
Photo via Carolina Mudcats on X
May 2nd, 2025
Zebulon, NC- The Carolina Mudcats (17-8) played host to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans (10-15) in a Friday evening contest. The Mudcats entered today’s contest 2.0 games ahead of the Lynchburg Hillcats (16-9) in the North Division standing. The Mudcats sent Melvin Hernandez (3-1) to the mound who entered tonight’s game with a 2.16 ERA in 16.2 innings pitched. The Pelicans sent Kevin Valdez (1-1) to the mound who entered tonight’s game with a 8.10 ERA in 10 innings pitched. The Milwaukee Brewers no. 2 prospect Jesus Made entered tonight’s game with 3 HRs and 15 RBIs through 18 games.
Myrtle Beach got on the board in the top of the 3rd when Anderson Suriel scored on error by Josh Adamczewski which gave Myrtle Beach a 1-0 lead. Myrtle Beach added to their lead later in the inning when Alexy Lumpay and Jose Escobar scored on a double by Leonel Espinoza which increased the Pelicans lead to 3-0. The Mudcats responded in the bottom half when Yannic Walther scored on a sacrifice fly by Josh Adamczewski which cut the Pelicans lead to 3-1. The game was paused in the top of the 6th for a rain delay that lasted 23 minutes. Myrtle Beach scored in the top of the 6th when Owen Ayers scored on a single down the line by Angel Cepeda which increased the lead to 4-1.
Kevin Valdez threw 5 innings of 1 run ball where he only allowed 3 hits.
The Mudcats responded in the bottom half when Josh Adamczewski scored on a walk by Luis Lameda which cut the deficit to 4-2. Myrtle Beach added insurance to their lead in the top of the 9th when Jose Escobar scored on a single by Matt Halbach which increased their lead to 5-2. Myrtle Beach continued to add to their lead later in the inning when Leonel Escobar and Matt Halbach scored on a double by Owen Ayers which increased they lead to 7-2.
The Mudcats responded in the bottom half when Tyler Rodriguez and Yannic Walther scored on a single pass the first baseman by Braylon Payne which cut the lead to 7-4. Later in the inning Jesus Made scored on a double to left field by Josh Adamczewski which cut the lead to 7-5. Braylon Payne later scored on a wild pitch which made it 7-6. Myrtle Beach got a fly out to center for the last out which secured the 7-6 win.
The winning pitcher for Myrtle Beach was Kevin Valdez (1-1) for his 5 innings of 1 run ball. The losing pitcher for Carolina was Mevin Hernandez (3-1) for his 4.2 innings where he allowed 3 runs on 7 hits. The save went to Luis Martinez-Gomez for his .1 innings of scoreless baseball. The Pelicans record grew to 10-15. While the Mudcats record fell to 17-8. The Mudcats exited the evening 1 game ahead of the Lynchburg Hillcats. The Mudcats are back in action Saturday evening at 5:00pm against the Myrtle Beach Pelicans at Five County Stadium.