'Birds spoil Montas' White Sox debut

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (August 8, 2013) -- The Delmarva Shorebirds spoiled the White Sox debut for Francellis Montas, topping the Kannapolis Intimidators, 4-3, on Thursday at CMC-NorthEast Stadium.

Montas, whom the White Sox acquired last week as part of the deadline trade that sent Jake Peavy to the Red Sox, opened with three perfect innings, striking out three along the way. He got into trouble in the fourth as the Shorebirds took advantage of two walks while scoring a pair of runs on two hits to break a scoreless tie.

Delmarva's Adrian Marin led off the fifth inning with a home run (3), and Gregory Lorenzo singled and stole his way into scoring position before eventually scoring on a Lucas Herbst sac-fly for a 4-0 lead.

Montas (2-10) suffered the loss while Delmarva's starter Luc Rennie spun 7.0 innings and allowed one unearned run on seven hits for the win. Rennie (3-3) struck out five and walked two.

Kannapolis scored in the seventh inning when Kale Kiser singled and advanced to second base on an error. Nick Basto followed with a base hit to put the Intimidators on the board.

Trailing 4-1 entering the ninth inning, Brent Tanner drew a lead off walk -- one of three on the night to tie his career-high. Kiser then flew a ball to right field where Delmarva's Lucas Herbst dropped the out, setting up runners in scoring position and the tying run at the plate with no outs in the ninth inning.

Nick Basto and Jacob May added a pair of sac-flies to pull Kannapolis within one, but Sander Beck struck out Tim Anderson with the tying run on base to end the game.  

Beck earned the save (2) with 2.0 innings of relief.  

Basto went 1-for-3 with two RBI, while Kiser went 2-for-4 with two runs scored.

Kannapolis relievers Stew Brase and Storm Throne evenly split 4.0 scoreless, hitless innings.

The Intimidators and Shorebirds play Game 2 of this four-game series on Friday at CMC-NorthEast Stadium as LHP Jefferson Olacio (5-10, 5.06) takes the mound for Kannapolis against Delmarva's . For ticket and promotional information, fans can call the F&M Bank Box Office at (704) 932-3267 or visit intimidatorsbaseball.com.