Lakewood Defeats Augusta, 4-1
LAKEWOOD – The BlueClaws went ahead with three runs in the sixth and benefited from some stellar pitching Thursday night, taking three of four from the Augusta GreenJackets with a 4-1 win.
Eric Massingham made the first start of his pro career and scattered three hits over five innings, striking out seven. Josh Zeid (8-4) let up a run in three innings, and Luke Wertz picked up his third save.
Leandro Castro opened the scoring with a solo shot out to left-center to start the second inning. It was Castro’s tenth homer of the season and Lakewood’s first hit of the night.
The 1-0 lead stood until the sixth. With Nick Liles on first Alex Burg blasted a double off the wall in left-center to tie the game for Augusta (34-30) against Josh Zeid.
Lakewood (39-26) would pull away in the sixth. Kyle Lafrenz led off the inning with a single, and went to second on a Carlos Perdomo ground out. Jiwan James followed with a base hit to put runners on the corners, and Michael Dabbs came through with a two-run double to put the Claws on top for good.
One more run scored on an error by shortstop Ydwin Villegas, but the damage had been done and Lakewood cruised the rest of the way.
Chris Heston (5-13) suffered his league-leading 13th loss of the season despite throwing all eight innings.
Friday at 7:05 pm RHP Jonathan Pettibone (7-6, 3.55) will open a four game series against the Kannapolis Intimidators and Monmouth product RHP Ryan Buch (5-2, 2.86).
