Sox Pitching Dominates Omaha In 4-0 Win

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - The Sky Sox rode dominant pitching and two, two-run innings to a 4-0 win over the Omaha Storm Chasers before a crowd of 6,035 at Werner Park on Sunday afternoon.

Colorado Springs jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Storm Chasers starter Casey Coleman (0-2, 4.46) thanks to an RBI double from the recently returned Elian Herrera and RBI single by Nevin Ashley. The Sox would tally four hits in the frame while Omaha's defense struggled with two errors.

Coming off an excellent MLB debut that saw him toss seven innings of one-run ball against the NL-leading St. Louis Cardinals, Sky Sox starter Tyler Cravy (6-4, 3.60) turned in another spectacular outing. The right-hander allowed just six hits over six innings, striking out three and walking none in the scoreless effort.

The Sox tacked on two more in the top of the sixth against Omaha reliever Clayton Mortensen, who came on in relief of Coleman in the top of the fifth. Ashley opened the inning with a walk before Matt Long doubled, giving Colorado Springs runners on second and third. Yadiel Rivera followed with a groundout, failing to advance the runners and bring Logan Schafer to the plate with a prime opportunity to extend the lead. The centerfielder did just that, smacking a two run single off of Mortensen to give the Sky Sox a 4-0 lead that they would maintain until game's end. Mortensen and Coleman would each toss four innings of two-run ball with Coleman allowing six hits to Mortensen's five.

Ariel Pena and Jim Henderson would close out the Sox win in dominating fashion as the two combined to toss three perfect innings, striking out six Omaha batters along the way. In fact, Sox pitching would team up to strike out nine total batters while allowing just six total hits in the 4-0 win over the Storm Chasers.

Colorado Springs recorded 12 total hits as each starter reached base safely at least once while Pete Orr, Ashley, Long and Schafer collected the team's multi-hit games.

With the win, the Sky Sox improve to 23-32 as they drop Omaha to a .500 record at 29-29.

The Sox will look to make it four-in-a-row on Monday night as they square off with Omaha in game three of this four-game set. Tyler Thornburg (1-2, 3.98) matches up against Storm Chasers right-hander Yohan Pino (3-2, 6.49) with first pitch set for 6:05 PM MDT at Werner Park.