The Fayetteville Woodpeckers (52-48, 20-15) concluded the six-game homestand on Sunday evening against the Hill City Howlers (43-59, 12-24) at Segra Stadium. Charlie Weber was on the mound for Fayetteville against Erigaldi Perez of Hill City.
In the bottom of the second inning, Fayetteville had the bases loaded with nobody out when D.J. Newman grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, scoring Luis De Leon for a 1-0 lead. With two outs and runners on the corners, Brandon Nigh stole second base, and Carlos Cauro stole home plate on a throwing error by Hill City catcher Gabriel Rodriguez for a 2-0 lead. A flyout by Waner Luciano ended the inning.
In the bottom of the third inning, Fayetteville had a runner on third base with one out when Juan Sierra hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring German Ramirez for a 3-0 lead. With two outs, a flyout by Jadyn Fielder ended the inning.
At the top of the fourth inning, Hill City had runners on second and third base when Gabriel Rodriguez grounded out to third base, scoring Jonathan Martinez, and it was now 3-1. Later, Luis De La Cruz stole home plate, which made it 3-2. With two outs, a flyout by Pedro Dalmagro ended the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth inning with two outs, Fayetteville third baseman Waner Luciano hit a solo home run to left field for a 4-2 lead. It was his sixth home run of the season. German Ramirez struck out swinging, and the inning was over.
Fayetteville starter Charlie Weber went five innings, allowing two hits, two runs, one walk, and struck out two, throwing 73 pitches, of which 47 were strikes. Aubrey Smith pitched for Fayetteville at the top of the sixth inning.
Moving to the bottom of the eighth inning, Fayetteville had runners on the corners with one out when Luis De Leon got caught stealing second base, but Kevin Alvarez stole home plate for a 5-2 lead. With two outs, Carlos Cauro was picked off at first base for the final out of the inning.
At the top of the ninth inning, Hill City had runners on the corners when Aubrey Smith made a throwing error, scoring Yeiferth Castillo, and it was now 5-3. With two outs, Smith struck out Dauri Fernandez for the final out of the game. The Woodpeckers held on to beat the Howlers 5-3. Smith went four innings, allowing two hits, one run, two walks, and two strikeouts, throwing 54 pitches, of which 29 were strikes.
Fayetteville finished the night with five hits, committed two errors, went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position, and left four men on base. The win went to Fayetteville starter Charlie Weber (5-1), while Aubrey Smith earned his second save of the season, and the loss went to Hill City starter Erigaldi Perez.
The Woodpeckers head to Salem Memorial Ballpark to begin a six-game series against the Salem RidgeYaks on Tuesday at 6:35 pm on the MLB App and Bally Sports Live.
