Buddy Bailey moves into 4th place on wins list as Pelicans win 7th-straight

MYRTLE BEACH, SC - Tuesday night was historic at Pelicans Ballpark as Myrtle Beach manager Buddy Bailey passed Johnny Lipon for the fourth-most wins all-time by a Minor League Baseball manager with his 2,186th victory. In his 33rd season, Bailey is already the winningest active manager in all of the minors and has collected another milestone. The Pelicans won the game 6-5 over the Charleston RiverDogs as Yohendrick Pinango scored on a throwing error in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.

For the first time this season, the Pelicans won a game in which they trailed by five runs as a three-run rally in the ninth fueled the Myrtle Beach comeback. The seventh consecutive victory puts the Pelicans over .500 for the first time since June 5th at 43-42. Charleston slips to 60-24 as their six-game winning streak was snapped.

The Birds turned seven hits into six runs as Pinango (1-4, 2B, 2 RBI) tied the game with a double in the ninth and later scored the winning run. Matt Warkentin (1-3, HR, 2 RBI) hit his fourth homer of the season in Tuesday’s win. Luis Verdugo (2-2) was the only Pelican with a multi-hit game.

The bullpen was spectacular as Jake Reindl (2-1) took the win after only throwing to one batter. Adam Laskey and Jose Almonte both combined to shut out the RiverDogs after Pelicans’ starter Didier Vargas gave up five earned runs off eight hits in his five innings of work.

Charleston collected 12 hits for the evening with Tanner Murray (3-4, 2 2B, RBI) hitting a pair of doubles in his RiverDogs debut. Alexander Ovalles (3-5, RBI) picked up three singles and Alika Williams (2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI) doubled twice in the defeat.

Andrew Gross (4-1) lost his first game of the season after allowing three runs to score in the ninth. The two earned runs were the first given up by Gross since July 14th. Charleston starter Ian Seymour had an incredible outing with 10 strikeouts through five hitless innings.

The RiverDogs jumped out to an early lead with three runs in the top of the second. Beau Brundage was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Ovalles singled to left field. Abiezel Ramirez game up and grounded into a force out at second for the first out, but Michael Berglund followed with a single to knock home Brundage for the game’s first run. Williams smashed a double to center field with runners on first and second, bringing home both runners and extended the lead to 3-0.

Charleston padded onto their lead with runs in the third and fifth innings. Murray hit a one-out double in the third inning and was hit home two batters later by Ovalles on a single. In the fifth, Diego Infante singled and advanced to second on a balk by Vargas. He would score on Murray’s second double of the game to make it a 5-0 RiverDogs advantage.

The Pelicans mounted their comeback with three runs in their half of the seventh. Jordan Nwogu cracked a single up the middle with one out and Pablo Aliendo followed by reaching base on a fielding error by Williams at short. Wetzel then rolled a ground ball into left field to score Nwogu and put the Birds on the board. With two runners on, Warkentin came up and crushed a 460-foot home run over the left-center field scoreboard to make it a 5-3 RiverDogs lead.

The bottom of the ninth started with Nwogu striking out but reaching first on a passed ball by Berglund. Aliendo followed with a double to deep center field as Nwogu stopped at third to put the tying run on second. Wetzel and Matt Mervis both flew out to Berglund behind the plate to make Pinango the last chance. On an 0-1 pitch, Pinango flared a ball to left field that scored both runs and tied the game 5-5. Ed Howard came up and watched the first pitch for a ball as Pinango broke for third. The throw from Berglund skipped into left field, allowing Pinango to score into a mob at the plate as Myrtle Beach walked off winners 6-5.

Game two between the Pelicans and the RiverDogs will be played on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.