The Lehigh Valley IronPigs (10-11) reached the halfway point of the series on Thursday night against the Charlotte Knights (10-13) from Coca-Cola Park down 2-0 in the series. Lehigh Valley pitcher Mick Abel (1-1, 6.94 ERA) was on the mound against Charlotte’s Mike Clevinger (0-0, 0.00 ERA).
In the bottom of the third inning, Lehigh Valley had runners on first and second base when left fielder Weston Wilson hit an RBI single to left field scoring Simon Muzziotti for a 1-0 lead.
Moving ahead to the top of the third inning, Charlotte third baseman Angelo Castellano hit Abel’s fastball for a solo home run over the wall at left field tying the game 1-1. Three batters later, Charlotte had runners on second and third base when Oscar Colás brought Lenyn Sosa home with a sacrifice fly to center field for a 2-1 lead.
Moving to the bottom of the fifth inning, Lehigh Valley had the bases loaded when second baseman Esteban Quiroz hit a two-run single to center field scoring David Dahl and Darick Hall putting the IronPigs up 3-2.
At the top of the seventh inning, Lehigh Valley replaced Abel with Nick Nelson. Mick Abel pitched six innings, allowing seven hits, two runs, one walk, and four strikeouts throwing 93 pitches, of which 52 were strikes.
With runners on second and third base, Charlotte second baseman Lenyn Sosa hit Nelson’s slider for a three-run home run over the wall at left field to take a 5-3 lead. Later a fielding error by Lehigh Valley third baseman Nick Podkul scored Tommy Phan for a 6-3 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Lehigh Valley tied the game 6-6 on a three-run home run by Darick Hall over the wall at right field. It was Hall’s third home run of the season and 15th RBI of the season.
Moving to the bottom of the eighth inning, Lehigh Valley had a runner on third base with Nick Podkul up to bat. He Podkul hit an RBI single to left field scoring Cal Stevenson for a 7-6 lead.
José Ruiz was the new pitcher for Lehigh Valley at the top of the ninth inning. After giving up a single to Angelo Castellano, Ruiz got a pop-out from Lenyn Sosa, a flyout by Colson Montgomery, and a groundout by Tommy Phan ended the game. The IronPigs defeated the Charlotte Knights by the final score of 7-6.
The win went to Lehigh Valley pitcher Taylor Lehman (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 K) throwing 9 pitches, of which 8 were strikes. The loss went to Charlotte pitcher Chad Kuhl (3.1 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 4 BB, 2 K) throwing 80 pitches, of which 43 were strikes, and Lehigh Valley pitcher José Ruiz earned his third save of the season.
The IronPigs and Knight play game four on Friday at 7:05 pm pm on MiLB.TV. Purchase IronPigs tickets for the 2024 season today on StubHub and Viagogo. Also, pick up IronPigs merchandise today at Fanatics and Rally House.
