Perez Homers Twice In 7-5 Win, Lujan Earns Save #19

SUGAR LAND, Texas – The Riversharks tied the series at two games each against the Skeeters with a win in game four by the final score of 7-5 at Constellation Field in front of 6249 Sunday evening.

Heath Phillips got the call for the Skeeters in the series finale in his 12th start of the season. The lefty carried a one-run lead into the top of the third thanks to Josh Pressley’s RBI single in the first that scored Dominic Ramos after a leadoff double, but struggled when he reached the third. 

Jake Eigsti led off the inning with a double and advanced to third on a groundout in the following at-bat. Chris Walker brought him home with an RBI single to tie the game at one-a-piece. Lloyd Turner reached on a single of his own to put runners on first and second with one out in the inning, but the damage came when Eduardo Perez came to the plate.

The right fielder notched his fifth home run of the season with a long-ball to left giving the visitors a 4-1 lead.

Sugar Land battled back in the bottom of the fourth after keeping Camden off the board in the visitor-half of the inning off Keith Weiser (5-5). Matt Hagen led off with a double off the top of the wall in left-center field and was brought home in the next at-bat by Iggy Suarez. The second baseman popped a long shot off the signage of the picnic plaza down the left-field line for his fourth home run of the season to cut the deficit down to one, 4-3.

Pedro Liriano relieved Phillips in the fifth inning with the team down one, but the right hander gave up a one-out solo home run to former major leaguer Pedro Feliz that doubled the lead, 5-3. In the seventh, Liriano again gave up the long ball to the switch-hitting Perez. After cranking a homer off Phillips in the third from the right-side of the plate, Perez knocked a solo shot off Liriano from the left side to increase the lead up to three, 6-3.

The Skeeters scored one run in the bottom of the seventh after Pressley singled and scored on an Octavio Martinez RBI single,6-4, but Camden scored an insurance run in the top of the ninth when Walker came around on an RBI single from Feliz to re-up the lead to three, 7-4.

John Lujan came in to pitch a scoreless eighth, but in the ninth struggled to get through cleanly. Matt Hagen knocked the seventh home run of the series off Lujan and the second of the game for Sugar Land in the leadoff spot to cut the lead back down to two, 7-5, but Lujan managed to get Ramos to ground into an inning-ending six-unassisted to first double play to end the game.