Winston-Salem’s power downs Pelicans in playoff opener

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans are on the brink of elimination after three Winston-Salem pitchers scattered five hits and Trey Michalczewski and Keon Barnum hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of a 4-2 win over the Pelicans Wednesday at BB&T Ballpark.

The Dash leads the best-of-three Southern Division championship series 1-0, with the second game in Myrtle Beach Friday and a third game, if necessary, there on Friday.

Carson Fulmer started for the Dash and went three innings, giving up two hits and a run, and reliever Brian Clark pitched five strong innings, giving up three hits and a run and getting the win. Brad Goldberg pitched a perfect ninth for the save. Fulmer and Clark were the benefactors of a Dash infield that turned four double plays.

“That was a very well-pitched game by Fulmer, Clark and Goldberg at the end; you’ve got to have that type of pitching, especially in a playoff situation,” said Tim Esmay, the Dash’s manager. “But I feel like we’ve got a long way to go. We were 13-13 against these guys this year; they know how to respond and come back.”

The Dash banged out 10 hits off three Myrtle Beach pitchers, but none more important than the three two-out hits they got off starter Duane Underwood Jr. in the first inning. Second baseman Jason Peter slapped the first pitch he saw into right for a single, and Michalczewski hit the first pitch he saw for a long home run onto the catwalk above the right-field corner. Barnum followed by hitting Underwood’s first pitch over the wall in left to give Winston-Salem a 3-0 lead.

“That was great,” Michalczewski said. “Everything happened so quickly. I was really looking for a fastball, and he was up in the zone at the start. I hit a four-seamer that was over the middle of the plate.”

Underwood pitched and gave up four earned runs in the loss. He struck out three.

Michalczeski singled and walked in three other at-bats for the Dash, which scored a single run in the fifth when catcher Omar Narvaez led off with a double and scored on Nolan Earley’s single. Adam Engel’s two-out double put another runner in scoring position, but Underwood got out of that inning on two bouncers back to the box.

“I think our guys were aggressive tonight,” Esmay said. “They’ve been ready to go. We had a lot of guys out for early work today. We really started good with Underwood. He’s been good against us, and he’s the type of pitcher that you can’t let him get into a groove. You saw; he settled down and made it tough on us.”

Fulmer, the parent Chicago White Sox’s first-round draft pick this summer out of Vanderbilt, pitched his usual three-inning stint and left leading 3-1 after the Pelicans got him for a run in the third on a run-scoring groundball by second baseman Chesny Young.

Clark entered in the fourth and dominated the Pelicans. His only mistake was a slider he described as a “cement truck – it just spins and spins” – that shortstop Gleyber Torres crushed to the walkway beyond the left field fence in the eighth.

Goldberg pitched the ninth and got three easy outs.

Jaffrey Baez was the Pelicans’ leading hitter, finishing 2-for-3 with a double.

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 10:45 PM with the headline "Winston-Salem’s power downs Pelicans in playoff opener."