With one swing of the bat on Saturday night the Asheville Tourists saw their opportunity at a Southern division pennant and a shot at extending their season.
It was a victory they claimed over the Savannah Sand Gnats 2-1. The Sand Gnats pitcher, Casey Delgado, had retired 14 in a row before a Josh Fuentes single led off the eighth for Asheville. A sacrifice bunt by Yonathan Daza moved Fuentes over to second base and the Sand Gnats pitching coach, Marc Valdes, decided to make a mound visit.
Waiting patiently for his turn at the plate was shortstop Luis Jean. Yes, the Luis Jean who was slated in the number nine spot in the batting order. Yes, the Luis Jean who has been a utility player with Asheville all season. And yes, the Luis Jean who had a grand total of zero Home Runs in the regular season. With one out and Fuentes at second base, Deglado delivered his first pitch to Jean. The Tourists infielder turned on an inside fastball and hit it high and deep down the left field line. As the ball carried into the night sky, it became apparent that the Gnats left-fielder, John Mora, was about to run out of real estate. Sure enough, the baseball sailed over the wall for a two-run Home Run and Asheville’s dugout exploded. A stunned and excited Jean circled the bases and he made sure to stop and touch every one.
The Tourists had struck. The question was would it be enough. Asheville did well keeping Savannah off the scoreboard all night and a huge part of that was Sam Howard. The lefty came into the ballgame at the start of the second inning. Howard, normally a starter, gave way to Tyler Chatwood at the beginning of the game. Chatwood was scheduled for a rehab assignment.
After Chatwood and reliever Jerad McCrummen held the Sand Gnats scoreless in inning number one, Howard pitched six shutout innings. Once the Tourists took a 2-0 lead on Jean’s Home Run, Asheville went deeper into the bullpen to close out the game. Jerry Vasto worked a scoreless eighth and Josh Michalec shut the door in the ninth.
The Sand Gnats made it interesting with three straight two-out singles in the bottom of the ninth. The latter of the three was an RBI single by Michael Katz. With the tying run at third and the winning run at first, Michalec induced a tapper in front of home plate from Patrick Biondi. Asheville’s catcher, Dom Nunez, pounced on the baseball and fired down to first for the series clinching out.
The Tourists will meet the Hickory Crawdads for a best-of-five series beginning on Monday evening. Games one and two are scheduled in Hickory while game three and games four and five if necessary will be played in Asheville.
(Article written by Doug Maurer of the Asheville Tourists.)
(Image credit: Tony Farlow of MiLB.com.)