Hoping for another promotion (to Clearwater), three Piedmont relievers then handed out floppy bats to Cape Fear’s last 10 hitters.

Actually, Croc hitters swung standard wood. But they just didn’t do any damage as Weevil pen pals Matt Bailie, Franklin Perez and Justin Fry combined to pitch one-hit ball over the final frames to nail down a 7-5 win for the first-half champion Weevils. The trio helped make teenager Brett Myers an eight-game winner. Myers leads the Piedmont staff in victories.

“The bullpen’s been just outstanding all year,” said Weevil manager Greg Legg, who has employed a six-headed monster rather than using any one guy as an exclusive closer.

“That was the plan going in,” said Legg. “To let all of them pitch in crunch-time situations. All of them have gotten game-on-the-line innings and all of them have done the job.”

Bullpenners Bailie, Fry, Perez, Chris Keelin, South Atlantic League all-star Mark Outlaw and Elio Serrano have combined for 19 saves. Fry, an Ohio State Buckeye who fanned 13 of the first 18 pro batters he faced last season at Batavia, leads the Piedmont save parade with a modest seven.

For quite awhile, it looked as if Piedmont starter Myers might give the pen the night off. A former No. 1 pick out of the Florida high school ranks last June, Myers had a shutout until the sixth. He took a comfortable 6-1 bulge into the seventh, but exited after a walk and two singles opened that inning.

“What happened was the Brett didn’t get a break between innings,” said Legg. “We went out real quick in our half of the sixth. They didn’t hit Brett real hard in the seventh, but they started to find some holes.”

Bailie, an Oregon State product, pitched around an error to get the Weevils out of that seventh-inning mess, then Perez, a 19-year-old Dominican, put up a dominating 1-2-3 eighth and Fry fanned two in a perfect ninth.

The win enabled Myers to keep rolling with his consistently impressive season. He’s been in on three shutouts, has beaten the Weevils’ biggest rival, Hickory, twice and hasn’t gone more than a dozen days without a win. He already has three wins in June.

“To see Myers now and to know where he was the first day of spring training, well, it’s just unbelievable how far he’s come,” said Legg. “When they voted for the all-star team he was just 4-2, now he’s 8-2. But maybe he’ll be on the postseason all-stars. Frankie Brooks (the SAL’s Pitcher of the Week) is in the same boat. He was 3-2. Now he’s 6-2.”

No one had a huge offensive game for Piedmont (46-24), as eight different Weevils divvied up the team’s eight hits.

But it wasn’t hard to pick out the biggest hit. It came from the surprising bat of third baseman Buzz Hannahan, who drove a two-run single through the left side to ignite Piedmont’s five-run fifth.

Hannahan had exactly one RBI for the season (in 78 at-bats) prior to his clutch single.

“Yeah, but Buzz has helped us win a lot of games,” said Legg. “Either with his defense or just by moving runners or by getting on base. He’s a good young player.”

Russ Jacobson also knocked in two runs with a fifth-inning single and a seventh-inning sac fly.

The defensive highlight for Piedmont came in the sixth when rightfielder Jorge Padilla shot down Cape Fear’s Brandon Phillips when he tried to score from second on a base hit by Richard Lane.

Mostly, though, you could chalk this one up to the bullpen.