Game Recaps 8/6: Columbus Wins Seventh Straight

Clippers walk past Chiefs 5-4

The Clippers extended their winning streak to seven straight games as they beat the Syracuse Chiefs 5-4 at Huntington Park.

It was a rough fourth inning for Clippers starting pitcher Jeanmar Gomez. With two outs, Matt Antonelli walked. After a Seth Bynum single and a Jhonaton Solano walk to load the bases, Jeff Frazier singled to left field and drove in two runs to give the Chiefs a 2-0 advantage. It would become 3-0 when Cory Brown came through with an RBI single.

Needing to rally, the Clippers got to work in the bottom of the fourth. Jerad Head led off the frame with a double down the left field line. After a Thomas Neal groundout that allowed Head to advance to third, Nick Johnson lined a double off the right field wall, driving in Head to make it 3-1. Two batters later, Beau Mills laced a single up the middle to score Johnson from second and make it a 3-2 ballgame.

In the bottom half of the sixth, the Clippers would tie the ball game when Jerad Head crushed a solo shot, his 21st home run of the season, to deep left field, making it 3-3. That was followed by a Chad Huffman single and a Nick Johnson walk. After a failed sacrifice attempt by Jared Goedert, Beau Mills was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Luke Carlin then hit a grounder to shortstop Steve Lombardozzi who was able to force out Huffman at home for the second out. Tim Fedroff was not able to give Columbus the lead as he grounded out to second to end the inning.

The Clippers looked to grab the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Cord Phelps and Luis Valbuena led the inning off with singles of their own accord. Jerad Head then hit a grounder to short that looked like a tailor made 6-4-3 double play, but ending up being a simple fielder's choice as Valbuena did a good job of breaking up the play by disrupting Chiefs second baseman Matt Antonelli who was not able to attempt a throw to first. After a Chad Huffman strikeout, Nick Johnson struck out looking to end the Clippers threat.

This time the Clippers would grab the lead the bottom of the eighth. Jared Goedert was hit by a pitch to start the inning. While Beau Mills was batting, Goedert advanced to second on a passed ball. Mills ended up inducing a walk to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Following a successful sacrifice bunt by Luke Carlin, Tim Fedroff hit a small nubber that Atahualpa Severino scooped up and fielded to home to tag up Goedert for the second out. Cord Phelps would then finally deliver with a chopper that found its way into left field for an RBI base hit that gave Columbus a 4-3 lead.

Josh Judy came in to try to nail down the save, but could not as he gave up a solo drive to Corey Brown that tied the contest at 4-4.

In the bottom of the ninth, Columbus worked some walk-off magic to get the victory. Chad Huffman walked with one out. Nick Johnson was then able to reach safely when his groundball went through the wickets of Syracuse shortstop Steve Lombardozzi and into left field. Severino, who was still pitching in the ninth for the Chiefs, intentionally walked Jared Goedert to set up the force at home. Unfortunately, Severino could not find the strike zone to the next batter as he walked Beau Mills on a 3-2 pitch, walking in the game-winning run.

Josh Judy (6-2) picked up the win. Severino (1-1) was hit with the loss.

Aeros Drop Game Two To Rock Cats, 4-3

The Akron Aeros dropped game two of a three-game series against the New Britain Rock Cats 4-3 Saturday at Canal Park.

Right-handed pitcher Steve Wright suffered the loss for the Aeros lasting six innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits, walking four and striking out three.

Left-handed pitcher Andrew Albers earned the win for New Britain pitching five innings, giving up two earned runs on six hits and striking out four while walking none. Left-hander Tyler Robertson recorded the last six outs to earn the save.

The Aeros (59-55) and Rock Cats (56-57) traded single runs in the first inning.

In the top of the third inning, the Rock Cats took a 2-1 lead on a Yangervis Solarte RBI single.

The Aeros answered with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning. With one out, Raul Padron tripled and later scored on a wild pitch to tie the game 2-2.
The Rock Cats retook the lead at 3-2 in the top of the fifth inning when Chris Herrmann scored on a double play.

Herrmann doubled home a run two innings later to make it 4-2.

The Aeros got a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, but drew no closer as they fell to the Rock Cats.

Saturday's Game Cancelled

Salem at Kinston rained out on Saturday night. The two teams will finish the series with a doubleheader starting at 12:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.

Dayton Pounds on Lake County 12-0

Lake County got embarrassed on Saturday night by Dayton 12-0 at Classic Park as Josh Smith tossed six scoreless innings for the win leading the way for the Dragons.

Captains fans had a moment to cheer, when they saw their favorite on field host, Andrew Grover, propose to his girlfriend Amanda Schmidt on the visiting dugout in the seventh inning.

Dayton jumped on Lake County in the first inning. David Vidal got the ball rolling with a shot down the leftfield line scoring a pair of runs. Drew Poulk drove in his first RBI of the night with a single to right field to make 3-0.

Drew Poulk was at it again in the fifth inning, with the bases loaded, Poulk doubled to the ally in left driving in all three runners giving the Dragons a 6-0 lead.

The seventh inning just got ugly for the Captains. Dayton sent eleven hitters to the plate, scoring six runs on just four hits, with the help of two errors and lead 12-0 nothing at the stretch.

Smith (10-6) picked up the win, with six innings of work, allowing five hits, walking one and striking seven. Kirk Wetmore (3-1) took the loss allowing six runs, five earned on six hits in five innings of action, no walks and three strike outs.

Top Doubledays to Split Series

Todd Hankins and Jordan Smith had two RBIs each and Rob Nixon pitched six innings in the Scrappers 5-3 win over the Auburn Doubledays.
Nixon allowed a run in the top of the first inning, but Hankins tripled in two in the bottom of the inning and scored on a wild pitch to put the Scrappers up 3-1.

Auburn scored in the second to make it 3-2, but Smith drove in a run in the third to put the Scrappers up 4-2. The Doubledays scored a run in the fifth to make it 4-3 before Smith's RBI in the bottom of the inning gave the Scrappers a two-run lead.

Nixon picked up his fourth consecutive win and improved to 5-3. Auburn starter Nathan Karns picked up the loss to fall to 1-2. Enosil Tejeda pitched a scoreless ninth inning to earn his seventh save.

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