Sowers One-Hitter Gives Herd Doubleheader Split

Sowers faced just one more than the minimum as his one-hit masterpiece helped the Herd to a doubleheader split with the Pawtucket Red Sox. The southpaw retired the final 18 batters of a 1-0 victory in game one of the twin bill. The PawSox rebounded to win the night cap, 5-4.

Sowers absolutely dominated Pawtucket in just his 10th career start at the Triple-A level. He issued a 1st-inning walk to Trent Durrington but quickly erased him by inducing Dustin Pedroia to hit into a double play. Hee-Seop Choi led off the 2nd inning with a single, but Sowers responded by stranding the base runner en route to retiring the final 18 batters he faced.

Sowers finished off the complete-game victory on just 80 pitches. He fanned three batters and didn't allow a PawSox to reach second base.

The last Bison to throw a complete-game, one-hit shutout was Jason Beverlin, who beat Rochester 2-0 in the first game of a doubleheader on April 23, 2002. Kyle Denney and Scott Stewart combined on a one-hit, ten-inning, 2-1 victory over Ottawa on August 14, 2004.

Sowers is now 6-1 on the season with a razor-thin 1.07ERA. He has won four straight starts and has allowed more than one earned run in only one of his nine starts this year.

The only run support Sowers needed came in the 5th inning when Jason Dubois singled home Eider Torres with two outs. The Bisons had nine hits in the first game.

Pawtucket rallied to win the night cap thanks to a run in the 7th inning. Jeff Bailey's seeing-eye single off Ben Howard with two outs broke a 4-4 tie to give the Red Sox the split.

Game two started much different than the first game of the night. Pawtucket scored a pair of unearned runs in the top of the 1st and the Herd responded with RBI-hits from Ryan Garko and Jason Cooper in the bottom half. Buffalo then took a 4-2 lead as Ben Francisco singled home a run in the 2nd and Einar Diaz drove home Cooper in the 3rd. The PawSox tied the score at four with a pair of runs in the top of the 4th inning.

Rob Bell started game two but earned a no decision. He worked 5.1 innings and gave up four runs (two earned) on four hits. Vic Darensbourg (0-1) took the loss as he allowed Ron Calloway to single before Bailey's game-winning hit.

The Bisons will now host the Syracuse SkyChiefs for a two-game series that begins with Armed Forces Night on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. There will be plenty of special ceremonies including a pre game flyover and post game pyrotechnics. Don't miss Countdown to Bisons Baseball on WECK AM 1230 and WSPQ AM 1330, starting at 6:45 p.m.

BISON NOTES:The two earned runs that Pawtucket scored in the 4th inning of game two were their only earned runs against the four Bisons starters in the four-game series. Jason Stanford threw six shutout innings on Thursday and Jeremy Guthrie blanked the PawSox over five innings on Wednesday...In the two games combined, Franklin Gutierrez went 3-5 with three singles, two walks and a run scored...Sowers is now tied for 1st in the IL with six wins and 2nd in the league with his 1.07ERA...Ben Francisco stole a base in each game. He know leads the team with 11 steals.