Charleston 5, Savannah 4

Addison Maruszak once again came across to score the decisive run for the RiverDogs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the ‘Dogs downed Savannah, 5-4, in front of 4,019 at Riley Park. Zach Von Tersch tossed five no-hit innings for Savannah in his first start with the club before allowing a home run to Garrison Lassiter to start the sixth.

John Church (1-3) walked Maruszak to start the ninth and also walked Garrison Lassiter to put two on with nobody out. Church battled back to strike out Jeff Farnham and Ray Kruml to put two outs on the board and put the Gnats one out away from extra innings. Jose Pirela took the first pitch he saw from Church and drove it into center field to drive in Maruszak for the game-winning run.

Von Tersch was brilliant through the first five and did battle back after allowing the home run to Lassiter to start the sixth. He quickly took care of Farnham and Kruml for outs one and two but Pirela doubled to keep the inning alive. Abraham Almonte, who did not extend his hitting streak to 26 games, walked to prolong the inning and Corban Joseph tripled them both in to give Charleston a, 3-0, lead.

The 21-year-old out of Georgia Tech finished allowing three runs on three hits with seven strikeouts and two walks in his first Savannah start. At one point in the game he was actually in line for the win as the Gnats rallied for four runs in the top of the seventh off reliever Manny Barreda.

With two runs already in, Raul Reyes capped the inning with a two-run triple that put Savannah up by one, 4-3, until Charleston tied it in the bottom half of the inning. Reyes finished the game 2-for-5 and was the only Savannah batter to record a multi-hit game.

The Sand Gnats (29-36, 64-71) will try and snap their losing streak on Sunday when they take the field at 5:05 p.m. in the second to last game of the season. RHP Armando Rodriguez (1-1, 2.31), who has struck out 18 batters in his first two starts, will start for the Sand Gnats while RHP Chuck Nolte (4-2, 4.94) tosses for Charleston.