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Railriders slugger Rob Segedin rounds third base on his way to the plate Sunday after walloping a home run in the fourth inning against Pawtucket.

Pawtucket catcher Humberto Quintero chases after an over-throw at home plate while allowed Cole Figueroa of the RailRiders to score.

Railriders center fielder Tyler Austin sets to catch a deep fly ball hit by Pawtucket’s Garin Cecchini in the fourth inning of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre’s victory.

MOOSIC —Rob Refsnyder had been struggling for the of the first month of the season with his batting average under .200 before Saturday’s doubleheader against Pawtucket.

He started to break out of his slump on Saturday with two hits in the second game. He continued to raise his average on Sunday with a 3-for-5 performance, leading the RailRiders to an 8-3 win over Pawtucket at PNC Field.

The short surge left Refsnyder with a batting average of .246 to begin Monday’s game in Gwinnett.

“To be honest, I’m not really feeling that great right now and it helps when guys are on base,” Refsnyder said. “Some mechanical things, just grinding and I can’t really give away these at-bats because when you’re cold you gotta grind it out and when you get hot, hopefully it kind of takes off. That’s where I’m at right now, I’m just grinding and hopefully it picks up soon.”

Refsnyder scored the second run of the game for the RailRiders in the top of the first inning, scoring on a two-run double by Ben Gamel, who followed an RBI-single from Kyle Roller as the RailRiders went ahead 3-0 in the first inning against Pawtucket starter Keith Couch.

“You always want to come out aggressive and put pressure on them,” said Roller, who finished 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI.

After SWB missed an opportunity for more runs in the second when Refsnyder grounded into a doubleplay with the bases loaded to end the frame, the PawSox got on the board in the next half inning. Deven Marrero led off with a single against SWB starter Matt Tracy, the first hit of the game for the team, and Humberto Quintero homered to cut SWB’s lead to a run at 3-2.

That was the closest the Red Sox would get to SWB on the afternoon as the RailRiders split the four-game set with Pawtucket and won four of the seven games on the homestand.

Rob Segedin’s first home run of the season, a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth, gave the RailRiders a 4-2 lead. The RailRiders opened up the score by sending 10 batters to the plate in the sixth inning and scoring four runs on four hits. The Red Sox helped SWB by making two errors, but the RailRiders capitalized on the miscues and got run-scoring hits from Refsnyder and Cole Figueroa.

“You always want to answer when they score some runs. When they gain some momentum you want to come back and put it right back in your hands,” Segedin said.

Right-hander Joel De La Cruz, who entered Sunday with an ERA of 7.20 after allowing six runs (four earned) in five innings pitched this season, retired 10 in a row in his four innings pitched before allowing a solo shot to Matt Spring with one out in the top of the seventh. De La Cruz (1-0) picked up the win, giving up just two hits and one run and saw his ERA drop more than two runs. Six of the 10 outs he recorded were on groundballs.

“De La’s got great stuff. He’s a quality pitcher. He could eat up some groundballs and I thought he did a heck of a job today keeping them off-balance,” Roller said. “And that was huge for us.”

De La Cruz had a solid performance, and so did the SWB offense, tying a season-high for runs on 13 hits. Four batters — Slade Heathcott, Refsnyder, Roller and Segedin — all had multiple hits, and all nine hitters reached base at least once.

RailRiders 8, Red Sox 3

Pawtucket`AB`R`H`BI

Bradley Jr. rf`3`0`0`0

Weeks 2b`4`0`1`0

Shaw 3b`4`0`0`0

Montz lf`4`0`1`0

Spring 1b`4`1`1`1

Cecchini dh`3`0`1`0

Marrero ss`4`1`1`0

Quintero c`4`1`1`2

Berry cf`2`0`0`0

Totals`32`3`6`3

RailRiders`AB`R`H`BI

Heathcott cf`4`2`2`0

Noonan dh`5`0`1`0

Refsnyder 2b`5`1`3`1

Roller 1b`5`1`2`1

Austin rf`4`0`0`0

Gamel lf`4`0`1`2

Romine c`4`1`1`0

Figueroa ss`4`1`1`1

Segedin 3b`3`2`2`1

Totals`38`8`13`6

Pawtucket`002`000`100`—`3

RailRiders`300`104`00x`—`8

E: Shaw (1), Spring (1). DP: Red Sox 1, RailRiders 1. LOB: Red Sox 5, RailRiders 9. 2B: Montz (4), Roller (3), Romine (4), Segedin (1). HR: Quintero (3), Spring (2), Segedin (1).

Pawtucket`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO

Couch (L, 1-3)`5.1`9`6`5`2`1

Celestino`2.2`4`2`0`1`2

RailRiders`IP`H`R`ER`BB`SO

Tracy `3.0`2`2`2`0`0

De La Cruz (W, 1-0)`4.0`2`1`1`0`1

Lindgren`0.2`1`0`0`1`1

Burawa`1.1`1`0`0`1`2

PB: Romine (2)

HBP: Berry (by Tracy)

Umpires: 1B: Nic Lentz. 3B: Max Guyll. HP: Seth Buckminster

T: 2:26. Att: 4,564