Season Reaches the Brink After Another Blown Lead

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists have now suffered their three largest blown leads to lose a game this season in a five-day stretch. Asheville let a 4-0 lead get away from them and fell to the Rome Braves by a final score of 8-4. Just like in the previous two losses, the lead evaporated in one inning.
The Braves did almost all of their damage in the bottom of the fourth inning. They scored six runs on seven hits and sent ten batters to the plate. Rome had a total of three hits combined over the other seven innings.

Asheville's starting pitcher, Frederis Parra , was left in the game throughout the entire rally. Parra had been good over the first three frames and the offense even staked him a healthy lead.
The Tourists executed a perfect safety squeeze bunt in the second inning to open the scoring. Cristopher Navarro laid down the bunt and Willie MacIver sprinted home on the play. In the third inning John Cresto came to the plate with the bases loaded and smacked a two-run single into left. Coco Montes made it 4-0 later in the inning when he scored on a throwing error.
After the Braves plated their six runs in the fourth the Tourists went to Raymells Rosa for a spark. Rosa was electric on the mound. The reliever retired all seven Braves batters he faced including the final six all with strikeouts.
Much like in the previous two blown-lead losses the offense never really got back into their groove. Asheville did not have a runner reach third base from the fifth inning on. The Tourists are now one loss or one Augusta win away from being eliminated from a second half Southern division title. Asheville and Augusta each have two games left on their schedules.