Omaha Wins Second Straight in Columbus

COLUMBUS, OHIO – The Omaha Storm Chasers (28-32) won their second straight game against the Columbus Clippers (33-27) on Friday night, beating them 11-2. Three Storm Chasers batters hit home runs while the pitching staff allowed just 2 runs throughout the game.

Omaha opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd inning when Drew Waters hit a sacrifice fly to pull ahead 1-0.

Storm Chasers starter Mitch Spence retired 8 straight batters between the 1st and 3rd innings, working perfect frames in both the 2nd and 3rd innings while retiring 9 of 10 batters faced.

Helcris Olivárez (2-1) took the mound in place of Spence to open the 4th inning, but allowed an RBI single to tie the score 1-1.

The Storm Chasers responded with 6 runs in the top of the 5th inning, starting with a bases-loaded walk from Drew Waters. Abraham Toro followed with a bases-clearing, 3-run double, and Luke Maile capped off the inning with a 2-run home run to extend Omaha’s lead to 7-1.

Olivárez then pitched a scoreless 5th inning, and Dan Altavilla worked a perfect bottom of the 6th.

Altavilla came back out with a scoreless bottom of the 7th inning, and the Storm Chasers added 3 more runs of insurance in the top of the 8th inning. Kameron Misner started the inning’s scoring with a 2-run home run, his 4th home run of the series, and Matthew Lugo made it back-to-back home runs and a 10-1 lead with a solo shot the next at bat, his first homer as a Storm Chaser.

The Clippers scratched back a run in the bottom of the 8th inning with a leadoff home run off Andrew Pérez to make it 10-2, but he sat down 3 of the next 4 batters to get out of the inning.

Kevin Newman added the final run of the night for Omaha with an RBI single in the top of the 9th inning to bring the score to 11-2, and Génesis Cabrera finished the game with a scoreless bottom half.

The Storm Chasers will return to Huntington Park to take on the Clippers in Game 5 of the series on Saturday with first pitch at 6:05 P.M. CT.