Ducks edge Dirty Birds 4-3 behind bullpen in Charleston

Long Island turned a quick second-inning burst into a 4-3 road win Thursday night at GoMart Ballpark, then handed the finish to a bullpen that slammed the door on Charleston. The Ducks protected an early 3-0 lead, survived a pair of Dirty Birds rallies, and kept their second-half habit of winning tight games intact.

Alsander Womack started the scoring with an RBI single, and Chris Roller followed with a two-run single off Trent Reddick to give Long Island a three-run edge in the second. Charleston answered immediately when CC Randolph hit an opposite-field solo home run in the bottom of the inning, trimming the margin to 3-1 and making the rest of the night feel much less comfortable for the visitors.

Long Island added a needed insurance run in the fifth on a double steal by Marcus Chiu and Aaron Takacs, a sequence that ended with Chiu scoring from third on a throwing error by catcher Allan Goodwin. That run proved important after Charleston kept hanging around, scoring again in the sixth on a Yassel Pino sacrifice fly and cutting it to a one-run game in the seventh on James Nelson’s RBI double.

From there, the Ducks leaned on the kind of late-inning formula that can carry a club through playoff-style road games. Sal Romano, Bryan Shaw and Rafael Kelly combined to retire eight of the final nine batters, with Kelly striking out two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth to earn his second save of the season. Tanner Jacobson did his part up front, improving to 3-3 after allowing one run over five innings with a season-best eight strikeouts, while Reddick fell to 1-1 after giving up three runs on seven hits in four innings.

The result left Long Island at 41-28 on the Atlantic League scoreboard and Charleston at 25-44.

Long Island was scheduled to continue the six-game series Friday at 6:35 p.m. at GoMart Ballpark before returning home Tuesday, July 14, to open a six-game set against Lancaster at Fairfield Properties Ballpark.