Luis Cedeno and Nestor Cortes combined to shutout the West Virginia Power Tuesday night, and for the vast majority of the game that outing was needed, as the Charleston RiverDogs clung to a 1-0 lead for six innings, before finally blowing it open in the eighth to win 6-0. That gave the RiverDogs victories in the first two games of this series by a combined score of 16-2.

Cedeno, making his second start for Charleston, was absolutely brilliant. In the first inning he issued a walk and a wild pitch on a strike out allowed for two runners to reach base, but neither runner would get past first base.

In the bottom of the first, his teammates staked Cedeno to the early lead. Kyle Holder led off with a double and moved to third on a groundout two batters later. With two down, Monday night’s offensive hero, Connor Spencer, singled into left field to drive home Holder to make it 1-0.

That would be all the run support that Cedeno (1-1) would need on this night. The Power had no answer for him at all. He walked a batter in the second and hit one in the third, but that was all the base runners West Virginia could muster against the RiverDogs starter through the first four innings. In the fifth they finally got their first hit against him, a lead-off single by Ryan Nagle to start the inning.

Cedeno would be done after 6-innings. he would throw 79-pitches, 50 of which would be strikes. He allowed just the 1-hit and walked 2, while striking out 4. No runner ever reached into scoring position, and he never had more than one man on base at any time. It was an outstanding performance for the right-hander.

The great pitching did not end there, however. Left-hander Nestor Cortes came in and pitched just as well. The reliever allowed no hits and a lone walk in his three-innings of work for his first save of the season. He also struck out four, as Cortes and Cedeno combined to allow just one single in the ballgame.

The two pitched so well that the first inning run was all that they needed, but their offense gave them some cushion as the game went along. In the seventh the lead would be extended to two. Seth McGarry came in to relieve and gave up a one out single to Nathan Mikolas. Mikolas stole second and Kendall Coleman walked to put two on with one out. Eduardo Navas then reached on an error with Mikolas scoring on the play.

In the bottom of the eighth, Charleston blew the game wide open. With one out Spencer doubled to center field. Two batters later Gosuke Katoh walked to put two on with two outs. It was time for the big two out rally and that was what the RiverDogs would come up with. Mikolas walked and so did Coleman. Spencer scored on the walk to Coleman. A pitching change brought no real relief, as Eduardo Navas greeted Jess Amedee with a double that cleared the bases and it was 6-0. That would be the final score.

Two Charleston RiverDogs hitters had two hits apiece. They were Holder, who was 2-5 with a run scored, and Mikolas, who was 2-3 with 2 runs scored. Navas had the big 3-run double and Coleman scored a run, drove in one, and walked twice.

These two teams will finish their series tomorrow. Dario Agrazal (2-3, 3.00) goes for the West Virginia Power against Cody Carroll (2-1, 2.70) for the Charleston RiverDogs. The 7:05 start time is the only evening game in the South Atlantic League.

Boxscore

By Robert Pannier