Tourists Win Close One
Smoltz Pitches Well in Relief

Rome, GA – The Asheville Tourists defeated the Rome Braves 6-4 Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd of 5,105 fans 6-4. The Tourists lead the series three games to none.

Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz pitched one inning for Rome. Smoltz threw 13 pitches, nine of which were strikes and striking out one.

The Braves took the lead in the first inning when Chad Lundahl singled, moved to second on a walk, and scored off a Freddie Freeman RBI single to make the score 1-0. Asheville would answer back in the third when Everth Cabrera tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game 1-1. Rome regained the lead in the bottom of the third when Michael Fisher doubled and scored on another Freddie Freeman RBI single for the
2-1 score. The Tourists would put two runs on the board in the top of the fourth inning when Helder Valazquez doubled and later scored on a groundout. Michael Schaffer was hit by a pitch and later scored on a bases loaded walk making the score 3-2. Asheville would add another run in the fifth when Brian Rike singled and scored on an RBI single for the 4-2 lead. Asheville would add two more runs in the seventh inning on a Rome fielding error to make the score 6-2. The Braves added a run in the bottom of the seventh when Yohan Silva doubled and scored on a Michael Fisher RBI single. Rome would add their final run of the night in the bottom of the eighth inning on back to back triples by Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman to make the final 6-4.

Sheng-An Kuo (6-3) gets the win for Asheville, Randall Taylor (18) the save, and Eric Barrett(1-5) takes the loss for the Braves.

Rome takes on the Tourists again tomorrow at 2 PM. The Rome News Tribune will feature Family Day with an autograph For ticket information, contact the Rome Braves at 706-378-5144 or log onto www.romebraves.com.