Mud Hens haunted by Clippers in a 14-3 Halloween thriller

It was a night full of tricks, treats, and baseball chills at Fifth Third Field as the Mud Hens fell to the Columbus Clippers, 14-3, in the penultimate game of the season. The Halloween-themed showdown kicked off with a spooky 5:06 PM start, and the Mud Hens sent an early scare with a 1-2-3 top of the first, trying to put a curse on the Clippers’ playoff ambitions.

Ryan Vilade got the fans howling with a base hit to center in the bottom of the first, but the inning ended as quickly as a ghost’s whisper, leaving him stranded like a pumpkin on the porch. Columbus, though, didn’t come to play nice. The Clippers racked up a wicked four runs off a single, a double, and a moonshot to right, taking an early lead that felt straight out of a horror flick.

But the Mud Hens weren’t about to roll over in their coffins. Eddys Leonard brought the crowd back to life with a monster homer to left field for his eighth of the season, sending witches and goblins in the stands into a frenzy! The Hens tried to claw their way back, but Columbus had a bag of tricks up their sleeves, adding more runs thanks to some eerie errors and stolen bases.

In the fourth, the Mud Hens started brewing something special. Akil Baddoo summoned a line-drive single to left, followed by a stolen base, and Leonard added a grounder for a single. The bases were packed with tension, but the inning fizzled out as Justice Bigbie struck out swinging, leaving the spooky scene without a spell to break the curse.

The Clippers really put the "scare" in scarecrow during the fifth, unleashing a run-scoring terror spree—triples, doubles, and sac flies haunted the Mud Hens as Columbus poured five more runs onto the scoreboard. Toledo tried to summon some late-inning magic with Drew Maggi’s single, but the Hens' bats seemed cursed.

Mason Englert came in to pitch the top of the sixth and tried to exorcise the demons on the mound, striking out two and getting the third out on a sharp grounder. Leonard continued to be the hero of the night, launching his second homer over the fence in the bottom half of the inning, adding to Toledo's tally. But Columbus was relentless, adding a late home run of their own in the seventh to keep their ghoulish lead intact.

The Hens’ hopes flickered like a jack-o'-lantern in the eighth when Bigbie cracked a double, but it wasn’t enough to conjure a comeback. The Clippers added another ghostly run in the ninth, sealing the Mud Hens’ fate for the night with a quick 1-2-3 bottom frame.

As the full moon set on a chilling night at the ballpark, the Mud Hens will look to end their season on a high note tomorrow at 2:05 PM with the Mini Marathon game. Will they get their sweet revenge? Only time will tell...

Notables:

Eddys Leonard (4-5, 3RBI, 2HR)