SAINT PAUL, MINN. — The Omaha Storm Chasers won and back-and-forth game against the St. Paul Saints 9-8 in 11 innings Thursday at CHS Field.
The Saints dealt the first damage as Michael Helman hit a 2-run home run in the bottom of the second inning for a 2-0 St. Paul lead.
Omaha responded with a run in the third, as John Rave doubled and scored on a Drew Waters singles. Nick Loftin opened the top of the fourth inning with his first home run of the season to tie the game at 2-2, then CJ Alexander walked and scored on a Nate Eaton fielder’s choice for a 3-2 Omaha lead.
Starting pitcher Jonathan Bowlan struck out seven batters over 5.1 innings, as the right-hander worked into the sixth inning for the fourth time in his seventh start of the year. After the home run, Bowlan faced the minimum over his next 12 batters, through the end of the fifth inning.
Anthony Veneziano entered in relief behind Bowlan in the bottom of the sixth inning, as the Saints surged ahead of Omaha. After Bowlan allowed a run in the top of the sixth inning and gave way to the lefty, Veneziano allowed an inherited runner to score, then surrendered three runs of his own for a 7-3 St. Paul lead.
Dan Altavilla worked a scoreless seventh inning behind Veneziano, working around a pair of walks to keep Omaha’s deficit at four runs.
The Storm Chasers inched closer in the top of the eighth inning as Waters led off with a triple, then scored on a Nick Pratto ground out to cut the deficit down to 7-4.
Down to three outs, Omaha rallied to tie the game in the top of the ninth inning, as Eaton doubled and scored on a Logan Porter single, then John Rave collected a two-out hit and Waters doubled in Porter and Rave to tie the score at 7-7.
Left-hander Sam Long took the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning and worked a 1-2-3 frame, then returned to the mound in the ninth and put the potential game-winning run on, but stranded the runner to force extra innings, with 2.0 scoreless innings of work and a pair of strikeouts.
A pair of walks opened the top of the 10th inning to load the bases with no outs and Devin Mann gave Omaha a lead with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored placed runner Nick Pratto, but the Chasers stranded two in scoring position and only managed the one run in the 10th. Will Klein came on for the save in the bottom of the 10th, but a wild pitch wound up scoring St. Paul’s placed runner from third base to tie the score at 8-8 and force an 11th inning.
After Cam Devanney sacrificed pinch runner Tyler Gentry to third base to open the 11th inning, Waters drove Gentry in with two outs for a 9-8 lead.
In the bottom of the 11th, Steven Cruz quickly struck out the side, stranding the placed runner on second for his first save of the year to secure Omaha’s 9-8 win.
The Storm Chasers will try and win a third straight game and continue this week’s series against Saint Paul Friday at CHS Field with a 6:37 p.m. CT first pitch as right-handed pitcher Zach Davies is slated to start for Omaha.
