Tides surge late but fall to Bats in extras

Norfolk rallied with three late runs to push the game to extras, but Louisville's Darnell Sweeney hit a two-run home run in the 10^th inning to propel the Bats to a 5-3 win over the Tides Wednesday night at Harbor Park.

The Tides trailed the contest 3-0 in the seventh inning before David Washington extended his hitting streak to a career-high 16 games with a two-run home run off of Bats starter Robert Stephenson. One inning later, Johnny Giavotella belted a two-out double to score Chris Dickerson and tie the game at 3-3.
The contest stayed tied until the 10^th, when Sweeney lined a 1-1 pitch off of Richard Rodríguez (4-3) into the right field bullpen for a 5-3 lead. It was the second home run of the season for Sweeney and snapped a seven-game scoreless stretch for Rodriguez, who entered play with a .179 average against in June.
Washington's hitting streak is the longest by a Tides player this year, and is just two games shy of matching the longest stretch in the International League this season. The 26-year-old has hit .381 (24-63) with six home runs, six doubles and 13 RBI over that span.
Chris Dickerson singled three times, walked, stole a base and scored a run for Norfolk, while Pedro Álvarez added two hits and a run scored. Over his last 12 games, Alvarez has now hit .320 (16-50) with three home runs and 11 RBI.
Norfolk starter Tyler Wilson took a no-decision after yielding three runs - two earned - on five hits over 5.2 innings of work. The UVA product walked one and struck out three, as he threw 65 of his 98 pitches for strikes. Wilson yielded a run in the first frame on an RBI single by Brandon Dixon before surrendering two runs in the sixth on an RBI double by Jesse Winker and a throwing error by Drew Dosch.
Over his last five starts, Wilson has now gone 2-0 with a 3.76 ERA (12 ER, 28.2 IP), allowing three earned runs or less in four of those five outings.
The two teams will wrap up their four-game set on Thursday afternoon at Harbor Park, with first pitch slated for 12:05. Jordan Kipper (2-4, 5.11) will make the start for Norfolk and be opposed by right-hander Sal Romano (1-2, 3.23).
Notes: With a walk Wednesday, Chris Dickerson now has 19 walks in June, tops in the International League… Johnny Giavotella's RBI double in the eighth inning extended his hitting streak to 10 games, his fourth hitting streak of seven games or more in 2017… David Washington has seven of Norfolk's 20 home runs at Harbor Park this season…The Tides dropped to 3-5 in extra-innings, while Louisville improved to 6-7 in extras this season.
June 28 highlights