If Thursday was the indicator, I was going to guess a weekend sweep!
Why, you ask? Well the 18-2 POUNDING Salem put on the Carolina Mudcats was the largest margin of victory to ever occur inside the gates of Salem Memorial Ballpark.
And if you weren’t able to make the game Thursday, you missed a great promo. Singles Night it was! From a speed dating section to auctioning off Red Sox workers, I think it’s safe to say love was in the air on Thursday.
Friday’s rain didn’t seem heavy enough to wash any of that love either. Salem prevailed 5-3 over Carolina. Though the Sox won by just two runs Friday, they made it clear that when opportunity knocks, they’ll grab it.
It was a three-run rally in the fourth inning and then a two-run rally in the sixth that outlasted the Mudcats’ three, single-run innings throughout the night.
Bringing in the runs for Salem on Friday were Tim Roberson (2), Aneury Tavarez (2) and Carson Blair with one. Tavarez had one of the more clutch RBI, though. There were two outs and Tavarez was behind in the count but he managed to dig in and secure the RBI, which quite possibly could’ve made all the difference just before the city of Salem was lit up with an array of fireworks.
Saturday and Sunday took a turn for the Sox. Though Carolina didn’t come anywhere close to matching the winning margin Salem put up on Thursday, Carolina did win big on Saturday; 11-3.
And if you went to the game, it didn’t seem like THAT huge of a win for Carolina. After all, heading into the seventh inning, the game was 4-3 in favor of Carolina. But, a monstrous eighth inning propelled the Mudcats to increase their win number to 15 on the season…the same number of losses Salem had going into Sunday.
Though I wasn’t able to make Sunday’s game (because, of course, I was taking care of my momma for Mother’s Day), there were plenty of hits to go around. Both teams combined for 25 hits but Salem fell again to Carolina 7-5. This gave the weekend series between the two Carolina League foes (Salem & Carolina) a stalemate ending, a 2-2 series split.
However, Salem will hit the road for three games in Wilmington and then will travel into the Mudcats’ stadium on Thursday for the weekend to play what-will-be a rematch of the four-game series played this past weekend.
The Sox are back in town on May 20 when they will see the Winston-Salem Dash on the diamond and later that week, the Potomac Nationals will stroll into Salem for a pivotal four-game series where Salem hopes to get back into the top spot in their division.
