Braves Win Slugfest

Rome, GA – The Rome Braves came back to capture a victory Saturday night 12-6 over the Columbus Catfish before a sell out crowd of 5,105 at State Mutual Stadium.

The Braves would take the early lead thanks to a Jon Mark Owings solo homerun (8) in the first inning giving Rome the 1-0 advantage. Columbus countered in the second. Ryan Royster started the inning with a double and would later score on a RBI single by Seth Shaenens to tie the game 1-1. Seth Dhaenens singled and later scored on a Desmond Jennings single giving Columbus the 2-1 lead. John Matulia later added an RBI single giving the Catfish the two run lead 3-1.

Rome tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Concepcion Rodriguez scoring Chase Fontaine who tripled to start the inning. Robert Marcial would then double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He later scored giving Rome the 4-3 lead on a perfectly executed squeeze play by Chad Lundahl.

Columbus grabbed the lead back 6-4 in the fourth as Dhaenens tripled and scored on a Grandstrand sacrifice fly tying the game. Jairo de la Rosa followed with a double and scored on a Jennings two run homer (8).

The Braves came back to take the lead for good in the seventh as Tyler Flowers doubled and Fontaine followed with a walk. Flowers scored on a Marcial RBI single and Fontaine would soon follow on a Larry William’s RBI shot to center tying the game 6-6. Lundahl later doubled scoring Marcial for the 7-6 lead and Yohan Silva ripped an RBI single scoring two runs for the 9-6 advantage. Rome added three insurance runs in the eighth and went on to pick up the victory 12-6.

Beau Jones gets the win in relief (2-0) going four shutout innings while Wilton Noel is tagged with the loss (2-1).

The Braves play the Columbus Catfish again tomorrow at 2pm. For ticket information call 706-378-5144 or log on to www.romebraves.com.