Myrtle Beach Pelicans win another in dramatic fashion

Before Tuesday night's game, the first 1,000 Myrtle Beach Pelicans fans through the gates were given a free poster of the club's All-Star center fielder Ryan Strausborger.

Fourteen innings later, Strausborger gave them a reason to treasure it with a walkoff home run that gave the Pelicans a 6-4 victory over the Wilmington Blue Rocks.

For the third time in their past four outings, the Pelicans rallied from behind to force extra innings then went on to win the game in thrilling, walkoff fashion. This time the hero was Strausborger, who lifted his eighth home run of the season over the fence in left field to give the Pelicans the their sixth consecutive win. All six wins have come at BB&T Coastal Field as the club improved to 32-12 at home this season. The Pelicans erased three-run deficits to force extra innings on both Friday and Saturday night before winning in their last at-bat.

Also playing a major role in Tuesday's comeback win was the Pelicans' bullpen, which held the Blue Rocks scoreless over the final eight innings while the Myrtle Beach offense repeatedly squandered scoring opportunities. Myrtle Beach's pitchers combined to strike out 19 batters, and Ryan Kelly closed out the game to get the win.

The game featured an intriguing starting pitching matchup between Wilmington righthander Elisaul Pimentel and Myrtle Beach southpaw Miguel Del Los Santos. The two starters were born in the Dominican Republic on the exact same date - July 10, 1988 - and both came out firing their best fastballs.

De Los Santos struck out eight batters and allowed six hits, including three straight doubles with two outs in the fourth inning to give the Blue Rocks a 2-0 lead. The Pelicans cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame when reigning Carolina League Player of the Week Jared Bolden stayed hot by singling home Leury Garcia.

De Los Santos managed to get the first two outs of the fifth before issuing a walk and surrendering another double to Nick Van Stratten to make it a 3-1 score, but the Pelicans tied it in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by David Paisano and an RBI sacrifice bunt by Garcia.

The Blue Rocks recaptured the lead in the sixth when Yem Prades ripped a leadoff triple and later scored on a sacrifice by Tim Ferguson. But the always-game Pelicans knotted it up again in the bottom of the seventh when Bolden lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to score Jared Hoying.

The Pelicans loaded the bases with only one out in the eighth but couldn't push the go-ahead run across the plate. They also had the potential winning run 90 feet away at third base with one out in both the 11th and 12th but failed to bring them home.

The Blue Rocks threatened to break the deadlock in the 12th after loading the bases but reliever Zach Osbourne managed to get out of the jam. Kelly came on to slam the door in the 13th to set up Strausborger's heroics.