WILSON, N.C. - The Wilson Warbirds picked up their first win of the series against the Hill City Howlers by using small ball and capitalizing on five Howler errors to earn a 7-3 victory on Thursday night at Wilson Ballpark.
Dauri Fernandez opened the scoring for Hill City (20-16) with a home run to lead-off the game and start the Howlers up 1-0.
Wilson (16-20) quickly responded, scoring two runs on one wild pitch in the second inning. Hill City starter Joey Oakie (L, 0-2) fired a pitch past his catcher, Cannon Peebles, allowing Kevin Garcia to score from third. Oakie ran to cover home, but Peebles returned the favor, overthrowing him, giving Filippo Di Turi time to motor around third and put Wilson in front 2-1.
The Warbirds went back to work in the third. Handelfry Encarnacion drew a leadoff walk and raced to third on a Jose Anderson double to the left field wall. Encarnacion came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Frederi Montero to increase Wilson’s lead to 3-1.
The offense doubled in the fourth inning thanks to a Hill City mishap and an RBI double from Jadyn Fielder. Fielder came around to score on a fielder’s choice off Tyler Rodriguez’s bat. Rodriguez reached first on the play after an interference call while Fielder was charging home. Rodriguez scored as well on a wild pitch to stretch the Wilson advantage to 6-1.
Peebles launched a two-run home run to left field for Hill City to cut the lead in half at 6-3 in the sixth, but Wilson found insurance from Encarnacion, whose RBI walk plated Luis Lameda and saw Wilson’s lead grow to 7-3.
Andrew Healy (W, 1-0) earned his first professional win by throwing three innings and surrendering just two runs while striking out four. Eric Prado (S, 1) picked up his first save for the Warbirds.
Wilson and Hill City meet again Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at Wilson Ballpark. Enderson Mercado (0-2, 6.58) gets the ball for Wilson, while Hill City will trot out Jacob Zibin (0-0, 4.84). Fireworks will follow the game and tickets are available at WilsonWarbirds.com.