Woodpeckers Take Two From RiverDogs in Season Finale
Fayetteville, NC – The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (60-72) played 15 innings of baseball in Sunday’s regular season finale after Saturday night’s game against the Charleston RiverDogs was suspended due to weather. Fayetteville closed the season strong, winning both games and securing its first 60-win season since 2019. GAME 1 Brayden Taylor
Fayetteville, NC – The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (60-72) played 15 innings of baseball in Sunday’s regular season finale after Saturday night’s game against the Charleston RiverDogs was suspended due to weather. Fayetteville closed the season strong, winning both games and securing its first 60-win season since 2019.
GAME 1
Brayden Taylor and Cam Fisher traded leadoff home runs in the first inning before Fayetteville grabbed the 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly from Ricardo Balogh in the bottom of the first. Manuel Urias retired the side in order in the top of the second and rain suspended action before the start of the bottom of the frame.
Action resumed on Sunday and the Woodpeckers opened up a 4-2 advantage in the third inning on a solo homer from Brice Matthews and a Ryan Johnson RBI single.
Trey Dombroski took over on the mound in the top of the third and pitched all the way into the eighth. Fayetteville’s single-season strikeout leader struck out six and allowed two runs, the second of which was a solo homer from Bryan Broceker that cut the contest to 4-3.
Ian Foggo took over for Dombroski in the eighth and recorded the final six outs of the game to lock up the save and secure the series victory.
BOX SCORE: https://www.milb.com/gameday/727957/final/box
*GAME 2 *
Jose Fleury made the start and allowed one run over three innings before turning the ball over to Deury Carrasco.
Trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the third, Garret Guillemette supplied the lead with a two-run double high off the left-center field wall. Two batters later, Juan Santander slugged a two-run home run off Jake Christianson out to right field for the 4-1 advantage.
In the bottom of the fourth, switch-hitter Dauri Lorenzo hit a solo homer to left field, his first of the season while batting from the right side of the plate. He contributed again in the bottom of the fifth, linking with Jackson Loftin for consecutive RBI singles that secured a 7-3 lead.
Charleston scored a run in the top of the top against Austin Temple on an RBI fielder’s choice, but stalled out in the seventh against Jeremy Molero who closed the game retiring all three batters he faced. Molero finishes the season as the Woodpeckers saves leader going a perfect 8-for-8 in save chances.