Harlow Shines in Debut and Decolati Goes Deep in Losing Effort

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists lost for the third straight night to the Lakewood BlueClaws but unlike the first two defeats Asheville never led on Saturday night. A few costly defensive miscues plus a strong Lakewood pitching performance hindered Asheville in the 4-2 loss.
Colten Schmidt started for the Tourists and despite suffering the loss actually lowered his league-best ERA to 1.69. Schmidt was tagged for a run in the third inning and surrendered an unearned run in the fourth due to a pair of Tourists throwing errors in the frame. Colten finished with 5.2 innings pitched and seven strikeouts.

The Tourists did not score a run while Schmidt was in the game. They actually only had one hit. Lakewood then plated two big insurance runs in the seventh inning when a routine fly ball fell in-between two Tourists outfielders in a miscommunication as to who was going to catch it. The play was ruled a double; however, the mistake played a large role in the game's outcome.
Niko Decolati put Asheville on the board in the bottom of the seventh with his first Home Run of the season; a solo shot to deep centerfield. John Cresto doubled in the eighth and scored on Will Golsan 's brilliant RBI bunt single to the right side of the pitcher's mound. That was as close as the Tourists would come.
Colton Harlow pitched the eighth and ninth innings for the Tourists and dazzled in his debut. Harlow retired six of the seven batters he faced. The first five outs Colton induced were groundouts and the last was a strikeout.
Asheville is down to one game left in the first half. It is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at 2:05pm. The Tourists have secured a sixth place first-half finish in the Southern division; however, come Thursday each team's record resets for the start of the second half.