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| Mike Montgomery gave up four runs in the first inning, but settled down after that and kept the Sounds off the board. (Photo: Minda Haas / Royal Blues) |
Montgomery (5-8) wound up working six scoreless innings after the troublesome first, allowing just two hits and a walk the rest of the way. He struck out six batters, throwing 74 of his 109 pitches for strikes. The Chasers were unable to provide much offense, however, stranding 12 runners on base and squandering numerous scoring opportunities.
“We had our chances,” Jirschele said after the game. “I mean, we had nine hits and we got ourselves in some situations where we were one hit away from scoring some runs. We just couldn’t get that big hit. It was just one of those nights.
“Then, after Robinson hits that ball to center and it bounces off the guy’s head and they get a triple play, I thought, this isn’t our night.”
After the Chasers scored in the second on an RBI single by Lance Zawadzki, the Nashville defense turned in the game’s defining play – the one Jirschele referenced – in the third inning.
With Irving Falu and Lorenzo Cain aboard with nobody out, hot-hitting Clint Robinson stepped to the plate against eventual winning pitcher Josh Butler (8-7). Robinson torched a line drive to deep centerfield, forcing Nashville centerfielder Logan Schafer to attempt a leaping, over-the-head catch. The ball caromed off the top of Schafer’s glove, popped up in the air, bounced on top of his head, popped into the air again and dropped back into the webbing of his outstretched glove.
Falu and Cain had no chance to retreat, and Schafer’s relay in was in plenty of time to record outs on both baserunners for the inning-ending and game-changing triple play. Greg Ortiz from WOWT-Channel 6 caught the incredible play on video (see below).
The Chasers would have plenty of other chances throughout the night to try to cash runners in, but left the bases loaded twice and couldn’t bring men home from third with less than two out. All nine Chasers batters recorded exactly one hit in the contest yet only Cody Clark managed to cross the plate.
The loss snapped Omaha’s five-game winning streak and dropped the Chasers (71-56) to 15 games over .500. Memphis (66-61) remains 5.0 games behind Omaha, with Nashville (65-63) lurking 6.5 back. The Chasers magic number to clinch the division is at 11 with 16 games to play.
Jirschele said he was appreciative of the sell-out crowd showing up and he wished his team could have given fans more to cheer about. He also described a long, difficult day for the team.
“We were up at 3:00 am, leaving the hotel at 3:30 and that’s not an excuse, but then they all came home to cars that were damaged at the airport, so they’ve got a lot on their minds right now. Half of them drove to the ballpark today without a back window, dents all over their cars – it wasn’t a real pleasant day for those guys.”
Jirschele said David Lough will be back in the lineup on Sunday. He’s missed a number of games with a leg injury.
Omaha and Nashville will return to Werner Park Sunday for game two of the four-game series, with first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m. Righthander Luis Mendoza (9-5, 2.30) will be in search of his first win at Werner Park, while trying to hand righthander Mike Fiers (5-0, 1.64) his first loss of the season.
