Indians Drop Back-And-Forth 12-Inning Battle

INDIANAPOLIS – Following a four-hour marathon at Victory Field on Wednesday night, the Omaha Storm Chasers emerged victorious over the Indianapolis Indians, 6-5, in 12 innings.

Anthony Alford, in his second game back from nursing a wrist injury, lined a solo home run over the left field wall to put the Indians on the board in the bottom of the first. They held the 1-0 lead until the top of the fifth when Jimmy Govern launched a 446-foot home run to left field to tie the game.

Omaha (38-22) took a short-lived 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning. Edward Olivares walked with one out and came around to score on a single off the bat of the Triple-A East RBI leader Ryan McBroom.

Taylor Davis led off the Indians half of the eighth with a walk, and an error by Olivares fielding a Dee Strange-Gordon double allowed Davis to race home for the game-tying run. Strange-Gordon was later plated on a wild pitch to give the Indians another lead at 3-2.

Joe Jacques retired the first two batters he faced in the ninth, but a walk to Rudy Martin, stolen base and two-out, two-strike single by Lucius Fox tied the game, 3-3. The Indians stranded the winning run in scoring position in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings. With neither team plating the automatic runner in the first two extra frames, Omaha broke through in the 12th with three runs (two earned) off Matt Eckelman (L, 0-4).

The Indians (30-30) didn’t go quietly, collecting three consecutive singles to open the bottom of the 12th to trim the deficit back to one at 6-5. Back-to-back strikeouts by Domingo Tapia (S, 2) and a long flyout to the warning track in right field off the bat of Christian Bethancourt ended the game.

Tyler Zuber (W, 1-1) pitched a hitless 11th frame with just one walk and a strikeout to earn the win.

The Indians and Storm Chasers will face off again on Thursday night at 7:05 PM ET. RHP Max Kranick (1-2, 6.04) will face off against LHP Daniel Lynch (4-3, 6.38).