Unlucky 12; Tourists Drop Fifth Straight in Rough Fashion

ASHEVILLE- The Asheville Tourists lost a 12-inning marathon to the Hickory Crawdads on Saturday night, 13-8, in front of a standing room only crowd at McCormick Field. The Tourists outscored the Crawdads 7-2 over the first six innings and were outscored 11-1 over the final six.

Hickory scored runs in the first and second innings off Asheville’s starting pitcher Miguel Ullola, who only lasted three innings. The Asheville offense took advantage of a Tim Borden II Home Run in the bottom of the second, along with some poor pitching and defense by the Crawdads, to score four runs and take the lead 4-2. Borden’s Home Run was the only hit in the inning.

Collin Price made it 5-2 with a lead-off Home Run in the top of the sixth and Ryan Wrobleski gave the Tourists their biggest lead at 7-2 with a two-run double later in the inning. Unfortunately, the five-run advantage was not enough.

Joey Mancini pitched two shutout innings before running into trouble. Mancini gave up a two-run Homer in the seventh and then allowed four more runs to score in the eighth. The Tourists used a Ryan Clifford RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game up 8-8 and ultimately force extras.

Logan VanWey was brilliant on the mound for the Tourists late. The right-hander worked out of a massive ninth inning jam and then pitched two shutout innings in the top of the 10^th and the top of the 11^th. The Tourists had the winning run at second base with no outs in both the 10^th and 11^th innings but could not rally for the win.

Finally, in the 12^th, the Crawdads broke free with a five-run inning. The Tourists were unable to answer in the bottom half and their losing skid hit a season-high five straight.

Kobe Kato reached base five times for Asheville and Clifford finished 3-for-6. Hickory’s Geisel Cepeda homered for the third straight game; he had one Home Run in his first 43 games.