Sam Howard’s longest outing of the season entering Monday night’s start was seven innings. The Asheville Tourists left-hander accomplished that plus two more innings against the Rome Braves.
In doing so, Sam became the third Tourists pitcher this season to pitch a nine-inning complete game and the second to do it without allowing a run.
The first batter of the game, Stephen Gaylor, tripled off the centerfield wall for Rome. Howard bounced back with a short fly-out followed by two strikeouts stranding Gaylor at third. The rest of the game was a breeze for the Cartersville, GA native.
The Asheville Tourists had their own animal to deal with in the form of Braves’ starter Sean Furney. The right-hander matched Howard inning for inning as the two continued to induce zeros on the line score. Finally, Furney exited the game after seven innings due to his pitch count and Asheville took advantage.
With the score still 0-0 in the bottom of the eighth, the Tourists put runners at first and second. Dom Nunez came to the plate with two outs in the frame and worked a deep count off Evan Phillips. After a number of foul balls, Nunez roped a double off the top of the scoreboard in right-centerfield plating both runners.
Howard took the mound in the ninth with the lead at his back. Sam immediately attacked Rome’s hitters and retired the side to culminate his masterpiece. The Georgia Southern product’s final line read: nine innings, four hits, no runs, no walks, and five strikeouts. He needed only 84 pitches. Howard has not allowed a run in his last 17.1 innings on the mound.
Nunez’s double was the only scoring play on the night as Asheville beat Rome by the final of 2-0. The Tourists and Braves wrap up their four-game series on Tuesday night with the first pitch slated for 7:05pm.
(Article written by Doug Maurer of the Asheville Tourists.)