5/20/11

Charleston 4, Savannah 3

Anderson Feliz belted a home run to dead centerfield to cap a 3-6 night, as the Charleston RiverDogs walked off with a dramatic, 12th inning, 4-3 win over the Savannah Sand Gnats in South Atlantic League action Thursday night in front of a crowd of 5,956 fans at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.



Charleston earned a series victory with the win, improving to 19-22 on the season. Savannah fell to 19-21 with the loss.

Manny Barreda (2-0) worked in and out of trouble and earned the victory with two scoreless innings of relief, striking out two.


Feliz’s blast off the bottom of the centerfield batter’s eye victimized Luis Rojas (1-4), who took the defeat in his third straight decision in relief.

Savannah starter Gonzalez Germen authored a three-hit, complete game gem against Charleston last August, and exhibited the same form over the first three innings.


Germen set down eight in a row after allowing a one-out first inning double, striking out four in the process. The 23-year old Dominican right-hander was unable to hold the mighty RiverDogs bats down in the fourth, though, as Charleston forged a 3-0 lead.

Feliz started the merry-go-round, roping a triple to the right field corner for his second extra-base knock of the contest. Ramon Flores followed with an infield single to put men on the corners for cleanup batter Rob Segedin. Segedin accounted for the first tally, one-hopping the left field wall with an RBI double to chase home Feliz.


Just when Germen appeared poised to limit the damage to a single run, Eduardo Sosa delivered a clutch two-out single for a 3-0 RiverDogs advantage. Sosa continued his red-hot hitting, looping a soft liner past a diving Luis Nieves and into shallow centerfield to plate Flores and Segedin.


The Sand Gnats finally put a chink in Greene’s armor in the sixth, scratching across a run to slice the RiverDogs lead to 3-1. Wilfredo Tovar stroked a leadoff double and eventually made his way plateward on a two-out RBI double by Robbie Shields.


Germen bounced back in the fifth to finish out his outing in style, striking out a pair while retiring the top of the Charleston order 1-2-3. He allowed the three runs on five hits and a walk, and matched a season-high with seven total strikeouts.


Greene faced a stiff challenge in a Savannah unit that had belted seven homers through the first two games of the series, but the 6-4 righty was more than up to the task. Sporting a sharp slider, the Dayton State alum breezed through the Sand Gnats, yielding just the one run on three hits and a walk, while fanning five.


Unfortunately for Greene, his terrific effort did not place him in the win column. The Sand Gnats rallied for two scores without the benefit of a hit off RiverDogs reliever Tommy Kahnle to knot the score, 3-3, in the top of the seventh.


The fire-balling Kahnle experienced issues with his control again, walking Rafael Fernandez and Sam Honeck to put the tying runs on base. Kahnle induced a weak grounder to short from Nieves, but the ball skipped by the glove of Jose Toussen and into left-centerfield to send two unearned runs scurrying home.


That would remain the score until the twelfth, as both bullpens pieced together excellent efforts. The Sand Gnats permitted just one run in 6.1 frames, while the RiverDogs yielded two over 6.0 innings.

from team press release

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