HOLLY SPRINGS, NC- The Holly Springs Salamanders walked-off for the first time this season against the Wilmington Sharks to win 7-6 on a late Friday night at Ting Stadium. A three-run blast from Marek Chlup pushed the Salamanders over the Sharks in the 10th inning.
Holly Springs got the scoring started in the fourth inning. Cody Muncy was able drive in Chlup for the first run of the contest on an RBI single to right field. The first baseman Baxter Halligan extend the lead with a two-run shot over the concreate wall in right field to put the ‘Manders up 3-0 through four complete innings.
The Sharks would grab one back however, on a lead off home run from Alec Makarewicz to begin the inning. Holly Springs Catcher would throw out a runner at third from his Knees later in the inning to end the Sharks threat in the fourth.
The offense slowed down for the rest of regulation for the Salamanders, as they did not record a hit in innings six through nine. The Sharks were able to bite away at the lead one run at a time.
Trotter Harlan would score on a Taber Mongero RBI single to cut the lead to 3-2, and in the ninth, Makarewicz would send a no-doubter home run out of the yard to tie the game at 3-3. The Salamanders could not get a run home in the ninth, so for the second straight game, the Sharks and Salamanders would go to extra innings.
The Sharks, would score three in extra innings, giving Wilmington their first lead of the game.
In the bottom half of the 10th Caleb Denny would single into right to drive in the extra base runner. With runners on first and third, Chlup dug into the batters box representing the go-ahead run. Battling through his at-bat, fouling off multiple pitches, Chlup served one up over the scoreboard in left field to send everybody home. Salamanders walked-off for the first time this season and improve to 12-8.
The winning pitcher was Alex Barker (1-0), and the loss was tagged to Tyler Strickland (0-1). The Salamanders return to Ting Stadium tomorrow night for the final face-off against the Wilson Tobs in the first half of the CPL season. You can catch the action all season long on flobaseball.tv