Braves stay hot, complete sweep of Asheville
Rome pushes win streak to seven as they move atop SAL South standings
The Rome Braves remained one of the hottest teams in the South Atlantic League over the weekend as they completed a six-game sweep and pushed their win streak to seven overall with victories on both Saturday and Sunday over Asheville.
Rome (47-34, 11-14 in second half) rolled to an 11-0 victory on Saturday evening before closing out the series vs. the Tourists (3148, 5-9) on Sunday afternoon by holding on for a 3-2 win.
During Saturday’s game, the Braves led 5-0 after five innings and then poured on the insurance runs late with five in the seventh and two more in the eighth while the pitching staff completely shut down Asheville.
Roddery Munoz earned the win to improve 5-3 on the season thanks to six shutout innings. The starter was dominant as he allowed just one hit while striking out nine and walking three.
Trey Riley, Dylan Spain and Ben
Dum all followed out of the bullpen with shutdown innings of their own as none of the trio allowed a single hit. Riley went one inning, struck out one and walked one, Spain went one inning, struck out one and walked one and Dum made quick work of the Tourists in the ninth with a nine-pitch, 1-2-3 frame.
Rome got contributions from up and down the lineup in Saturday’s blowout as Beau Philip finished 3-for-5 with a double, stolen base and two RBIS, Bryson Horne had two doubles and two RBIS, Drew Campbell added two hits and drove in two runs and Vaughn Grissom contributed two hits, including a double, and scored three runs.
Brian Klein and Tyler Tolve also had impactful swings as Klein connected for a two-run homer in the seventh and Tolve blasted a solo homer in the fifth. Justyn-henry Malloy added a double and scored two runs, and Willie Carter had a hit and drove in a run.
On Sunday, Rome once again got a dominant effort from its starting pitcher as Dylan Dodd went 6 2-3 innings and allowed one run on two hits while striking out nine to earn the win and improve to 9-5 on the season. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh before Asheville was able to put together a brief rally.
Austin Smith followed with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief as he didn’t allow a hit and struck out one to earn a hold, and Lisandro Santos grabbed his second save by closing things out in the ninth, allowing one run on two hits and striking out one.
The Braves took the initial lead with two runs in the fourth inning. After Asheville rallied two within one with their first run in the seventh, Rome added to its lead by answering with a score in the bottom half of the inning. The Tourists scored one in the ninth before Santos slammed the door on their comeback attempt.
Christian Robinson and Jacob Pearson each had a hit and an RBI for the Braves, and Javier Valdes also drove in a run. Malloy added two hits, Grissom had a hit, his 20th stolen base of the season and a run scored and Horne contributed a double and scored a run.
Rome was off on Monday but will open another six-game home series at Adventhealth Stadium on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. vs. the Bowling Green Hot Rods, the team which the Braves hold a 1.5-game lead over in the South Atlantic League South Division standings.