Royals held to two hits, Yankees win third straight series

BURLINGTON, Nc – Evan Alexander reached base five times and scored four runs, and the Pulaski pitching staff only allowed one hit in a 9-5 victory over the Burlington Royals on Friday night. The win clinched the three-game set for Pulaski and marked their third consecutive series win.

In the first, Pulaski jumped out to a 1-0 lead after Everson Pereira singled into center field to drive home Alexander. The Royals scored all of their three runs in the second inning, and did so without recording a single hit. Jose Marquez reached on an error by Carlos Tatis allowing Carlos Negret to score and tie the game. Freddy Fermin scored on a wild pitch with Brhet Bewley batting, and Bewley hit a sacrifice fly later in the at bat to score Marquez.

Marquez was responsible for the first of two Royals hit in the seventh inning. A drive to center field was originally called a 2-run homer, but was overturned to a double. Gilmael Troya then struck out the side to make it through the seventh without yielding a run.

Pulaski cut their deficit to two in the third inning after Alexander scored on a wild pitch with Pereira batting. Next inning, the Yankees drew even on a run-scoring groundout by Tatis to plate Mickey Gasper. In the fifth, the Yanks loaded the bases with nobody out and took a 5-3 lead. Pereira grounded into a run scoring double play to plate Max Burt, and Gasper reached on a fielding error to score Alexander.

In the sixth, the Yankees opened the flood gates by scoring four more runs on three hits to take a commanding 9-3 lead. Juan De Leon hit his seventh double of the season to score Nelson Gomez, Max Burt scored Tatis on a sacrifice fly, Alexander singled home De Leon, and Anthony Seigler doubled in Alexander.

Luis Gil pitched four innings and allowed three runs, none earned, on no hits, three walks and eight strikeouts. Troya threw 3.2 scoreless innings in relief and allowed only one hit, one walk and struck out six. Yoiber Marquina entered with two outs in the eighth and recorded the final four outs to close the game. Burlington tallied twice in the ninth off Marquina to pull the score to 9-5. Marquez continued to be the only Royal to solve Pulaski pitching and lined a one-out RBI triple to right field to score Rhett Aplin. Vazquez later scored on a RBI groundout by Bewley.

The Pulaski Yankees look to sweep the three-game set over the Burlington Royals and pull within one game of .500 with a victory tomorrow. Game time is at 6:30 p.m. between the two teams on the road.