Ninth Inning Rally Falls Short in Zebulon

While the Fayetteville Woodpeckers have had their fair share of big innings in 2019, their ninth inning rally fell short by just one run on Tuesday against the Carolina Mudcats. Trailing by four runs and down to their final out, Fayetteville put the pressure on by scoring three times and putting on a pair of baserunners, but Carolina was able to eventually lock down the 7-6 win.

As they have done in each of the two game before, Fayetteville got on the board early. A pair of leadoff baserunners to lead off the second inning both came home to score when Miguelangel Sierra laced a single to left field. The Woodpeckers tacked on another in the third inning by stringing together a trio of base hits, with the last, a single by Jake Adams, bringing in a third run.
Unfortunately for Fayetteville, Chad Donato could not hold on to the lead. After facing only seven batters through the first two innings, Donato (1-2) allowed a pair of doubles and singles, enough for Carolina to tie the game at three. Moving to the fourth inning, Carolina understood the need for more offense against the Woodpeckers. Allowing a pair of leadoff baserunners, Donato was forced to pitch against a wall before eventually surrendering a three-run home run to Ryan Aguilar.
Now trailing by three, the Fayetteville bats fell silent, working only two base hits over the following five frames against starter Nelson Rodriguez (2-0) and reliever Michael Petersen. Fayetteville reliever Joey Gonzalez fared well in his second outing at the full-season level. While the Stetson alum worked three innings with four strikeouts, he did allow his first run of the season, a solo home run by Mario Feliciano.
The score standing at 7-3, Fayetteville dropped their first two batters in the ninth inning and looked as if they could head home quickly, but on a full count, Brian De La Cruz hit a double to right-center field. That double set off a string of four straight base hits for Fayetteville, suddenly cutting the lead from four runs to only one. During the rally, Seth Beer collected his third double of the game to knock in a pair of runs, while Jake Adams sliced his third single of the game to left field for his second RBI. After a great performance yesterday, Adams has seven hits in his last eight at-bats. Following a hit batsman in Scott Manea, Adams represented a tying run in scoring position. Colton Shaver worked a full count to add the final piece of tension to the already lengthy inning but checked his swing too far on a pitch inside, striking out to end the game.
The Woodpeckers will be forced to turn their attention to their first morning game of the season. The rubber match of the three-game tilt will kick off at 11:00AM tomorrow to see who will take the first half of the home-and-home seven-game series. Yohan Ramirez will climb the hill for Fayetteville, still hunting for his first win of the season.