BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR STAFF

ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

The Elizabethton Twins were hoping to pull out at least one win on the road in Burlington, North Carolina and started out Wednesday’s game hotter than a pistol.

But as the old saying goes, it’s not how you start but how you finish that counts the most and after scoring six runs in the top of the first inning, the E-Twins hot finish turned out to be a cold splash in the face.

The Royals scored a run in the bottom of the seventh and eighth inning to take a 7-6 win and earn a sweep of Elizabethton.

If there was any good news on the night for the E-Twins, it had to be that the front-running Johnson City Cardinals lost to keep the two teams separated by 1.5 games while Bristol crept within 1.5 games of Elizabethton and only 3 games behind the Cardinals.

Once again, the Royals out hit the visiting Twins 10 to 7 in the game with each team stranding nine baserunners.

The Twins opened the top of the first as DaShawn Keirsey drew a walk and was followed by a single from Max Smith.

After an infield fly retired Seth Gray, Parker Phillips laced a single to center field that plated Keirsey.

A wild pitch from Royals starting pitcher Adan Frias allowed Smith and Phillips to advance a base followed by a walk to Matt Wallner that loaded the bags full of Twins.

Frias was quickly replaced by Donavin Buck who enticed Trevor Jensen into a sacrifice fly that chased Smith home.

Anthony Prato followed with a single allowing Phillips to come across the plate. Another walk to Will Holland loaded the bases once again for Elizabethton.

A double off the bat of Janigson Villalobos cleared the bags and staked the E-Twins to a 6-0 lead after Keirsey fanned to end the top half of the inning.

From there, it was all Burlington as the Royals held the E-Twins in check the rest of the game while scoring the seven runs to take the win.

Phillips and Villalobos led the Twins with two base hits apiece with each tagging a double in the contest.

Ryan Shreve (0-2) blew the save opportunity and took the loss for Elizabethton. Andriu Marin started on the hill for the Twins and went 4.1 innings giving up five runs on four hits. Marin recorded six strikeouts in his work.

The Twins open an important three-game series tonight hosting the Bristol Pirates as both teams battle to overtake Johnson City.

*Twins notes

— Right-handed pitcher Prelander Berroa has been traded to the San Francisco Giants along with Jaylin Davis and Kai-Wei Teng in exchange for Sam Dyson.

–Former Elizabethton Twins player Loek van Mil was killed in a fatal accident this past weekend. Loek played for Elizabethton in 2007.