SALEM, Va. – The Salem BeerMongers (40-52, 15-12) held off a late rally from the Augusta GreenJackets (50-43, 15-12) to earn an 8-7 victory Thursday night at Carilion Clinic Field, securing back-to-back wins and holding on to first place in the Carolina League North Division.
After falling behind 1-0 in the third inning, Salem answered immediately. Franklin Primera roped an RBI double to tie the game before Kleyver Salazar followed with an RBI single to give the BeerMongers a 2-1 advantage.
Augusta briefly reclaimed the lead with a two-run fifth, but Salem responded with its biggest inning of the night. Salazar lined a one-out double, Avinson Pinto drove in another with a fielder's choice, and D'Angelo Ortiz capped the rally with a two-run single to put the BeerMongers back in front, 5-3.
The offense kept rolling in the sixth. After Augusta cut the deficit to one, Salazar crushed a two-run homer to left field, his ninth of the season, and second in as many nights to extend Salem's lead to 7-3.
Conor Essenburg answered with a solo home run for Augusta in the seventh, but Salem got the run right back when Justin Barry doubled and later scored on another RBI knock from Ortiz, making it 8-4.
The GreenJackets refused to go away. An RBI single by Joe Olsavsky trimmed the lead to 8-5 in the seventh before Augusta threaten in the ninth. Caden Merritt delivered a two-run triple to bring the GreenJackets within one, but Wuilliams Rodriguez entered from the bullpen and retired Luis Guanipa on a strikeout to earn his fourth save and preserve the 8-7 victory.
Augusta left the tying run on third base and the go-ahead run on first base.
Salazar led the BeerMongers offense with a perfect 3-for-3 night, finishing a triple shy of the cycle while driving in three runs and scoring twice. Primera added two hits and three runs scored, Ortiz finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and Pinto collected two hits and crossed the plate twice.
Jason Gilman struck out six over 4.1 innings in his start, earning a no-decision, while Joey Gartrell (2-1) earned the win after allowing two runs across 2.1 innings of relief. Harry Blum bridged the game into the ninth before Rodriguez recorded the final out for the save.
Salem has now won two straight games, four games of the six on the homestand and with the win hold onto a half game lead in first place of the North Divison.
The RidgeYaks will look to secure a share of the series on Friday night as they continue their six-game set against Augusta at Carilion Clinic Field. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. on Christmas in July as 18-year old, top-20 prospect, Sadbiel Delzine makes his highly anticipated Single-A debut for Salem.
Game Notes:
- Salem has now won four of their last five games and 11 of their last 16 games
- Kleyver Salazar hit his nine home run of the season and his second home run in the last two games
- Salazar leads the Carolina League with a .529 batting average (18-for-34) over his last nine games since July 6, in that stretch, the catcher has seen 15 RBI, seven extra base hits and a league leading 1.522 OPS over that stretch
- Salazar is hitting .769 over his last four games with 10 RBI and a 2.582 OPS since Sunday
- Salem has now homered in ten straight ballgames since July 9 and has seen 24 total home runs over their last 18 games since June 30
- The 10 game home run streak is the longest for Salem since an 11-game home run streak in June of 2022 and just the second longest streak for Salem since 2004
- Since July 2, Salem has won 11 of their last 16 games played, the Yaks leads the Carolina League since that stretch with a .299 average, 120 runs (leads Single-A), 168 hits (leads Single-A), and 67 extra-base hits over their last 16
- Franklin Primera went 2-for-3 and his now hitting .467 (7-for-15) over four games on the homestand with a 1.446 OPS
- Avinson Pinto went 2-for-4 to extend his on-base streak to 17 games since June 23, Pinto needs one more game to tie Andruw Musett for the longest on-base streak by any RidgeYak this season
- Justin Barry also ripped a seventh inning double to extend his hitting streak to a season long seven games since July 5
- Jason Gilman went 4.1 innings with six strikeouts, over the 27 games of the second half, Salem is 7-2 when any pitcher goes more than four innings in a game
- Harry Blum picked up his fourth hold of the season
- Wuilliams Rodriguez has now saved four games this season matching his save total from the first three years of his career combined
- Salem now moves to 9-6 in Thursday games
- Salem leads the Carolina League North Division with a 0.5 game lead over the Fayetteville Woodpeckers
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