Offense Erupts In 10-2 Win In Bayou

Kyle Wren set a career high in RBI and the Colorado Springs Sky Sox trimmed their magic number to a single game after defeating the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 10-2, in front of 5,674 at the Shrine on Airline Saturday night.

Colorado Springs (77-53) took a quick 1-0 lead three batters into the first inning. With two outs, Nate Orf clubbed his eighth home run of the season over the left field wall on a hanging offspeed pitch from New Orleans RHP Keyvius Sampson.
The Sox added a trio of runs to extend their lead to 4-0 after two at-bats. After Brett Phillips led off the frame with a walk, Nick Noonan beat out a potential double play to score the Sox outfielder. With two outs, Kyle Wren lined a two-run single to right field, plating Noonan and Mauricio Dubón to cap the three-run frame.
Dubon gave the visitors their third two-out, run-scoring hit of the game in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 5-2. After a Noonan walk, the shortstop lined a single up the middle to plate Colabello, who drew a walk of his own to lead off the inning.
Orf drove in his second run of the night in the seventh inning, lifting a sacrifice fly to deep left field to plate Wren and extend the lead to four runs. One pitch later, Colabello launched his sixth home run to deep left field to give the Sox a 7-2 lead.
Wren added to his RBI total in the eighth inning, lining a bases-clearing double to right-centerfield to score René García, Noonan and Dubon. The five RBI for the leadoff hitter marks a new career high, surpassing the four driven in on August 15 at Iowa and June 28, 2014, against Salem for the Lynchburg Hillcats.
Meanwhile, RHP Bubba Derby (5-0, 3.39 ERA) earned his a win in his third straight start by allowing two earned runs on seven hits over five innings in his second career start against New Orleans. In his first start on the Gulf Coast since his promotion from Double-A Biloxi, the reigning Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week allowed two earned runs or less for the ninth time in 11 Triple-A starts
The combination of Saturday's win paired with Omaha's 4-0 win over Oklahoma City shrinks the Sky Sox magic number to one. A win in the series finale with New Orleans at 12 p.m. MT would send Colorado Springs to the postseason for the first time since the 1997 season.