PCL1 Omaha Storm Chasers

Back-to-back jacks in bottom of ninth give Royals another win

Published on August 23, 2005 under Pacific Coast League (PCL1)
Omaha Storm Chasers News Release


OMAHA - The late inning magic continued Tuesday afternoon for the Omaha Royals. Justin Huber and pinch-hitter Chad Santos belted back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Royals to an 8-7 win in the see-saw thriller seen by 2,415 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Huber led off the ninth and took Travis Hughes' 3-0 pitch over the left field wall for a game-tying homer, his fourth round-tripper in 24 games with Omaha. Hughes (2-5), a right-hander from Beaver City, Nebraska who led the Zephyrs with 12 saves, had given up just one home run in 57-and-two-thirds innings over his first 49 relief appearances for New Orleans. He surrendered a second consecutive home run, as Santos smashed the first delivery over the right-center field wall.

Santos' 16th homer of the season was the Royals first pinch-hit home run since May 1, 2002, when Jon Nunnally hit one at Memphis in a 13-6 loss to the Redbirds. Tuesday's win gave the Royals a split of the four-game series vs. New Orleans and an 11-5 margin in the season series. It also moved Omaha (66-65) to within four-and-a-half games of first place Nashville in the PCL's American Conference North, pending the outcome of the Sounds home game tonight vs. Oklahoma.

Until Tuesday, the Royals had been 1-52 when trailing after eight innings this season. This was the second win in that situation since July 29, when Omaha was trailing 6-4 entering the top of the ninth at Portland and rallied for four runs and an 8-6 victory. The Royals turnaround had begun two days earlier, in a 16-8 rout of the Beavers. Since then, the Royals have won 21 of 27 games to gain nine-and-a-half games on Nashville.

On Tuesday, Calvin Pickering's three-run homer in the bottom of the first gave the Royals a 3-1 lead. It was Pickering's 20th long ball of the season and 12th in his past 36 games (130 at-bats). However, the Z's came right back to bat around against Kyle Snyder in the top of the second, scoring three runs to regain the lead at 4-3. Omaha scored twice in the bottom of the third to jump back on top 5-4. But, Marlon Byrd's third home run in the four-game series, with two outs in the sixth off Shane Nance tied the game at 5-all and Kevin Orie's 20th homer of the season leading off the seventh against Nance made it 6-5 and another run scored on a sacrifice fly to put New Orleans ahead by two runs. Omaha cut the margin to a single run with two away in the seventh, as Andres Blanco doubled down the left field line and scored on Adrian Brown's looper to left field.

Justin Huisman (7-1) pitched two-and-two-thirds scoreless innings to pick up his fourth win in his last six relief outings and extend his scoreless streak over that stretch to 12 frames. The Zephyrs stole six bases in as many attempts, becoming the first opposing club to do that to Omaha since a game at Albuquerque in August of 1998.

The Royals host Oklahoma in the opener of a five-game series Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.: RH Josh Rupe (5-6, 6.49) vs. RH Dennis Tankersley (9-6, 4.31). Air-time is 6:45 p.m. on Magic 1490 and at www.Oroyals.com.

Check out the Omaha Storm Chasers Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Pacific Coast League Stories from August 23, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central