The Victoria Generals used three home runs to defeat the Woodlands Strykers 13-5 on Saturday night at The Woodlands Christian Academy. With the win, the Generals extend their winning streak to three games. Since returning from the All-Star Break, the Generals have had a shutout win, a walk-off win, and now a blowout win to account for their current win streak.
The Strykers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the first inning off of Generals starting pitcher J.P. Clifton.
Romeo Cortina made it a 2-1 game in the third inning with a solo home run, his third of the season and second in as many nights.
Generals newcomer J.D. Arrowood made his first start of the season for the Generals at first base in the game and made an immediate impact with an RBI double down the third base line in the sixth inning to score Cortina and tie the game at 2-2.
The Strykers loaded the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning and scored on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Clifton’s night ended after 5.2 innings of work. He allowed four runs on seven hits with three walks and five strikeouts.
Kyle Thornell launched his second home run of the season, a solo blast, to lead off the seventh inning to cut the Strykers lead to 4-3. With runners on second and third and two outs, J.D. Moss hit a slow roller to the Strykers third baseman and just beat the throw at first for an infield RBI single to score Alvaro Rondon. The very next batter, Romeo Cortina, also hit a soft grounder to the third baseman who threw it away into right-field allowing two runs to score, giving the Generals a 6-4 lead.
The Generals blew the game open in the top of the eighth inning on a two-run single by Rondon and a three-run home run by J.B. Moss to make it 11-4. It was Moss’s first home run of the season.
The Generals loaded the bases in the top of the ninth inning and scored two more runs on another Strykers throwing error in the inning. The Strykers were able to score one run in the bottom of the frame on a sacrifice fly to make the final score 13-5.
Kris Looper picked up the win for the Generals in relief of Clifton. Looper allowed just one run on one hit in 3.2 innings with two strikeouts to secure his second win of the season.
With the win, the Generals improve to 20-17 and 3-4 in the second-half. The Strykers fall to 10-27 overall and 1-6 in the second-half.
The Generals and Strykers will play game two of the series at 7:05pm on Sunday night in The Woodlands.
The Generals next home game is Tuesday, July 16 at 7:05pm at Riverside Stadium in Victoria. It will be Free Ticket Tuesday presented by City Mortgage Group. All fans will get in for free on Tuesday night thanks to City Mortgage.
Box Score: http://tcl-generals.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=139733
