(HOLLY SPRINGS, N.C.) After Friday’s walk-off loss at Fayetteville, the Salamanders were losers of five straight games. It seemed that with two outs in the bottom of the sixth of Saturday’s game, they said enough was enough.

Holly Springs got on the board in the bottom of the first inning. The leadoff man Daulton Martin (Tusculum) singled to center to lead off the game for the Manders. He would advance to second and third on two seperate groundouts and came in to score on a wild pitch by Logan Jarosz, Asheboro’s starting pitcher.

Asheboro took a 2-1 lead after plating runs in the third and fourth ininngs. The Copperheads stratched one across in the third, when center fielder Ethan Harrison singled to center to lead off the inning. After advancing to second on a wild pitch and stealing third base, Harrison scored when a Christian Scafidi (Penn) fastball went off catcher Ryan Orr’s (San Diego State) mitt and back to the backstop.

Asheboro took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when designated hitter Kirby Lambert doubled with two outs and was driven in on an RBI knock from shortstop Caleb Webster, a one-hop liner that  just got over the glove of Salamanders shortstop Cam Locklear (Liberty). The play was officially scored an error.

The two runs were all Manders starter Christian Scafidi gave up on Saturday. The right-hander earned the win to improve to 3-0 on the season, going five innings, allowing two runs (neither earned) on four hits, striking out four and walking one.

With the Manders trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Chris Crabtree (Duke) and Chase Allen (Limestone) hit back-to-back singles with two outs to set up runners on the corners. The next batter Earl Semper (UNC) walked, setting the stage for Semper’s college teammate Clemente Inclan, who came through with the biggest hit of the game.

Clemente lined a 3-2 breaking ball into right field off Asheboro starter Logan Jarosz, which brought in Crabtree and Allen to give the Manders a 3-2 lead. Holly Springs would add an insurance run in the inning as well, when catcher Ryan Orr (San Diego State) knocked a base hit into left center to score Earl Semper to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Orr’s single knocked Logan Jarosz out of the game, who had been in cruise control through his first five innings of work.

After Christian Scafidi left the game, the Mander bullpen slammed the door. Cam Colmore (ECU) threw a scoreless sixth and seventh, recording a strikeout and facing the minimum six batters. Following Colmore, fellow ECU Pirate Noah Jones was equally effective, retiring all six batters he faced (inculding three strikeouts) to toss a scoreless eighth and ninth innings to secure the Holly Springs victory.

The win snapped the Salamanders’ five game losing streak and moved them to 8-18 on the season, while Asheboro dropped to 9-16 with the road loss.

The Salamanders will travel east to take on the Wilson Tobs on Sunday night before returning home Monday to take on the Peninsula Pilots. Monday’s first pitch is slated for 7:00pm.

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