Altmann's Two Homers Not Enough in Loss to Mudcats

ZEBULON, NC - The Wood Ducks could not make another ninth inning comeback against the Mudcats in a 9-6 defeat on Friday night. Josh Altmann hit two homers for the first time in his career and Anderson Tejeda added three hits in the loss.
Down East opened the scoring in the first thanks to a wacky pickle between first and second with Tejeda caught in the middle. An errant throw to second allowed Leody Taveras to score from first. But in the bottom half of the inning, the Mudcats tied it up on a Keston Hiura homer.

The Woodies didn't back down in the second thanks to Altmann's two-run shot to left. It was his third career home run at Five County Stadium and put the Woodies back in front, 3-1.
Carolina took the lead in the third 4-3, but Alex Kowalczyk and Brendon Davis both reached on hits to lead off the fourth. Kowalczyk scored on a ground out from Matt Whatley to tie the game back up at four.
The Mudcats would not look back after scoring a pair in the bottom of the fourth to lead 6-4. Altmann's second homer came in the sixth inning of Miguel Sanchez to give the Woodies a one-run deficit in the final three frames.
Jairo Beras also tossed a career-high two and two-thirds out of the bullpen and he was scoreless with three strikeouts.
Three runs in the bottom of the eighth tempered a chance at a comeback, down 9-5 in the ninth. The Woodies could not repeat last Friday's ninth inning comeback back at Grainger Stadium as they dropped the contest 9-6 after an RBI groundout from Leody Taveras.
Down East drops back-to-back games but looks to even the series on Saturday with Walker Weickel on the mound. He will face Trey Supak at 5:00 p.m. with pregame coverage starting at 4:45 with Dominic Cotroneo on Sports/Talk 960 The Bull, WRNS-AM 960.