From the FredNats:
In the first battle of the top two teams in the Carolina League, it was the FredNats that had the upper hand, beating the Charleston RiverDogs 15-4 in the series opener at home. Bryan Caceres got his second home win of the season, Leandro Emiliani and Andry Arias went back-to-back in the 5th inning, and the FredNats drew a season-high 15 walks at the plate in the win.
The FredNats got five runs in each of the first two innings, fueled by eight walks by RiverDog pitching. Jeremy De La Rosa drove in the first run of the game with an RBI single, and then three bases-loaded walks to Sammy Infante, Andry Arias, and Viandel Pena. Infante then came in to score on a balk and it was 5-0 after one.
An RBI single by Arias in the 2nd drove in another run, and then an error and a wild pitch extended the inning to allow the FredNats to score five more in the inning to open up a 10-0 lead.
The RiverDogs got the next four, with three coming in the 3rd and one more in the 4th.
The FredNats scored three more in the 5th after the back-to-back home runs by Emiliani and Arias. An RBI single from Drew Millas made it 14-4 after five.
Emiliani drove in another run with a double in the 6th to round out the scoring at 15-4.
Caceres pitched five innings and allowed three hits and four runs with five strikeouts. Peyton Glavine pitched a scoreless inning out of the bullpen, Orlando Ribalta pitched two perfect innings, and Cody Greenhill finished off the win with a scoreless inning.
The two teams will be back at it tonight at 7:05 in Central Park.
