Omaha Sweeps DH, One Win from PCL Title

In a rare day-night doubleheader in the minor leagues and the playoffs no less, Omaha won both games over Salt Lake to move one win away from the Pacific Coast League title.

They took the first game by a 3-2 score. Game 1 resumed in the afternoon with the game tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the second.

Clayton Mortensen was the new pitcher on the mound for the Storm Chasers once the game resumed. He was solid, only allowing a solo home run in the 4th inning, but left losing (5IP, 2H, R, 2BB, 8K). However, you can never count the Omaha offense out.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Storm Chasers tied the game at 2-2 on Manny Pina‘s two out RBI double. In the bottom of the 8th inning, Ben Broussard delivered his second RBI of the game with a single to give Omaha the lead.

Buddy Baumann pitched a perfect eighth to pick up the win and Michael Mariot picked up the save with a perfect ninth (including two strikeouts).

The night cap needed some late inning heroics, in the form of a Brian Fletcher walk off home run, as Omaha won 2-1. Fletcher led off the bottom of the ninth with the game winner (he went 2-for-3) in just his second game of the postseason (he was just activated from the DL).

Yordano Ventura made his first start of the postseason and was solid over the first six innings (6IP, 3H, R, 3BB, 6K), but left the game losing 1-0.

The Storm Chasers once again tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, this time on a Rey Navarro one out single. Zach Jackson threw three scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win. He allowed just one hit while striking out two. Jackson threw 34 pitches, 24 for strikes.

The two teams now head to Salt Lake for Friday night’s matchup.

*The Omaha bullpen has allowed just one earned run over the first five games of the postseason.