Pelicans stage another comeback in win

For the second straight night the Myrtle Beach Pelicans came back from five down to pull off a win. The Birds climbed out of a 6-1 hole to top the Frederick Keys 7-6.

Frederick stormed to the lead in second inning as three consecutive hits followed by three consecutive walks from Pelicans' starter Deunte Heath added up to three runs, and a 3-0 Frederick lead. The rally was started by Brandon Snyder who led off with a double down the right field line. Billy Rowell followed with a single back up the middle to score Snyder. Rowell moved to second on a Paul Winterling single, then three consecutive walks from Heath scored a pair of runs.

Again it was Snyder starting trouble for Heath as Frederick extended their lead in the third inning. Snyder doubled to right-center field, moved to third on a Winterling single and scored to make it 4-0 as Mike Pierce singled.

Myrtle Beach got a run back in the top of the fourth off of Keys' starter Brandon Erbe. The run scored as Tyler Flowers came around from second courtesy of a throwing error on first baseman Brandon Snyder on a ball put in play by Yohan Silva.

The teams then traded two-run home runs, as Ryan McCarthy took Heath deep with Danny Figueroa aboard in the bottom of the fourth for a 6-1 lead. Brandon Hicks returned the favor for Myrtle Beach, blasting his ninth of the year to right-center field with Travis Jones aboard to cut the lead back to three runs, 6-3.

The Pelicans closed to a one-run deficit with a pair of runs off of reliever Jeff Moore in the sixth inning. Moore hit Brandon Powell and walked Silva to start the inning. A batter later, Jon Mark Owings rolled a single through the left side of the infield to score Powell. Winterling attempted to cut down Powell at the plate and on the throw home, Silva broke for third. The return throw to third was wild from Pierce allowing Silva to trim the advantage to one at 6-5.

The birds took a more conventional route to finally obtain the lead in the seventh. Frederick went back to the bullpen for Wilfrido Perez and Willie Cabrera greeted him with an infield single. A batter later, Flowers destroyed a Perez fastball over the left field wall to give the birds the lead, 7-6.

Jeff Lyman turned in two sensational innings of relief, blanking Frederick for two innings following Heath's departure. The right-hander struck out four in the two-inning outing.

Lyman handed it off to newly-minted Pelicans' closer Bryan Dumesnil in the ninth, and Dumesnil registered his second save in as many nights by freezing Figueroa to end the ballgame with the tying run at second base.

Heath (6-2) earned the win despite allowing six earned runs in six innings. Heath did retire the final seven men he faced and along with the six set down in order by Lyman and the first batter of the ninth inning, Pelicans' hurlers retired 14 straight Keys as they mounted their comeback. Perez (0-3) took the loss in relief for Frederick.

The teams will play game two of the series Saturday night at Harry Grove Stadium. First pitch is slated for 6:00 Pm as LHP Scott Diamond (0-0, 0.00) will make his Carolina League debut for Myrtle Beach against RHP Zach Clark (1-0, 1.50) for Frederick.