Tinoco Strong but Tourists Come Up Short

ASHEVILLE, NC-- It has been a rough year for Asheville Tourists starting pitcher Jesus Tinoco. After a stellar campaign in 2015, the right-hander has struggled to take the next step. Tinoco finished his up-and-down 2016 season on Friday night and put together a solid pitching performance.

The Piar, Venezuela native tossed six innings, allowed just two earned runs, and struck out a season-high six batters. Unfortunately, Tinoco and the Tourists suffered a 5-1 loss at the hands of the Hagerstown Suns. Despite the result, Tinoco will take positive momentum into the off-season as he prepares for a bounce-back year in 2017.

Tinoco retired the first ten Suns batters he faced. In the fourth, Ian Sagdal broke up the streak with a single. Two batters later, Rhett Wiseman hit a two-run Home Run to put the Suns in front. Hagerstown added an unearned run later in the inning.

Asheville plated their only run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Max George doubled and went to third on a Carlos Herrera single. Scotty Burcham hit a sacrifice fly to score George and cut the lead to 3-1. The Tourists put a runner in scoring position in three of the next four innings but could not come up with the big hit.

Hagerstown scored one in the seventh and added one more in the ninth. Taylor Guilbeau picked up the win by pitching 5.2 innings. The lefty struck out seven and surrendered a total of five hits. Jake Johansen and Philip Walby combined to pitch the final 3.1 innings of the game out of the Suns bullpen.

Asheville and Hagerstown are back in action on Saturday night with the first pitch set for 6:05pm.