PAPILLION, NEB. – The Omaha Storm Chasers won their third straight game with a nail-biting 3-2 win against the Saint Paul Saints Tuesday at CHS Field.
Left-hander Austin Cox served as the opener in the first game of the series and kept the Saints to a run over 3.0 innings of work, with St. Paul jumping out 1-0 on a two-out single in the bottom of the second.
Behind Cox, who struck out four in his third start of the season, Omaha’s bullpen combined for six scoreless innings. Noah Murdock entered the game for the bottom of the fourth and retired the side including a strikeout. Murdock threw 3.0 scoreless frames of relief, his longest outing of the season, and retired 9 of 10 batters faced, also throwing a 1-2-3 third inning.
Tyler Duffey took the reins in the bottom of the seventh and retired his first two and issued a walk but picked off Payton Eeles at first base to get out of the inning.
Omaha finally answered in the top of the eighth inning and tied the game at 1-1 as Brian O’Keefe entered as a pinch-hitter for Austin Nola and crushed his 13th homer of the season to center field and tied the game. The blast was Omaha’s first pinch-hit home run in over five years. John Rave and Nate Eaton followed with a single and double respectively to put both runners in scoring position but the two left the inning stranded on.
In the top of the ninth inning, the Chasers took their first lead of the game as Nelson Velazquez drew a walk and stole second to move into scoring position. With two outs, Cam Devanney hammered his team-leading 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field, to give Omaha a 3-1 lead headed to the bottom of the ninth inning.
After Jonathan Bowlan threw a 1-2-3 eighth inning, he came back out for the bottom of the ninth. An error, hit batter and single loaded the bases and left-hander Evan Sisk took over with two outs. Sisk earned his sixth save of the season and got a groundout to end the ballgame as the Saints left the bases loaded for the second time in the game. Bowlan earned his team-leading eighth win of the season in the process.
The Storm Chasers continue this week’s series against the Saints at CHS Field on Wednesday, July 24 with first pitch scheduled for 1:07 p.m. CT and left-handed pitcher Anthony Veneziano is slated to start for Omaha.
