Omaha Drops Second Straight to Bulls

OMAHA, NEB. – The Omaha Storm Chasers dropped their second straight game to the Durham Bulls, falling 7-2 on Wednesday night.

Coming off back-to-back quality starts and International League Pitcher of the Week honors, right-hander Thomas Hatch made his 12th start for Omaha. In the top of the 1st inning, Durham scored the first run of the game with an RBI single for a 1-0 lead.

Hatch faced the minimum through the third, but the Bulls took a 4-0 lead in the 4th inning after a triple, single, hit-by-pitch, and double plated three runners. With runners on first and third, Hatch prevented more runs from scoring after a runner was caught stealing, and he retired a consecutive pair of batters to close the frame.

Noah Murdock relieved Hatch and worked a scoreless 6th inning, and Sam Long followed Murdock with his 11th Major League rehab appearance in the top of the 7th. Durham extended its lead to 6-0 after a 2 RBI triple; however, the runs were unearned after a 1-out Omaha error.

Junior Fernández relieved Long in the 8th, and the Bulls stretched their lead to 7-0 with an RBI single. Evan Sisk, who has not allowed a run in June, worked a scoreless 9th inning for the Storm Chasers.

After 8 innings of shutout baseball from the Bulls, Omaha plated two runs in the ninth to make the score 7-2. Joey Wiemer walked and Tyler Gentry added a 2-run home run, a homer for the second straight game, though the Chasers failed to plate any more runs, cementing the 7-2 final score.

The Storm Chasers return to action on Thursday, June 19 with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. CT at Werner Park. Right-hander Chandler Champlain is scheduled to pitch.