The Aberdeen IronBirds won their third straight game Thursday evening, beating host Wilmington, 5-3, in an High-A East minor league baseball game. The game was played at Frawley Stadium.
The win guaranteed the IronBirds (3-0) of no worse than a series split of this season-opening, six-game series.
Game four is scheduled for tonight (Friday) at 7:05 p.m. The series winds up with a 6:05 p.m. Saturday game and a 1:05 p.m. Sunday game.
In Thursday’s win, it was another solid pitching performance from a starter. Kyle Brnovich tossed five scoreless innings to earn the win. Brnovich allowed just one hit and he struck out six. He threw 58 pitches, 46 for strikes.
The ‘Birds put Brnovich in the win column by scoring a run in the sixth and never trailing.
With one out, Aberdeen loaded the bases. Kyle Stowers walked, Johnny Rizer was hit by pitch and Joseph Ortiz also walked. Andrew Martinez then hit a sacrifice fly to plate Stowers.
The ‘Birds rallied again with one out in the eighth. Rizer doubled and Ortiz tripled him in. Martinez single in Ortiz and two batters later, Andrew Daschbach belted a two-run homer to cap the four-run inning.
The runs proved huge as the Blue Rocks (0-3) scored three times in the bottom of the eighth to make it interesting.
Martinez was the lone Aberdeen hitter with two hits, while Ortiz and Daschbach both had two RBIs.
Morgan McSweeney threw two innings of hitless, scoreless relief. He struck out two.
Felix Bautista earned the save with one scoreless inning of work. Bautista walked two and struck out two.
Reliever Jonathan Pendergast had a tougher outing. Pendergast worked one inning, allowing four hits and three runs (all earned).