The Salem RidgeYaks will be on the road this week as they head to North Carolina for a six game series with the Wilson Warbirds. The ‘birds are a farm team of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Yaks hosted Fredricksburg for six games last week and went 2-4. After Salem won two of the first three games over the Nationals the Washington farm team got the bats going to win the last three by scores of 14-4, 11-4 and 7-0 on Sunday. As April winds down the FredNats lead the Carolina League’s North Division with a 14-7 record coming into this week. Hill City(Lynchburg) was a game and a half out as of Tuesday and Salem was four games behind with a 10-11 record.
After three weeks of play Stanley Tucker, who was called up to Greenville over the weekend, was leading the team with a .357 batting average while Andrews Opata is at .333 and Avinson Pinto is hit ting .291. Enddy Azocar and Skylar King lead the club in home runs with three each and they also lead in RBI’s with Azocar driving in 14 and King 12. Opata has nine stolen bases while Starlyn Nunez has seven.
Among pitchers who have thrown at least nine innings Leighton Finley has the best ERA at 1.98. Dylan Brown has a 3.06 ERA and leads the team with 25 strikeouts. Brown, at 2-1, and Devin Futrell, at 2-0, lead the team in wins although Futrell is no longer with the team, having been called to Greenville on April 15.
Lefty Ethan Walker, who pitched for Salem High, has pitched 14 and a third innings, all in relief, with a 4.40 ERA and a 1-1 record. Ethan is second on the team with 22 strikeouts but also has 16 walks.
The RidgeYaks return home next Tuesday to open a six game series with the Delmarva Shorebirds. The series opener will be “Education Day” with an 11:05 am first pitch.
