The Doubledays offense got out in front early on a beautiful and sunny Sunday afternoon in Aberdeen. After struggling with drawing first blood for the past few series, Auburn’s early offensive bursts during the game’s first two innings were enough for the Doubledays pitching staff to take over. Auburn held on to a 3-2 win over the IronBirds behind Aaron Fletcher’s longest outing of the season and a masterful relief outing by Angel Guillen.
The game started off on a fast note when Telmito Agustin set the table with a leadoff single. He was quickly wiped off the base paths, however, thanks to a double play hit by two-hole hitter Kyle Marinconz.
But Aberdeen starter Jimmy Murphy wasn’t out of the woods yet. He allowed another single to Jacob Rhinesmith, and a wild pitch with Pablo O’Connor at the plate put him on second base. O’Connor reached first base on a fielding error by the shortstop, and red-hot Israel Pineda knocked in both unearned runs with a single.
After missing over a week with an ankle injury, Ricardo Mendez’s presence in the lineup was automatically felt in his second game back by recording a single in his first at-bat. He utilized his speed to swipe second base, and after a groundout put him 90 feet away from home plate, a Cole Daily sacrifice fly brought in Auburn’s third run of the evening.
On the mound for the Doubledays, Aaron Fletcher – after going two innings in each of his first two starts – pitched three full frames of one run ball. The only blemish for the Nationals’ 14th-round pick of this year’s draft was a one-run second. Fletcher led off the inning by allowing a single to Willy Yahn and a double by Jaylen Ferguson brought him home.
🎧 HIGHLIGHTS 🎧
3️⃣ from Fletch
5️⃣ from Angel (longest relief app of season)
1️⃣ from Alec in his Doubledays debut (with two MAJOR assists to @pcaulfield19)Add it up, and you get 9️⃣ lights-out innings and an Auburn W.https://t.co/43p81GHsC2
— Auburn Doubledays (@Doubledays) July 16, 2018
Auburn’s long man out of the bullpen, Angel Guillen, followed up Fletcher’s outing with a masterpiece of his own. He went five strong innings – his longest outing of the season – while just allowing a single run with three strikeouts. Two wild pitches in the eighth inning made it interesting for Aberdeen, but a strikeout with a runner at third ended the IronBird rally.
Alec Maley, in his first appearance as a Doubleday this season after being added to the roster on Friday, induced two groundouts and strikeout to collect the first save of his professional career.
The Doubledays will be back in action on Monday at 11:05AM for the rubber game against the IronBirds.
By Chris Valentino Tril
