nine-inning shutout of the season.
Both shutouts have come in the team’s last seven games, with the first coming last Wednesday in Hickory. Offensively, Augusta now has totaled ten hits or more in five of its last nine games, and has won all five of them.
Augusta will look for its third straight win of the week Friday night, Aug. 1, as they face one of Carolina’s top right-handers in Bryce Meccage.
After being pushed back from his start originally thought to be July 31, Jeremy Reyes will toe the slab Aug. 1, with Jacob Shafer set to piggyback behind him.
