INDIANAPOLIS, IND. — The Omaha Storm Chasers tied this week’s series up with a big win against the Indianapolis Indians, 8-2 on Wednesday at Victory Field.
The Storm Chasers flipped the script in game two of the series and scored in the first four innings. John Rave led the game off with a single, then CJ Alexander singled to center field with one out and the pair scored as Devin Mann ripped a double to left field for the first two runs of the game. Nick Pratto then doubled in Mann to cap a three-run first inning for a 3-0 Omaha lead.
In the top of the second inning, Drew Waters plated Austin Nola on a sacrifice fly and Rave singled, stole second and scored on an RBI single from Alexander for a 5-0 Chasers lead. For both Rave and Alexander, it was their second hit of the game and for Alexander, his team-leading 15th multi-hit game of the season, while extending his career-best hitting streak to 11 games.
Omaha continued its damage in the third straight inning and extended the score to 7-0 as Cam Devanney crushed his seventh homer of the season to right center field on a two-run shot that brought home Pratto. On his third hit of the night, Rave homered to right field with a solo homer that opened the fourth inning to extend Omaha’s large lead to 8-0.
Major league rehabber Kris Bubic started on the mound for Omaha and retired the first eight batters he faced and struck out six, including a stretch of four in a row, before allowing his first baserunners of the night. The Indians threatened in the bottom of the third inning with a two-out walk and hit, but a fly out to right field retired the side and stranded the runners on base. Bubic retired his first two batters of the fourth before being removed, with seven strikeouts over 3.2 scoreless innings, with just the one walk and hit.
Left-hander Austin Cox replaced Bubic and recorded the final out of the fourth inning, then erased a leadoff walk in the fifth with a double play. Indy finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo home run, double and RBI single as the Indians trimmed the Omaha lead to 8-2 through 6.0 innings. Cox pitched a total of 2.1 innings, striking out one and allowing the two runs on three hits.
After a double play got Cox the final two outs of the sixth inning, he and three more Omaha relievers combined to retire the final 10 Indians batters of the game. John McMillon earned his second straight win with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, before Evan Sisk worked a perfect eighth inning with two strikeouts, then Will Klein offered a 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out the game.
Omaha’s pitching staff combined to strike out 12 in the win over Indianapolis, the 23rd time this season the staff combined to strike out 10+ batters in a game.
After scoring in the first four innings, the Storm Chasers offense came to a halt for the rest of the game as they mustered just two hits off of Indy relievers, while drawing four walks over the last five innings of the gae.
The Storm Chasers continue this week’s series against the Indianapolis Indians with a doubleheader Thursday, May 30 at Victory Field as first pitch in game one is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. CT and left-handed pitcher Daniel Lynch IV is slated to start for game one then right-handed pitcher Chandler Champlain is scheduled to start in game two. Game two will start 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
