Omaha Swept in Des Moines with 6-5 Loss to Iowa

DES MOINES, IOWA – The Omaha Storm Chasers were swept in Des Moines, falling to the Iowa Cubs 6-5 Saturday at Principal Park.

For the sixth time in as many games this week, Iowa scored first, plating two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a solo homer off Omaha starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano for a 2-0 Cubs lead.

The Chasers answered Iowa’s runs in the top of the second inning as Brian O’Keefe crushed his 11th homer of the season to left field and the cut the lead down to 2-1 in favor of the I-Cubs. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Iowa added another run off Veneziano as a solo homer to left field increased the lead to 3-1.

Omaha evened the game 3-3 as Drew Waters led off the top of the sixth inning with a walk, then scored on a two-run homer from Nick Pratto, his first of two in the game, that evened the scored at three each.

Veneziano worked two outs into the sixth innings, his longest outing of the year, with a pair of 1-2-3 innings in his eighth start of the season. The lefty allowed three runs on four hits over 5.2 innings, before being relieved for right-hander John McMillon in the bottom of the sixth inning.

McMillon stranded a runner on in the sixth, but a walk and two singles in the bottom of the seventh scored a pair of runs to put the Cubs up 5-3. Evan Sisk inherited two runners in the seventh from McMillon and allowed one of two to score, just his third inherited runner allowed to score this season.

Pratto belted his second home run of the game in the top of the eighth, a solo shot that trimmed the deficit to 5-4. However, with Will Klein pitching the eighth inning for Omaha, Iowa added another run of insurance in the bottom of the eighth inning that extended the lead back to 6-4.

The Chasers answered right back in the top of the ninth inning as CJ Alexander hit a solo homer, his 10th long ball of the season and cut the Iowa lead back to 6-5, which ended as the final score. After O’Keefe walked and Tyler Gentry singled to put two runners on base, the Chasers could not drive them in as the game was ended on a double play.

After the Iowa series, the Storm Chasers will take two days off and welcome the Toledo Mud Hens for a six-game set from July 9-14 at Werner Park as first pitch starts at 7:05 p.m. CT on Tuesday and left-handed pitcher Daniel Lynch IV is slated to start for Omaha.