RAMSEUR — Deep River tallied both its runs with clutch two-out hits in the early innings while southpaw reliever Mike Williams pitched his way out of a seventh-inning jam with two runners in scoring position and no outs as the Muddogs held on to nip the Carolina Coyotes 2-1 in a clash of Old North State League rivals last Wednesday night at I. Fletcher Craven Stadium.
Continuing a late-season surge which has seen Deep River win seven of its last eight contests, the Muddogs improved to 13-9-1 in the league standings, whereas Carolina lost its fourth straight outing while falling to 9-13.
Isaiah Ortega, the second of three Deep River hurlers, earned the victory after throwing two innings of one-hit ball while walking two and striking out a pair.
Left-hander Cade Culberson started on the mound for the Muddogs and went three innings, yielding one hit in addition to issuing three free passes and whiffing two.
Williams tossed the final two frames to collect a save, giving up two hits plus an unearned run while walking one and fanning three.
“Our pitching staff looked great tonight, allowing just four hits and no earned runs,” observed Deep River coach Michael Milian. “We were fortunate to get ahead early before we got away from good approaches at the plate later in the game, but two new additions to our team came up huge for us this evening. (Catcher) John Anthan drove in our first run with a two-out double in the first, while (pitcher) Mike Williams did a good job closing out the win.”
Hard-luck loser Adam Dossenbach went the distance on the hill for the Coyotes, surrendering four hits and a pair of earned runs besides walking five and striking out eight. The right-hander threw a total of 117 pitches, including 68 (58 percent) for strikes.
“This was a tough loss since Dossenbach definitely pitched well enough to deserve a win tonight,” remarked Carolina coach Riley Nelson. “After the first few innings he really locked in and became unhittable, while his mechanics on the mound resulted in him throwing harder as the game went on. But we couldn’t give him any support as we had a lot of bad swings at the plate, especially when we got people in scoring position.”
The Muddogs grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the top of the first when Clay Richardson and Jordan Cassell drew consecutive two-out walks before the former came in to score on Anthan’s double up the alley in right-center.
Deep River increased its lead to 2-0 in the visitors’ third as Easton Jones poked a one-out opposite-field single to right, stole second with two away and scored when Trevohn Jeffery lined a base hit to left.
After leaving runners in scoring position in both the fifth and sixth innings, the Coyotes mounted a threat in the bottom of the seventh as Connor Barrett coaxed a full-count leadoff walk and moved to second when Joe Carawan reached on an infield error.
Both runners then advanced on a passed ball, and one out later Tyler Myers plated Barrett with a groundout as Carawan went to third.
Cam Wells followed with a slow dribbler down the first base line that initially rolled foul, but then rolled back into fair territory just a few feet in front of the bag, where it was gathered in by Muddogs’ first baseman Trevohn Jeffery, who stepped on the base to record the final out.