The West Virginia Power’s struggles at home continued on Tuesday night as they fell 3-1 to the Charleston RiverDogs.
Since returning to Appalachian Power Park from a seven-game road trip last week, the Power has lost five of its last six games, falling to 2-11 at home for the season. Tuesday night’s game was the first of those five losses to be decided by more than one run.
“There were some things we could have done better to stay in the game more, but it’s another close game that we had chances in,” West Virginia manager Wyatt Toregas said. “We’re still in a good spot as a club, and I think it’s just a matter of time before we nail some of this down and come out on the positive end of things.”
Charleston tried to make the most of the few scoring opportunities it got early in the game against West Virginia starter Luis Escobar. The RiverDogs jumped ahead in the first inning after Escobar started the game with two of his nine strikeouts when Hoy Jun Park drove a pitch over the right-field fence for a solo home run.
The Power was able to generate a run a couple of innings later, tying the game in the bottom of the third despite not registering a hit in the frame. Sandy Santos walked and stole second before Stephen Alemais was hit by a pitch to put two on with no outs. Ty Moore’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners into scoring position and Carlos Munoz knocked Santos in with a sacrifice fly to left.
But the RiverDogs took the lead for good the next time they stepped up to the plate. Back-to-back doubles Isiah Gilliam and Eduardo Navas put Charleston back in the driver’s seat.
“Escobar didn’t have his best stuff, but he still pitched pretty well considering,” Toregas said. “He’s come a long way since last year where some of the early stuff might have led to an early exit. You aren’t always going to have your best stuff, and if you want to pitch at the highest level you need to figure out how to get guys out on the nights when you don’t, so overall I thought he did a nice job of that.”
After Escobar came out of the game with two outs in the sixth inning for Dylan Prohoroff, West Virginia was able to keep Charleston’s bats quiet for a few innings before Gilliam knocked in Blake Rutherford on a sacrifice fly to provide an insurance run in the top of the eighth.
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West Virginia tried to threaten one last time in the ninth inning, getting Alemais on base with a leadoff single. But the next batter grounded into a double play before Garrett Mundell got Munoz to strike out to end the game and earn the save.
The Power left 11 runners on base and went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
“We had some opportunities that we let slip by us,” Toregas said. “It’s good that we’re going through this rough time where we’re going through a lot of close games like this because sooner or later things will go our way and we’re going to rattle off a bunch in a row.
“I like where we’re at, we just have to do a little bit better.”
Clark Eagan had three of the Power’s six hits. Eagan was 3 for 4 with a double while Moore added a two-base hit.
Aguilar led Charleston at the plate, finishing with two hits as four of the RiverDogs’ six hits went for extra bases.
Escobar took the loss, allowing two runs on six hits to go with his nine strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. Freicer Perez pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits to earn the victory.
