Pitching Staff Strikes Out a Season-Best 17 Braves Hitters

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists came up a little bit short on Thursday night in their 6-3 loss to the Rome Braves. The outcome snapped a six-game home win streak for Asheville; however, the Tourists stayed within striking distance of the Braves the entire game.

Asheville’s starting pitcher, Joey Mancini, was phenomenal over the first three innings. Mancini kept Rome from scoring and recorded six strikeouts during that stretch. In the fourth, the Braves loaded the bases with no outs. Mancini struck out the next hitter then induced a near inning-ending double play; the ball snuck away at first and two runs came in to score. Rome added one more to take a 3-0 lead.

Tim Borden II had an answer for Asheville in the bottom of the fourth. The Tourists starting shortstop belted a two-run Home Run to left-centerfield and brought the home team to within a run. Both teams added another run to their tally when Rome scored on a wild pitch in the fifth and Asheville used a Sacrifice Fly by Ryan Clifford in the sixth. Zach Cole led off the inning with a triple and promptly scored on the Clifford sacrifice.

The score remained 4-3 until the visitors rallied for a pair of runs in the top of the ninth. Asheville brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom half but were unable to extend the rally.

Mancini finished with seven strikeouts, Miguel Ullola struck out six in four innings, Ronny Garcia netted three and Brayan De Paula had one. Offensively, Kobe Kato recorded his third straight multi-hit game with a 3-for-4 performance that included two more doubles. Kato is 8-for-12 across the first three games of the series.