The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders managed to win against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp with a score of 10-9 on Saturday afternoon at 121 Financial Ballpark.
The RailRiders hit five home runs and eight of their 11 hits were extra base hits, which helped them extend their winning streak to five games.
Carlos Narvaez gave Scranton/Wilkes-Barre a 2-0 lead in the first inning. After a two-out walk and with T.J. Rumfield on first, Narvaez hit a 1-2 pitch from Patrick Monteverde over the left-center wall for his third home run of the season.
The Jumbo Shrimp took the lead in the bottom of the inning against RailRiders starter Cody Poteet. Victor Mesa, Jr. singled and scored on an error. Will Banfield hit a three-run homer to left, putting Jacksonville ahead for the second time this week.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre tied the game in the top of the second. Brandon Lockridge doubled with two outs, setting the stage for Greg Allen to tie the game at four. Allen hit a Monteverde pitch over the 20-foot-high wall in right-center to even the score.
Kevin Smith hit a three-run home run in the top of the third, giving the RailRiders a 7-4 lead. It was Smith’s first home run of the season and the third of the day by Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Jacksonville reduced the lead to one on a Mesa, Jr. bases loaded two-run single in the fourth inning.
Oscar Gonzalez hit a solo home run to start the fifth inning, extending the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lead to 8-6. In the sixth, Everson Pereira hit a two-run blast off former RailRider Emmanuel Ramirez, putting SWB up 10-6.
In the home half of the eighth, the Jumbo Shrimp scored three runs on four hits, including consecutive run-scoring singles by Mesa, Jr., MLB rehabber Jake Burger and Troy Johnston, cutting the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre lead to one at 10-9.
Phil Bickford pitched a scoreless ninth and allowed a pair of base hits to secure the win. Narvaez caught Javier Sanoja stealing for the second out of the inning while Bickford ended the inning with strikeouts.
Duane Underwood, Jr. (W, 2-0) pitched 1.1 scoreless innings after Poteet for the win, and Bickford earned his second save of the season. Monteverde (L, 3-1) allowed the first seven runs for Jacksonville and took the loss.
All nine RailRiders in the starting lineup scored at least once on Saturday. Four players had multi-hit games as Scranton/Wilkes-Barre picked up its ninth win on its current 12-game road trip.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre concludes their only series of the season on Sunday at 3:05 P.M. Yoendrys Gomez will start for the RailRiders and the Jumbo Shrimp counter with Yonny Chirinos. Scranton/Wilkes-Barre returns to PNC Field on May 7 to open their first series of the year against the Rochester Red Wings. For promotional information or to purchase tickets for the next series at PNC Field, visit www.swbrailriders.com.