Steamers Win Six Straight TSL Game in Tight Finish with Tidewater
By: Patrick Foster
Edenton, NC– The Edenton Steamers extended their current Tidewater Summer League win streak to an even six games and their overall win streak to seven with their 18th TSL victory in a 4-2 finish over the Tidewater Drillers on Sunday night at Historic Hicks Field. The win puts the Steamers nine games ahead of the second place Old Dominion Hitters (8-13) while improving their record against the Drillers to 5-1.
The Steamers brought one run across in each of the first three innings meanwhile holding Tidewater scoreless to jump out to a 3-0 lead. Shane Easter scored following a leadoff triple in the bottom of the first while Casey Haire scored in the bottom of the second on a fielding error from Driller shortstop Mason Dunaway.
Aaron Copeland extended the lead in the bottom of the third with a solo home run over the left field wall with two outs in the inning. The home run was Copeland’s fifth of 2020, the third most of any Steamer thus far, and increased his season RBI total to 15.
Tidewater brought their first run of the contest across with two outs in the top of the sixth. Jacob Mustain drove home Mason Dunaway on a double to deep centerfield to cut the score to 3-1.
Cameron Reckling scored the second run of the game for Tidewater with a solo homer in his first plate appearance of the night after coming in as a defensive substitution for left fielder Garret Lyons in the bottom of the sixth. The leadoff solo shot off of Steamers’ relief pitcher Daniel Willie was Reckling’s first home run of the summer.
Adam Fine re-extended the Steamer lead to two in the bottom of the seventh. Facing a 3-1 count, Fine sent his first home run of 2020 over the left field wall off of Tidewater left hander Brandon Pettrey to push the score to 4-2.
Both teams would be held scoreless following the seventh as the Steamers came away with the victory 4-2 and improved their overall record to 18-5 while Tidewaters record fell to 6-10.
Edenton starter Joe Kemlage was the winning pitcher for the first time this season allowing no runs on one hit, one walk and 11 strikeouts in five full innings on the mound. Drillers starter Aiden Kuhle picked up the loss as he gave up three runs, two of them earned, on five hits, two walks and only three strikeouts.
Three pitchers made appearances out of the bullpen for Edenton including Daniel Willie, Michael Allen and Ryan Kutz. Along with Kemlage, Steamer arms walked just three Drillers while striking out 18 while four Driller pitchers combined for six walks and ten strikeouts.
Edenton outhit Tidewater 7-6 and with no errors to the Drillers’ two. No Steamer finished with multiple hits but seven of the nine starters for Edenton came away with a hit including Shane Easter, Jared Kauffman, Houston Wright, Tyler McPeak, Aaron Copeland, Allen Brown and Adam Fine.
The Steamers play their next game Tuesday night against the Tidewater Drillers at Historic Hicks Field the for the seventh meeting of the summer. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST.