NORTH AUGUSTA The Augusta GreenJackets (27-29) suffered another tough defeat at the hands of the Salem Red Sox on Thursday night as a strong final three innings from Salem led them to another comeback win by a score of 10-5.
The Red Sox took the lead in the first inning on a ground ball off the bat of Roman Anthony that plated Brainier Bonaci to give Salem a 1-0 lead.
Augusta would come right back and tie the game in the second as Mahki Backstrom scored on a throwing error to third base by Salem Catch Daniel McElveny as he touched home as the tying run and make it a 1-1 game.
The visitors retook the lead in the fourth on a home run by Chase Meidroth to go back ahead 2-1.
But the GreenJackets broke through in the fourth as they took advantage of walks from Salem pitching as David McCabe gave Augusta their first lead on a two-run single to bring in Stephen Palini and E.J. Exposito, putting the GreenJackets in front 3-2.
They’d add on more in the inning as Igancio Alvarez scored on a wild pitch, followed by an RBI single by Justin Janas to give Augusta a 5-2 advantage after four.
The game would remain deadlocked at 5-2 until the seventh when the Red Sox began another comeback effort, started by Mikey Romero who tripled off the centerfield wall to score two runs, cutting the GreenJackets’ lead to 5-4.
In the eighth, Salem tied the game on a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Miller. Immediately following that walk, Luis Ravelo launched a grand slam over the left-center wall to give the Red Sox a sudden 9-5 edge.
The bats for Augusta were silenced by Salem pitching following their four-run fourth inning as they were unable to ignite comeback. The Red Sox tacked on one more run in the ninth on a wild pitch and their lead would hold serve as they completed another come-from-behind win to take game three, 10-5.
Reliever Bryan Lucas (1-1) earned the win for Salem with Rainiery Rodriguez (3-5) taking the loss for Augusta.
David McCabe was another main source of offense as he drove in two more runs on Thursday night with his fourth-inning single along with Justin Janas who collected his 11th RBI as a GreenJacket in that same inning to highlight Thursday’s top offensive performers.
Augusta will now look to even the series on Friday as Atlanta’s first-round pick, Owen Murphy makes his SRP Park debut against Angel Bastardo for the Red Sox with first pitch at 7:05 p.m.
