The Salem RidgeYaks will be on the road for two weeks after completing their most recent homestand with the Delmarva Shorebirds. The Yaks will play six games in Fredericksburg this week followed by six in Lynchburg against the Hill City Howlers before returning home on May 26th.
The Yaks have a golden opportunity to make up some ground on the two week road trip. Fredericksburg is in first place in the Carolina League’s North Division, eight games ahead of Salem, and Hill City is three games ahead of the Yaks in second place.
Salem left town with a 15-18 record after splitting six games with Delmarva last week. The Yaks won the first game against the Orioles farm team, 12-4, but dropped the next three by scores of 6-4, 6-2 and 3-2. They rallied for a 7-4 walk-off win on “Pickleball Night” Saturday and on Sunday they had a rare display of power in a 13-3 Mothers’ Day win.
Salem Memorial Ballpark is not an easy place to hit a home run, but the Yaks sent three out of the yard on Sunday, including two in a five run second inning. Already leading 2-1, Avinson Pinto reached base before Starlyn Nunez crushed a two-run homer to right field, his fifth home run of the season, to extend the lead to 4-1. Enddy Azocar worked a walk and scored on Andrews Opata’s second single of the game before Luke Heyman launched a two-run homer to dead center field to cap the inning and make it 7-1. Heyman’s 418 foot dead center home run was just the third home run hit to centerfield this season at Carilion Clinic Field and the longest hit by anybody this season.
The Shorebirds trimmed the deficit to 7-2 on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth but Salem answered in the bottom half with four more runs. Ilan Fernandez reached on a walk before Nunez singled and Azocar walked to load the bases for Kleyver Salazar. The Salem first baseman then demolished a grand slam to left field, his third homer of the year, pushing the RidgeYaks lead to 11-2 and blowing the game wide open.
Salazar’s fourth inning grand slam was Salem’s first grand slam as a team since Opening Day 2025. Heyman now has six homers to lead the RidgeYaks outright and ranks tied for sixth in the Carolina League. The Yaks catcher has hit five home runs in his last ten games since April 28.
