Chasers Open Second Half With 6-1 win Over Columbus

COLUMBUS, OHIO – As the second half of the season opened, the Omaha Storm Chasers snapped a four-game losing streak against the Columbus Clippers with a 6-1 win on Tuesday at Huntington Park.

The Storm Chasers got on the board early in the first inning as Nate Eaton crushed his eighth homer of the season in the second at-bat of the game, a solo shot for a 1-0 Omaha lead.

Omaha plated five runs in the next half frame as back-to-back singles by Drew Waters and Brian O’Keefe and a walk drawn by Kevin Padlo loaded the bases with no outs. Cam Devanney drew a walk to plate a run and extend the Omaha lead, then with the bases still loaded, John Rave plated two more with a bloop single to center field that further extended the lead. With two outs, Nick Pratto doubled home Devanney and Rave for a 6-0 lead at the end of two innings.

Omaha starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano made his sixth start of the season and threw 5.0 scoreless innings, a season-high, including a pair of 1-2-3 innings. The lefty held Columbus to a hit while striking out four on a season-high 80 pitches.

Left-hander Kris Bubic took over for Veneziano in the bottom of the sixth, his first relief appearance in the Minor Leagues. The Clippers finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning off Bubic as a double and single plated the first run for Columbus to trim Omaha’s lead to 6-1. Bubic worked out of trouble in the sixth, threw a scoreless seventh inning and got the first out of the eighth before handing the ball off to Evan Sisk.

Sisk hit his first batter of the night, but struck out his next two to finish the inning, then worked around a single in the ninth to finish the game with 1.2 scoreless innings to secure the win.

The Storm Chasers continue this week’s series against the Clippers Wednesday evening, as first pitch of game two will be at 6:05 p.m. CT and right-handed pitcher Andrew Hoffmann is slated to start for Omaha.