Herd takes down Columbus, 1-0
Sean Ochinko hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring the game-winning run in the top of the eighth inning as the Bisons defeated Columbus 1-0 Tuesday night at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio.
Third baseman Andy LaRoche walked to start the inning and shortstop Ryan Goins followed with a double to center field to put two runners into scoring position for Ochinko to drive in.
The young catcher delivered, although he did not get a hit, Ochinko did what he had to do to get the eventual winning run across the board. The Parkland, Fla. Native finished the night 1-for-2 and was one of just four Herd players with a hit in the game.
On the mound for the Bisons, right-hander Justin Germano made his team-leading 20th start and accomplished it with style.
Germano threw 7.2 scoreless innings, while allowing just five hits and striking out five Columbus hitters.
The 30-year-old pitcher has now thrown 119.3 innings, 79 strikeouts and 10 quality starts on the season, which all lead the team.
Goins has been hot as well for the Herd offense, batting .384 with 15 hits and seven RBI's in his last 11 games, including a 1-for-3 effort tonight.
Columbus had runners on first and second with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Herd reliever Tommy Hottovy finished the Clippers off by striking out Tim Fedroff to end the inning and keep the Bisons ahead.
Hottovy finished with on strikeout in his only batter he faced. Brad Lincoln came in for the ninth inning and allowed one single to Ryan Rohlinger, but got two groundouts, a fly out and a strikeout to get the save.
Bisons Notes: Tonight's game was the first of a four-game series at Columbus…The Bisons improved to 56-53 on the season…They are now 2 games out of the wild card spot behind Pawtucket and 3 games behind Rochester in the division…INF Mauro Gomez got Buffalo's other hit as he went 1-for-4 on the night.