(Media release from the Rome Braves):
A couple of longballs from Hickory’s Ortiz and 12 left on base for the Braves resulted in a 7-2 loss for Rome on Wednesday night.
Rome (10-10, 40-46) drew first blood on the Crawdads (15-4, 42-38) in the bottom of the second inning. Geraldo Quintero and Ethan Workinger led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Back-to-back hit batsman followed suit and a couple of runs would come in to score to put the Braves up 2-0.
Hickory’s runs would come in twos in the top of the fourth and fifth innings. Crawdads Abimelec Ortiz and Jayce Easley sent two balls out to deep right field. From there, the Crawdads would score another three unanswered to down the Braves 7-2. McCabe, Janas, and Quintero all recorded multi-hit days in the loss. Rome went a combined 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on the bases.
Braves starter Ian Mejia cruised through three and allowed just one baserunner across those frames. However, the second time through the order for the ‘Dads yielded five hits and four runs off the right hander. Mejia logged seven strikeouts and exited with two away in the fifth. Reliever Jose Montilla did well to keep the Braves in the ball game, covering three innings while allowing just one earned.
The series continues against the first-place Hickory Crawdads on Thursday at 7:00 pm EDT.
