De Avila’s gem, Stephens’ timely hit key win
A day after having its recent eight-game win streak snapped, the Rome Braves bounced back Thursday with a 2-0 victory at home over the Bowling Green Hot Rods, thanks to strong pitching and a timely and well-placed hit.
Rome (49-36, 13-5 in second half) scored the only two runs of the game in the fifth inning as a ground ball off the bat of Landon Stephens found its way through the middle of the infield, driving in Jacob Pearson and Jordan Cowan, who had reached earlier in the inning.
The method of scoring in Thursday night’s game came a day after Bowling Green (51-31, 10-7) scored several runs in the same inning on ground balls that didn’t make it out of the infield.
“You definitely want to answer after losing a game like we did yesterday when I felt like we gave them some free runs,” said Rome manager Kanekoa Texeira. “You’ve got to find a way to produce runs, and we were able to do that in the fifth inning tonight. We gave them some runs yesterday with some miscues defensively, and we took advantage of a few of theirs tonight.”
The two runs were plenty to support another great outing by starter Luis De Avila (4-5), who continued his stellar pitching of late by throwing 6 1/3 shutout innings and allowing just two hits while striking out four and walking three to earn the win. The lefty faced a little trouble in the seventh after issuing two walks, but reliever Austin Smith was able to come in and eventually get two outs to leave the bases loaded for Bowling Green.
Smith pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to earn his second hold of the year as he allowed just one hit and struck out three. Trey Riley came on to pitch a scoreless ninth to gain his first save, striking out the side to shut the door after allowing a leadoff hit in the inning.
“Our pitching was outstanding again tonight,” said Texeira. “(De Avila) got a lot of ground balls and filled up the strike zone. He’s been putting a lot of effort into his routine lately, doing more work in the pen between starts and having a plan. It’s good to see that for a young guy, and you can tell it’s starting to pay off.
“Smitty came in there at a crucial point of the game and was able to get some big outs, and Riley finished out the ninth with some huge strikeouts. That’s why it’s so important for us to produce a few runs because with a bullpen like we have, we can definitely hold onto the lead.”
Pearson and Drew Campbell each had multi-hit efforts to lead the Braves’ bats as each went 2-for-4. Pearson scored a run and Campbell swiped his 10th base of the season.
Stephens finished 1-for-4 with two RBIs, while Cowan drew a walk, was hit by a pitch and scored a run. Cade Bunnell had the only other Rome hit.
The Hot Rods’ bats were held in check for most of the night, with only four hits total, and two of those came from Alika Williams. Mason Auer and Ronny Simon each had a hit as well.
Franklin Dacosta (1-3) took the loss as he pitched 2 2/3 innings in relief and gave up two runs on four hits while striking out four. Sean Mullen and Evan Reifert each pitched two scoreless innings, and Kyle Whitten came on after Dacosta to toss the final 1 1/3 as he didn’t allow a run either.
NOTES: It was a festive night at the ballpark Thursday as mascot Roman, who was introduced in 2015, celebrated his seventh birthday. Fellow mascots Romey and Roxie were in attendance for the celebration, along with several other mascots from the northwest Georgia area, including Willie the Wolf (Rome High), Bolt (Georgia Highlands College), Mountaineer Mac (North Murray High), the Eat Mor Chikin Cow (Chick-fil-A), the sweetFrog Frog and Sir Learn-a-Lot . ... Attendance for Thursday’s game was 1,122.