After winning the first two games of this series, the Sky Sox dropped the final two to split the four-game set with the Round Rock Express. Colorado Springs fell 4-3 on Thursday night to wrap up the brief homestand, before heading out onto the road to face first-place Memphis.
After the high-scoring extra-inning contest last night, tonight’s game started quietly by comparison, with the first two innings seeing no runs scored and only three combined hits between the two squads. In the top of the third inning, Round Rock scored the first run of the evening. With one out on the board, Drew Robinson hit his third triple of the past two days for his second hit of the night after lining a double in his first at-bat back in the first inning. Christian Lopes then hit a sacrifice fly for the second out of the inning to score Robinson to make it 1-0 Round Rock. Andy Ibanez then drew a walk, advancing to second on a Will Calhoun single, before Carlos Perez flew out to end the half-inning.
The Express would score again in the fourth frame, continuing their trend in this series of scoring in consecutive innings (they scored in five consecutive frames last night, from the fourth through the eighth inning). In the first at-bat of the half-inning, Hunter Cole hit his seventh homer of the season to straight center field to extend Round Rock’s lead to 2-0.
Colorado Springs answered in the bottom half of the inning, tying up the game with a pair of runs. Orlando Arcia led off with a double, advancing to third on a wild pitch. Tyrone Taylor then grounded out, scoring Arcia in the process. Domingo Santana followed up the run with a single, moving up to third in the next at-bat on a Christian Bethancourt single. Jett Bandy then hit a deep sacrifice fly to score Santana from third, equalizing the game at two runs apiece.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Sky Sox took their first lead of the contest. Arcia tripled for his second hit of the night to put the go-ahead run 90 feet from home. Two batters later, Santana hit a slow ground out, allowing Arcia to sprint home to give Colorado Springs a 3-2 lead.
After a scoreless seventh inning, the Express scored again in the eighth. Perez hit a leadoff single, followed by a Nick Torres single that put runners on the corners with one out. Juan Centeno then hit a game-tying sacrifice fly, before Hanser Alberto tripled to bring in Torres and retake the lead for Round Rock, 4-3.
The 4-3 score would hold, with the Sky Sox splitting the series with the Express after winning games one and two, and dropping games three and four.
The Sky Sox head out onto the road to Memphis tomorrow for a three-game set against the Redbirds. They return home on the 24th to host the El Paso Chihuahuas for three games, followed by a four-game set against the Albuquerque Isotopes. It will be the first and only time this season Colorado Springs plays El Paso and Albuquerque.
