Bullpen to the rescue

Credit catcher Austin Romine for giving Charleston the lead against the Columbus Catfish on Wednesday night, but credit relievers Craig Heyer and Jonathan Ortiz for making sure the RiverDogs kept it.

Charleston beat the Catfish 10-8 in a South Atlantic League baseball game at Riley Park, with Romine going 3-for-4 with two homers and three RBIs.

"It's just good to be back home in Charleston," Romaine said. "We're just trying to finish up strong."

The game had devolved into a slugfest before relievers Craig Heyer and Jonathan Ortiz restored some semblance of order to the pitching mound for the RiverDogs.

Heyer (6-0) pitched 2 2/3 innings, allowing one run, unearned, on two hits with no walks and three strikeouts.

Ortiz came on to pitch the ninth to get his league-leading 32nd save.

"Heyer has been our guy all year and Ortiz is going to make a run at the all-time save record if we keep playing well," said RiverDogs manager Torre Tyson.

The RiverDogs (73-53, 28-28 second half) and the Catfish (59-65, 32-22 second half) will play a doubleheader tonight, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:05 p.m.

Charleston trailed 8-7 heading to the bottom of the sixth, but Jesus Montero homered with one out and Romine followed with his second home run of the game to put the RiverDogs in the lead for good.

Montero was 2-for-5 with four RBIs.

Charleston trailed 6-3, but took a 7-6 lead with four runs in the fourth, highlighted by Montero's three-run double to center on an 0-2 pitch and Romine's RBI single.

A two-run error in the sixth put Columbus back in the lead 8-6.

It was back and forth all night.

The Catfish broke a 2-2 tie with two runs in the third on Reid Fronk's RBI single and Stephen Voight's run-scoring triple.

Charleston cut it to 4-3 in the bottom half of the inning when Brandon Laird drew a bases-loaded walk, but the Catfish scored two runs in the top of the fourth to move ahead 6-3.

Columbus had taken a 2-0 lead on Mike McCormick's two-run homer in the top of the second, but the RiverDogs tied it in the bottom half of the inning on consecutive solo homers by Romine and Laird.

Coming up

Lance Pendleton (7-7, 3.62 ERA) is scheduled to pitch the first game of tonight's doubleheader for the RiverDogs, with Jesse Darcy (6-3, 3.12 ERA) scheduled to start for the Catfish.

Ryan Zink (2-2, 3.16 ERA) is the expected Game 2 starter for the RiverDogs, while Josh Johnson (4-7, 5.99 ERA) is the scheduled starter for the Catfish.

Tonight's doubleheader marks the last Thirsty Thursday of the season, with $1 food and drink specials in the Ashley View Pub all evening.

Gates open at 5 p.m.