Written by Daniel Ware
Turks Staff Writer
HARRISONBURG, Va.—Powered by two home runs, the Harrisonburg Turks defeated the Waynesboro Generals 7-3 at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday night.
After an hour-long weather delay, the Turks (13-5) struck first on an RBI single by left fielder Jonathan Pryor (Wake Forest) in the bottom of the first.
In the bottom of the second, center fielder Ryne Sigmon (UNCG) hit a two-run home run to right field that just stayed fair. Coming into tonight, Sigmon was batting .038 (1-26) with seven strikeouts and seven walks in his last ten games.
John McCarren (Wake Forest) got the start for the Turks on the mound. The right-hander was effective on the night, allowing three runs on four hits over six innings of work.
The Generals (12-4) did most of their damage in the top of the fourth, with a two-run home run by left fielder Eli Putnam (UCF), his first of the season.
McCarren improved his record to 2-1 on the season with a 3.70 ERAfter the Generals closed the gap to 3-2, the Turks responded in the bottom of the fifth. Tripp Shelton (UNCG) led things off with a single to left, and two batters later Pryor reached on his second walk of the night. One batter later, Trevor Craport (Georgia Tech) hit a bases-clearing double to make it 5-2.
Greg Popatak (George Mason) followed Craport to crush a 2-2 pitch over the right field wall for his fifth home run of the year—and his fourth in five games—to give the Turks a 7-2 lead.
Popatak leads the Turks in batting average (.381), hits (24), home runs (leads the league) and is tied for the team lead in RBIs (14) through 18 games. He is also is first in the league with a blistering 1.135 OPS among batters with at least 50 plate appearances.
The opposing pitcher on the night was right-hander Tyler Howe (Alabama State). After allowing just one earned run in his previous start on June 12, Howe gave up seven earned on eight hits in five innings. With the loss tonight, Howe falls to 0-2 with a 7.20 ERA.
JMU pitchers came in for McCarren starting in the seventh inning to get the final nine outs. First, Left-hander Eric Yankey tossed a scoreless seventh, one year to the day after his single-car accident that left him with a broken leg and an injured left pinky. And second, right-hander Christian Bourne took over to start the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings of relief to end the game.
The Turks’ win brings them into a tie with Waynesboro for first in the south division. Up next, the Turks travel up to Front Royal (9-8) on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.