Late inning rally gives Toledo Mother's Day W

A late inning rally helped the Mud Hens win their second straight game against the Cubs, a 6-2 victory in Des Moines on Sunday afternoon.

Justyn-Henry Malloy put the Hens on the board right away with a leadoff home run to left field in the first inning. It was his seventh homer of the year and his second in two games. Andrew Knapp knocked in Tyler Nevin with an RBI groundout in the sixth, but that would be the only scoring event for the Hens in innings 2-7.

Despite the Hens only scoring twice in the first seven innings, their pitching was excellent and kept them in the game the entire time. Reese Olson started the game for Toledo, pitching 4.1 innings and giving up just one run. He allowed nine baserunners (five hits and four walks), but was able to pitch out of nearly every jam unscathed, striking out three in the outing.

Garrett Hill came on in relief for Olson and gave up one run in 1.2 innings pitched. An RBI sac-fly from Cubs first baseman David Bote in the sixth inning would be the last run surrendered by the Mud Hens this afternoon. Braden Bristo, Brendan White, and Miguel Del Pozo pitched the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings respectively, combining for two hits, zero walks, and five strikeouts over the final three innings. Bristo (2-2) was credited with the win, his second of the year.

The Cubs answered each of the Mud Hens first two scoring plays. After Malloy’s leadoff home run, Iowa scored a run in the bottom of the first to even the score at 1-1, and did the same in the sixth to match Knapp’s RBI in the top of the inning, evening the score at 2-2.

That score would not stand for very long. After back to back errors put Andre Lipcius on third and Andrew Knapp on second to start the eighth inning, Corey Joyce would break the third tie of the game with an RBI single, giving the Hens a 3-2 lead. The very next pitch to Michael Papierski was roped to right field for a line drive home run, scoring three and putting Toledo up by four. Bailey Horn (1-2) was credited with the loss for Iowa.

After dropping the first four games of the series, Toledo has now won back to back games, and will start another six game road series against Omaha on Tuesday at 7:35 p.m.

Notables:

Reese Olson: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K

Braden Bristo: W, 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Justyn-Henry Malloy: 1-2, HR, R, RBI, 3 BB

Tyler Nevin: 3-5, R

Michael Papierski: 1-4, HR, R, 3 RBI

Corey Joyce: 2-3, 2B, R, RBI, BB

Andrew Knapp: 2-5, R, RBI