Owls outslug HiToms 9-7:Daniel Frey on the CPL Trail

Owls outslug HiToms 9-7
from Daniel Frey with HiToms Baseball

High Point/Thomasville, N.C. – The High Point-Thomasville HiToms (22-15) come up short in a shootout with the Forest City Owls (18-19) in a 9-7 loss on Tuesday night. The defeat marks the first time of the season that the HiToms have lost at least three games in a row.

After three consecutive games of falling behind early the HiToms jumped in front first on a two-run homer to left by the red-hot Hunter Slater.

Forest City waited but unleashed an offensive onslaught in the top of the second off of HiToms starting pitcher Mike Warren (0-1). An RBI single by Diaz Nardo plated the first Owl run of the game and then Milton Rivera scored on a throw to second base trying to get Nardo. Next batter up Tre Todd smoked a two-run homer of his town to right field and a few batters after that Nick Tierno came through with another two-run blast putting the Owls ahead 6-2 after two innings.

In the bottom of the fourth, David Fry lifted a solo shot to left field to keep the crowd into it.

Seth Hoagland placed a RBI double into the left center field gap to pace the Owls ahead 7-3 in the top of the fifth.

The HiTom bats officially came alive in the bottom half of the fifth on a RBI double by Carson Jackson followed by a RBI triple from Slater and capped off on a run scoring infield single by Teddy Hoffman. All of a sudden it was a game again with the Owls leading 7-6. Even after the scoring rout, Forest City kept their starter Ethan Carpenter (5-3) for six innings surrendering nine hits and striking out seven hitters.

Trevor Gay in three innings of relief work kept the Owls off of the board but Jacob Norman let two insurance runs come around including Hoagland pulling a solo home run over the right field wall.

On a wild pitch the HiToms stayed in it cutting the deficit back to two but ultimately Chaz Miller collected his eighth save of the season to seal a 9-7 Forest City victory at Finch Field.

The HiToms take a cruise to nearby Asheboro tomorrow, July 20 with the first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. against the rival Copperheads.