Kinston's Rodriguez evens series with Salem
After dropping the opener, 10-3, on Wednesday, the Indians got even in the best-of-3 series when Rodriguez blasted an offering from reliever Raymar Diaz (0-1) over the left-field wall to force a decisive game on Friday.
"Our team was excited," said Indians manager Mike Sarbaugh. "It was a lot of fun."
Rodriguez, who hit four of his 20 regular-season home runs against Salem, had gone hitless in his first three at-bats against Avalanche starter Polin Trinidad.
Kinston starter Frank Herrmann helped Kinston stave off elimination by yielding six hits and striking out five without issuing a walk over seven innings.
"He commanded his fastball on both sides of the plate and mixed in his off-speed pitches to keep them off balance," Sarbaugh said of Herrmann.
Erik Stiller (1-0) allowed one hit and struck out two in the final two frames to pick up the win.
Indians center fielder Jose Costanza went 0-for-3, but helped keep Salem off the board with his defense. He gunned down Cesar Quintero at the plate to end the fifth and opened the ninth with a diving catch to rob Mark Ori of a potential extra-base hit.
Trinidad gave up only three hits and struck out seven without a walk over seven innings before Diaz surrendered a run on one hit and with two strikeouts in 1 1/3 frames.
Wes Hodges, Armando Camacaro and Brian Finegan collected Kinston's hits off Trinidad.
"We knew we had to stay focused tonight to stay in the series," said Sarbaugh.
Wladimir Sutil went 2-for-4 for the Avalanche, who outhit the Indians, 7-4.
Zack Hample is a contributor to MLB.com.