FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - April 8, 2017
Contact: Will DeBoer, 410-219-3112

BIG INNINGS PROPEL SHOREBIRDS TO FIRST WIN
Shaw homer jump-starts five-run thrid, ‘Birds win 10-5

GREENVILLE, SC - The Delmarva Shorebirds batted around twice and cracked double digits on the way to their first win of the season, a 10-5 barnburner over the Greenville Drive on Saturday night at Fluor Field at the West End.

Ryan McKenna led off the game with a walk and Cole Billingsley took a pitch to the body to put two on. After a strikeout and another hit batsman, Chris Clare shot a low line drive into center. Greenville center fielder Yoan Aybar dove for it but the ball skidded under his glove and all the way to the center field wall. All three runners came around to score on Clare’s bases-clearing triple. Clare himself came home on Collin Woody’s sac fly and the Shorebirds (1-2) went up 4-0, batting around and scoring as many runs in the first inning as they did in the first two games combined.

The Drive (2-1) got almost all of it back in their half of the first, as the first three men reached on a single, hit batsman, and walk. After a pair of strikeouts, Ryan Scott drove a fly ball to center three-quarters of the way up the wall for his own bases-clearing triple to get Greenville within one at 4-3.

Chris Shaw led off the top of the third with a bang, smashing a line drive well over the faux Green Monster in left for the first Delmarva home run of the season. It was a sign of things to come: Clare and Woody each banged singles off the big wall to follow, and Alejandro Juvier singled loaded the bases. Daniel Fajardo knocked a base hit to center to score Clare and make it 6-3.

Jake Ring followed with a bases-loaded walk to force in a run and chase Greenville starter Mike Shawaryn. Reliever Daniel Gonzalez’s night started the same way as he forced in a run with a free pass to McKenna. Billingsley followed with a sac fly to left, making it a five-spot and a 9-3 lead in a frame that saw the ‘Birds send 11 to the plate.

Delmarva got one more run in the fourth as Woody scampered home from third with two outs on a wild pitch.

Greenville chipped away with solitary runs in the seventh and eighth but left more runs on the table each time as Nick Jobst and Zeke McGranahan cleaned up messes on the basepaths. The Drive stranded 12 men on base in the game, leaving men aboard in all nine innings.

Francisco Jimenez (1-0) picked up the win in relief for Delmarva, tossing 3.2 innings of one-run, five-hit ball. Shawaryn (0-1) took the loss for Greenville, getting knocked out after two-plus with nine runs and seven hits against.

Shaw paced the Shorebird attack, going 3-for-4 with a homer, RBI, two runs, and two HBPs. Woody also went 3-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, and Clare finished 2-for-4 with his triple, three driven in, and two runs scored.

All nine Delmarva hitters reached base in the game, racking up 13 hits and reaching on five walks and four hit batsmen.

Scott finished the day 2-for-4 with four RBIs for the Drive, while Bobby Dalbec went 1-for-4 with two runs.

Orioles No. 13 prospect Matthias Dietz made the start for the Shorebirds, giving up three runs on two hits in three innings. He walked three and struck out six on 75 pitches.

The Shorebirds wrap up their season-opening series on Sunday afternoon with game four against the Drive. Left-hander Travis Seabrooke will start for Delmarva against Greenville southpaw Logan Boyd. First pitch from Fluor Field at the West End is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. Pregame coverage on Fox Sports AM 960 and the MiLB First Pitch app begins at 3:45 p.m. with Will DeBoer on the call.

Delmarva Shorebirds
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The Delmarva Shorebirds are the Class “A” Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The Shorebirds are owned by 7th Inning Stretch, LLC, the same company that owns the Stockton Ports of the California League and the Everett AquaSox of the Northwest League.

The Shorebirds are celebrating their 22nd season in 2017 and have entertained nearly five million fans since beginning play at Arthur W. Perdue Stadium in Salisbury, Md. in 1996. The team captured South Atlantic League titles in 1997 and 2000 and successfully hosted the South Atlantic League All-Star Game in 1999 and 2011.