Chasers feast on Salt Lake pitching

Salt Lake City, UT – Jarrod Dyson and Lance Zawadzki hit home runs in support of six sharp innings from Sean O’Sullivan as Omaha downed Salt Lake, 11-6, Saturday night in the second of a four-game series at Spring Mobile Ballpark. The Storm Chasers improved to 66-54 and maintained their 4.5 game edge on Nashville and a 5.0 game cushion on Memphis in the PCL American North.

The Chasers jumped on Salt Lake starter Trevor Bell for four runs in the first inning on Clint Robinson’s run-scoring double and Irving Falu’s bases loaded triple. The right-hander needed 46 pitches to get through the inning, during which he faced all nine hitters.

Salt Lake cut the lead in half in the third on RBI hits by Alexi Amarista and Jeff Baisley before Omaha got the runs right back in the fourth. Dyson, who went 4-for-6 with two steals, led off with his first home run of the season and Manny Pina drove in a run with a base hit later in the inning to push the margin back to four.

Zawadzki’s lead off long ball in the fifth increased the visitors advantage to 7-2 and was followed later in the inning by run-scoring hits by Robinson and Pina. The visitors had at least one hit in seven innings and totaled 15 in the game, including an RBI triple by Joaquin Arias in the ninth.

O’Sullivan, who won 11 games for the Bees in 2009-10, yielded two runs on five hits while walking one and fanning one to improve to 6-2. He retired the last seven batters he faced and gave way to Kevin Pucetas, who surrendered three runs in the seventh. Jesse Chavez gave up a run in the eighth before Brandon Sisk closed out the victory with a scoreless ninth.

The series continues Sunday evening with Omaha right-hander Vin Mazzaro taking the mound against Salt Lake right-hander Jerome Williams.