Four Rome Braves pitchers perform well in All-Star Game

Four Rome Braves pitchers were chosen for this year’s South Atlantic League midsummer classic, and each one provided evidence why Tuesday night.

The Southern Division got a lift from a four-run third inning and four home runs to take command of the 2018 SAL All-Star Game on the way to a 9-5 win over the Northern Division in Greensboro, North Carolina.

It’s the first time the South has won the game since 2011.

Rome’s Bruce Zimmermann, Freddy Tarnok, Walter Borkovich and Kelvin Rodriquez all took the mound in relief for the South and retired 10 of 11 batters faced, striking out six along the way.

Braves position players Drew Waters and Riley Delgado didn’t get a hit in the game but made good contributions to the South’s win, with Waters leading off and staying in at center field the entire game. Delgado came in at second in the bottom of the fifth.

Zimmerman, who finished the first half of the season with a leaguebest 94 strikeouts, sat down the first two North batters in the bottom of the fourth before getting the third to hit into a groundout to third. It was the first 1-2-3 inning by a pitcher from either team.

Tarnok then struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth, followed two innings later by Borkovich, who threw just seven pitches to retire the side in the bottom of the eighth. Rodriguez came on in the ninth and struck out the leadoff hitter before walking the next one on nine pitches and being replaced.

Waters reached on an error and a walk, and scored on a two-run single by Asheville’s Bret Boswell in the fourth. The 19- yearold Woodstock native displayed his speed by stealing second just before the run-scoring hit. Waters was 11-of-13 in steal attempts in the first half of the season.

The first- half Southern Division champion Rome Braves begin the second half of the season on the road Thursday with a threegame series at Augusta followed by a homestand against Greenville, starting with a 2 p.m. game Sunday.

In other recent Rome Braves’ news:

Rome gets help to clinch first-half division title

The Rome Braves were locked in extra innings Thursday night in Greenville, South Carolina, when their fate was made 111 miles to the south.

Thanks to Augusta’s 6-3 loss to West Virginia, Rome was able to clinch the South Atlantic League’s Southern Division first half championship before the end of its road game against the Drive.

It’s the first time in 12 years Rome has won the first half of the season, which gives them a spot in the SAL postseason playoffs. The Braves won the 2003 and 2016 South Atlanta League championships after winning the second half of the season both years.

Rome was battling with Greenville in extra innings when the West Virginia-Augusta game went final, resulting in Augusta’s 10th loss in a row.

The Braves scored in the top of the ninth against the Drive to make it 1-1 before both teams scored a run in the 10th to keep the game going at 2-2.

Greenville’s Jordan Wren, son of former Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren, drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the 11th to score the winning run, making the final 3-2.

It capped the longest game for Rome this season and the team’s first extra inning loss, having won the only other two games that had gone past the scheduled number of innings.

Rome starter Bruce Zimmermann delivered a strong pitching performance, striking out five while allowing one run and seven hits over seven innings.

Rome will play the winner of the second half of the Southern Division in a best-ofthree series in the first round of the SAL playoffs in September, with the winner advancing to the league championship series against the Northern Division winner.

It will mark the fifth time the team has made the postseason since the franchise moved to Rome from Macon in 2003.