West Virginia Power Flex Their Muscles in 10-2 Victory
A night after Charleston RiverDogs starter Nick Green brought an outage to their bats, the West Virginia Power flexed their muscles Sunday afternoon, blasting four homers in a 10-2 victory over Charleston. Eduardo Vera combined with two relievers to hold the RiverDogs to just 3-hits, and both Albert Baur and Trae Arbet homered, scored 2-runs, and drove in two others.
Adonis Rosa started for Charleston but he would not get past the second inning. After the RiverDogs were held scoreless in the top of the first, the Power put up five in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to two home runs. With one down, Clark Eagan beat out a bunt for a single, and Albert Baur followed by drilling his first home run of the season over the left field wall to make it 2-0. Trae Arbet then reached on an error and Carlos Munoz followed with a single to put two on with one out. Next up was Brent Gibbs, who drilled his first homer of the year, a three-run shot that made it 5-0.
In the top of the second Charleston put up a little power of their own. Blake Rutherford led off the inning and hit his first home run of the season over the right-center field wall. That made the score 5-1.
West Virginia responded right away in the bottom half of the inning. Sandy Santos started the inning by drilling his fourth homer of the year over the left-center field wall to extend the lead back to five. Two batters later Clark Eagan singled and, with two down, Arbet homered to nearly the same spot as Santos for his sixth shot of the year. That made it 8-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, the West Virginia Power increased their lead to nine. Eagan walked with one out and moved to third when Baur doubled into left field. Munoz delivered a clutch two-out base hit, scoring both runners and it was 10-1.
Despite giving up the home run, Eduardo Vera (1-1) pitched brilliantly, going 5-innings, allowing just 2-hits and 1-earned run. He struck out 5. Matt Eckelman relieved in the sixth and would allow just one-hit in two innings of work. That hit was a solo home run by Isiah Gilliam, his third of the season. Matt Anderson pitched two perfect innings to finish off the game.
Albert Baur was 2-4 with a double, a homer and 2-RBI. He also scored 2-runs. Carlos Munoz was 2-4 with a run and 2-RBI, and Trae Albert was 1-4 with 2-runs, 2-RBI and a home run. Clark Eagan had 2-hits and 3-runs scored. Isiah Gilliam was 1-3 with a run scored, a homer, and an RBI for Charleston.
These two teams continue their series tomorrow at 7:05. Freicer Perez (0-2, 6.14) goes for Charleston against Blake Cederlind (2-0, 4.50).
By Robert Pannier
