Huff Homers, But Clippers Fall Short on Friday Night

INDIANAPOLIS – After back-to-back day games, the Columbus Clippers and Indianapolis Indians six-game series was once again under the lights at Victory Field on Friday night.

The offense was stagnant on both sides until the top of the fifth. Kyle Datres led off with a single, Milan Tolentino was then hit by a pitch. Christian Cairo grounded into a force out, putting runners on the corners for C.J. Kayfus. The Clippers rightfielder lifted a flyball to right, deep enough to score Datres from third. The sacrifice fly put Columbus in front, 1-0.

Vince Velasquez was tremendous on the hill. The Montclair, CA native worked four shutout innings in his fifth start in a Clippers uniform. He struck out six Indy batters, surrendering five hits and only one walk.

Indianapolis broke through in the bottom of the sixth. Will Dion (L, 1-3) entered the game for the ClipShow and gave up four straight singles, putting the Indians ahead, 2-1. A sacrifice fly from Brett Sullivan extended their lead to 3-1.

That's where things stayed until the eighth. With one away, Kody Huff disposed of a Dauri Moreta fastball 395 feet away over the left field wall. The second round tripper of the season for the former Stanford Cardinal cut the Indy lead to 3-2.

In the ninth, after a pop out, Milan Tolentino walked, but was picked off of first. Christian Cairo singled, but was left stranded after a groundout ended the game.

Indianapolis has taken three of the first four games of the series and improves to 19-16, the Clippers fall to 15-19. The series continues at Victory Field on Saturday night, first pitch scheduled for 6:35pm. Columbus returns home after a two-week road trip on Tuesday, May 20th for a world famous Tansky Tuesday Dime-A-Dog Night. Tickets are available by visiting ClippersBaseball.com.