Omaha Falls To Iowa Despite Rave’s 3-Hit Game

DES MOINES, IOWA – The Omaha Storm Chasers (7-7) fell 7-3 to the Iowa Cubs (8-6) Saturday afternoon. The Storm Chasers led early, but 6 runs from the Cubs between the 5th and 6th innings put Iowa on top, and the hosts didn’t look back. John Rave stayed hot with a 3-for-4 day while Nick Loftin, Josh Rojas and Drew Waters each had 2 hits.

The Storm Chasers started the afternoon with a pair of runs on four hits in the top of the 1st inning, with RBI singles from both Rojas and Waters putting Omaha up 2-0.

Omaha starter Ryan Ramsey opened the game with 4.0 scoreless innings, including a pair of 1-2-3 innings, even striking out the side in the bottom of the 4^th. The game stayed 2-0 until the bottom of the 5th inning when the Cubs finally got to Ramsey with an RBI single. Ramsey then surrendered a 2-run single before the Storm Chasers turned to Helcris Olivárez out of the bullpen with Iowa up 3-2.

The Cubs scored another 3 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning, this time on Olivarez to extend the lead to 6-2.

Omaha got a run back in the top of the 7th inning on a two-out rally where Loftin drove in Rave with an RBI double, cutting the deficit to 6-3.

Right-hander Brandon Johnson took over for the Storm Chasers in the bottom of the 7th inning, but Iowa scored again with an RBI double to make it 7-3.

Neither team scored from there, with Johnson recording 2 outs in the 8th inning before Andrew Pérez got the final out of the frame.

Rave collected his third hit of the game in the top of the 9th inning, but Iowa worked out of the frame without anymore damage to secure the win.

The Storm Chasers dropped back to .500 with the loss, but have a chance to claim the series victory with a win in the series finale at 1:08 P.M. CT on Sunday at Principal Park. The Storm Chasers expect right-hander Stephen Kolek to make his first start of the season in an MLB rehab assignment.