ZEBULON, N.C. - Salem's Matthew Kent spun seven solid frames while leading the visiting Red Sox to a series opening 5-1 victory against the Mudcats at Five County Stadium on Tuesday night. The Carolina loss snapped a four game winning streak and came in front of a sellout crowd of
ZEBULON, N.C. - Salem's Matthew Kent spun seven solid frames while leading the visiting Red Sox to a series opening 5-1 victory against the Mudcats at Five County Stadium on Tuesday night. The Carolina loss snapped a four game winning streak and came in front of a sellout crowd of 6,959 on the Fourth of July in Zebulon.
Kent (6-3, 4.08) allowed three hits and a run in the first, but went on to hold Carolina to just four hits overall while leading the Red Sox (8-5, 48-34) to the road victory. Kent struck out six, walked one and allowed just one run in the game.
Trey Supak started for Carolina (8-5, 44-37) and lost a 1-0 first inning lead after giving up two runs in the second and later allowing a home run to Jose Sermo to start the Salem sixth. The Red Sox scored three runs in all in the sixth, with two of three allowed in by reliever Quintin Torres-Costa who had taken over for Supak with two men on in the inning.
In all, Supak (1-3, 6.94) allowed five runs on nine hits over five and 1/3 innings pitched and took the loss. His home run allowed to Sermo in the sixth stretched his streak of consecutive games with a home run allowed to six.
Torres-Costa allowed one of his two inherited runners to score on a wild pitch and the other on a RBI single in the sixth. He, however, then went on to work through next two frames scoreless before leaving the game. Torres-Costa struck out four and allowed three hits over two and 2/3 innings for the Mudcats. Scott Grist later worked a scoreless ninth and struck out two.
Carolina's lone run of the game was brought across on a sacrifice fly from Jake Gatewood in the first off Kent. The Mudcats had three hits in the opening frame, including a one-out double from Troy Stokes Jr. Stokes went on to move to third on a single from Lucas Erceg and then scored on Gatewood's fly-out to center.
Isan Díaz also had a hit for the Mudcats in the first and was 1-for-3 with a walk. Erceg was 1-for-4 and Stokes was 1-for-3. Gatewood also had a double later in the game, but also struck out with the bases loaded in the eighth after relievers Daniel McGrath and Adam Lau had taken over out of the bullpen for Kent.
McGrath walked the bags full and left with two outs in the eighth before eventually giving way to Lau (4) who went on to strikeout Gatewood to end the threat. Lau also worked a scoreless ninth and earned the save.
Victor Acosta led the way for the Red Sox after going 3-for-3 with two RBIs in his Salem debut. He had run scoring hits in the first and sixth for the Red Sox and also walked once. Sermo scored twice and hit his sixth homer of the season. Jordan Betts and Jeremy Rivera both had multi-hit games as well for Red Sox after they both went 2-for-5 in the game.
UP NEXT: The series will continue on Wednesday night with the first pitch scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at Five County Stadium in Zebulon. Cody Ponce (7-5, 3.43) will have the start for the Mudcats in game two of the three game series on Wednesday night. The game will air on the Mudcats Radio Network, The Big Dawg 98.5 FM and online at carolinamudcats.com via TuneIn Radio. It will also stream via live video on MiLB.tv.
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