Phillip Diehl Remains Undefeated as Charleston Downs Augusta, 4-2
Phillip Diehl had been a huge reason why the Charleston RiverDogs were able to weather some tough outings by the starting pitching staff early in the season. He had earned four wins out of the pen and had posted an outstanding 2.63 ERA. Sunday, the team turned to Diehl to start against the Augusta GreenJackets and he gave them a quality outing, yielding just 2-runs in 6-innings to lead the RiverDogs to the 4-2 victory, moving Diehl’s record to 5-0.
Neither team scored in the first but, in the second, Augusta took the lead. With one down, Jacob Heyward drilled a shot to straight away center field for his fifth homer of the year.
An inning later they would extend their lead to two. With two down, Ashford Fulmer doubled down the line in left. Sando Fabian was the next batter and he singled to right to score Fulmer to make it 2-0.
In the bottom half of the third, the Charleston RiverDogs responded with three-runs to take the lead. Ben Ruta started the rally with a base hit to right and he moved to second when Stephen Woods throw to first on a pickoff attempt went wild. Oswaldo Cabrera then walked and, two batters later, Estevan Florial singled to center to score Ruta and make it a one-run game. Florial would then steal second, his seventh steal of the season, putting both runners into scoring position. That brought Hoy Jun Park to the plate with two down, and he delivered a lined single into right that scored both runners to give Charleston the lead.
In the fifth, the RiverDogs tacked on one more run. It was the two-out rally once again that got it started. Cabrera doubled to left field to get the rally going, and Eduardo Navas followed with a double of his own to plate Cabrera and make it 4-2.
That was plenty enough run support for Phillip Diehl (5-0) and the Charleston bullpen on this evening. The RiverDogs starter went 6-innings, allowing 5-hits, 3-walks, and 2-runs, while striking out 7. He retired seven of the last eight batters he faced.
Christian Morris took over the seventh and tossed two perfect innings, striking out 3. Garrett Mundell closed out the ninth for his fourth save of the season, and gave the RiverDogs three victories in the four-game series with Augusta.
For the Charleston RiverDogs, the offense was led by Oswaldo Cabrera who was 1-2 with 2-runs, a double, and a walk. Estevan Florial followed up his 4-5 performance the day before, by going 2-3 with a run and an RBI. Ben Ruta was 2-3 with a run scored.
The Charleston RiverDogs head to Columbia tomorrow to take on Tim Tebow and the FireFlies. Freicer Perez (1-2, 5.20) goes for Charleston against Jordan Humphreys (6-1, 1.81). Game time is 7:05.
By Robert Pannier
