Tamayo Crushes First Career Homer As Pack Take Down Sox
Posted May 30, 2019
The Wolfpack took the win by a score of 12-6 Wednesday night against the White Sox to improve to 4-0 in league play and 7-0 overall on the young season. The offense got rolling early and the bats were hot all night, all but one member of the Wolfpack lineup recorded hits in the contest.
Wolfpack rookie Ray Tamayo smacked his first career homer to left field in the second inning in his fifth career plate appearance wearing the Curly W. "Razor" Ray Tamayo followed that up with a double in his next plate appearance and would go on to lead the Pack in RBI on the night. Tamayo's bat looks to have lengthened what was already a formidable lineup for the Wolfpack, and with some key players currently on the mend with injuries, it remains to be seen what kind of product a fully healthy Wolfpack can put on the field on a given day.
Christian Lapointe (2-0) recorded his second win of the season as the first reliever to follow opener Trent Lawson who left the game with a 4-3 lead. Although Lapointe struggled with his command allowing two walks and a hit by pitch in his two innings of work, he was able to limit the damage on the scoreboard and pitch himself out of heavy traffic on the bases for the second time this season.
Neil Robertson followed Lapointe in what was his first appearance of the 2019 season and pounded the strikezone for one inning of relief throwing 14 of his 20 pitches for strikes, included first pitch strikes to 5 of the 6 batters he faced. After an offseason incident with a microwave (details of which are still unavailable) it is good to see Robertson healthy and back to being an effective reliver for the Pack.
Matt Zanutto came in out of the bullpen for his first appearance as a pitcher for the Wolfpack and was equally as effective as he slammed the door for a two inning save. He threw 20 of 27 piches for strikes including first pitch strikes to 5 out of 8 batters faced and looked like another strong pitching option the Pack will be able to lean on as the season progresses.
The Wolfpack are playing solid baseball in all facets of the game but one, their defense has been ugly. They've already committed twelve errors through only four regular season games. If the champsionship aspirations are going to come to fruition, the Wolfpack will have to find a way to clean up the defense and average fewer than three errors per game as the pitching and defense will not always be able to bail the defense out, especially in the playoffs.
The Wolfpack are back in action for a 3pm/6pm doubleheader on Sunday June 2nd against the Longhorns. Wolfpack ace Curtis Smith is listed as the probable starter for Game 1.
