Hoffman’s strong start, Malloy’s timely offense lifts Braves
Rome plays clean game with stellar pitching, good defense and solid at-bats to defeat Crawdads
After some struggles in the first two games of their home series against Hickory, the Rome Braves put together a complete night on Thursday with strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting to defeat the Crawdads 3-0.
Rome (36-30) got six scoreless innings from starter Andrew Hoffman, and the bullpen picked up right where he left off as relievers RJ Freure and Jake McSteen combined for three scoreless frames of their own to shut the door on the victory which came after the Crawdads (38-28) won the first two of the six-game set on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“(Hoffman) got ahead early, got some big-time double plays on ground balls and really looked dominant tonight,” said Rome manager Kanekoa Texeira. “He worked his twoseamer and mixed in some good sliders and changeups to keep (Hickory) off-balance.
“And our bullpen have just been dogs lately. They have been eating up a lot of innings. They are an aggressive group, and they
all want to pitch and make an impact. If they keep doing what they did tonight, they will get a lot of chances.”
Hoffman earned the win to improve to 6-2 on the season after going six scoreless innings, allowing just four hits, striking out seven and walking two. Freure followed with a scoreless seventh as he didn’t allow a hit, struck out one and walked one to earn his third hold, and McSteen finished things out with a two-inning effort for his second save as he gave up two hits and struck out three.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third when
Rome’s Justyn-Henry Malloy flew out to deep left field for a sacrifice fly that brought home Cade Bunnell for the game’s first run.
Malloy doubled his RBI total for the contest and the Braves’ lead in the fifth when he once again sent a deep fly-out to center for another sac fly to bring in Jacob Pearson. Rome added its third run in the sixth as Drew Campbell scored on double play.
Texeira said it was good to see his lineup manufacture some runs after some struggles of late with runners on, including leaving 10 on base and going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in
Wednesday’s loss to Hickory.
“We have left a lot of runners on base lately so tonight was a positive,” said Texeira. “Our guys did a good job with their at-bats tonight with runners on and made good contact to get a few of them in.”
Malloy led the offensive totals for Rome, going 2-for-2 with a double and two RBIs. Tyler Tolve also had two hits, including a double, and Pearson went 2-for-4 with a run scored.
Cody Freeman had two hits with a double for the Crawdads, and Luisangel Acuna also finished with two hits. Keyber Rodriguez contributed a double as well.
Robby Ahlstrom took the loss for Hickory after pitching 4 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on five hits while striking out six and walking two. Jesus Linarez followed in relief and went 2 2/3 innings and gave up one run on three hits while walking one, and Destin Dotson pitched a scoreless eighth as he allowed one hit and struck out three.
NOTES: Attendance for Thursday’s game was 896 and time of game was two hours, 20 minutes . ... Rome celebrated “Throwback Night” at the ballpark on Thursday as they wore the Atlanta Braves’ uniform style from the 1970s made most famous by the legend Hank Aaron while fans were treated to oldies music from the decade throughout the game.