Tourists win suspended game, drop night contest

ASHEVILLE, NC - Completing the suspended game from Thursday night, the Asheville Tourists played in two games on Friday against the Brooklyn Cyclones at McCormick Field.

The Tourists (14-17) won the game that began yesterday 6-5, and lost the second contest 8-5 to the Cyclones (19-11).

Game 1 - Asheville 6, Brooklyn 5

The game finished 23 hours and 15 minutes after the first pitch on Thursday night. Severe rain and lightning struck the playing field and halted play in the final inning. Upon returning to the diamond, the game resumed from the suspended point, in the top of the ninth inning with a runner on first and one out in a 5-5 affair.

It didn’t take long for the deciding run to cross the plate. Just 15 minutes after resuming play, Will Bush walked it off with an RBI single after Cristian Gonzalez doubled off the center field wall to start the rally.

Amilcar Chirinos (W, 1-1) was given the win after beginning his outing yesterday in the eighth inning. He came back out to pitch again today and polished off the ninth, overall throwing in one and one-third scoreless frames.

Game 2 - Brooklyn 8, Asheville 5

Both clubs scored runs in the first inning, with Walker Janek sailing his first homer of the season into the left field bullpen to make it a 2-1 game.

Disaster struck as the Cyclones made team history in the second inning. They hit back-to-back-to-back homers for the first time since 2005. Two batters later, another big blast marked the fourth dinger of the inning, the first time in club history that Brooklyn accomplished the feat.

Yeriel Santos (L, 0-3) struggled as the starter, tossing in one and two-thirds innings while giving up six runs on eight hits.

With the game blown open after another run scored, Asheville made an attempt at a comeback, but it wasn’t enough. Trailing 7-2 in the fifth, their best shot was plating a trio of runs to draw within a pair, thanks to a homer from Joseph Sullivan and a Cristian Gonzalez single.

The Tourists couldn’t find the scoreboard again, however, and Brooklyn put up one more in the sixth inning to finalize the scoring.

With the ZOOperstarts coming to McCormick Field tomorrow, it is set to be another great night for baseball as Asheville and Brooklyn battle in Game 5 of the series, knotted at two. The first pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. ET.