Monday night in the final regular season home game at Salem Memorial Ballpark, Pat Light and Kyle Martin were both excellent on the hill as Salem completed its 4-game home stand against the Wilmington Blue Rocks by taking three of the four games.
Jantzen Witte had three hits and three RBIs while Matty Johnson reached base three times to extend his consecutive game on-base streak to 26.
The win kept Salem tied with Myrtle Beach in pursuit of the outright second-half title in the Carolina League’s Southern Division.
It was another late-inning surge Monday that securred the Sox win. Things were tied 1-1 in the seventh when Salem erupted for four runs to take a 5-1 lead. The two teams traded runs over the last two frames for the 6-2 Sox win.
Salem hit the road Tuesday for nine games in seven days to wrap up the regular season.. First is a 5-game set in Frederick that includes a doubleheader, followed by a 4-game trip to Wilmington to close out the regular season campaign. A second twin bill is on tap against the Blue Rocks.
Salem stood at 31-28 after Monday’s win, .001 ahead of Myrtle Beach’s 33-30 record. Carolina was 1.5 games back with Winston-Salem trailing by five games.
There’s a lot at stake in the final week. If Salem can take the second-half title, it will take on Myrtle Beach in a best-of-three-game series for the Southern Division championship and a trip to the Mills Cup final. In that scenario, the first game of the series would take place in Salem on Wednesday, September 3rd, followed by game two and three (if necessary) in Myrtle Beach.
If Salem finishes the second half in second place behind Myrtle Beach, but ahead of Carolina and Winston-Salem, Salem would play Myrtle Beach, with all games of the best-of-three taking place on the Grand Strand.
One bright spot involving the brutal road stretch to end the regular season is that Salem is 15-12 on the road in the second half, while Frederick has played a woeful 8-18 in the Keys home park, with Wilmington going 10-16 at home in the second half.
– Bill Turner
