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ROLLINS STRONG AGAIN AS MINERS SWEEP SALINA
June 21, Augusta, NJ – In an old-fashioned pitchers duel, David Rollins outdueled Daniel Diaz through seven innings, and the bullpen finished off a Sussex County Miners (23-10) 2-1 win over the touring Salina Stockade (3-9) in front of 1,487 fans at Skylands Stadium on Thursday night.
Salina opened the scoring for the second straight night in the top of the second inning as Bobby Webb drove a solo home run over the wall in left field, giving the Stockade a 1-0 lead. But that would be the only bump in the road for Rollins as, after allowing a third inning single, would retire the next fifteen Salina batters that came to the plate.
The Miners would get that run right back in the bottom of the second. Martin Figueroa would double with one out, and that would be followed by a Rubi Silva infield single, in which he hustled out the hit to set up runners on the corners. Luis Alen would then hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Figueroa and leveling the score at 1-1.
Sussex County would take the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Jayce Ray would walk with one out, setting up Jarred Mederos, who drove a pitch into the left-center field gap, scoring Ray and giving the Miners a 2-1 lead.
That lead would stay in the eighth. Rollins would allow a leadoff single and be lifted from the game for returning Miner ElHajj Muhammad. The hard-throwing righty would work out of the inning, aided by an Alen pickoff of Scott Stetson, to keep the one run margin. Alex Demchak would come on to earn his third save of the season by working a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
Rollins earned the win for the Miners, running his record to 4-1 on the season. He went seven-plus innings, allowing just one run on four hits and no walks while striking out seven. Diaz threw seven solid innings, but got tagged with the hard luck loss and dropped to 0-3 on the tour for Salina. He went seven innings as well, allowing just three hits and two runs, walking four and striking out six.
The Miners now hit the road for a three-game weekend series against the Ottawa Champions at RCGT park. First pitch for tomorrow nights game is set for 7:05 pm. The game can be heard on the Miners Radio Network.
Article: Bret Leuthner
Photo: Sussex County Miners
Sussex Miners 2 Salina Stockade 1
This game was played on 6/21/2018 at Skylands Stadium
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