Fort Mill, S.C. – The Syracuse Chiefs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals, downed the Charlotte Knights by a score of 5-4 on Saturday night. The Chiefs have now won two straight games.
The Charlotte (28-34) bats looked strong early and often when in the second inning, Tyler Flowers hit his twelfth home run of the year to make it 1-0 in favor of the Knights. In the third, Charlotte claimed two more runs on RBI by Josh Kroeger and Stefan Gartrell.
After three innings Syracuse (36-26) trailed 3-0. In the fifth, after Syracuse had failed to advance a runner past first base in the first four innings, Chase Lambin led off with a double. Pete Orr, who had scored three times himself on Friday night, used and RBI single to score Lambin and pull Syracuse to within 3-1.
In the sixth, the Chiefs cut the lead to one when Jason Botts hit his first home run in a Chiefs jersey. That cut into the Charlotte lead to make it 3-2. Syracuse scored two more runs in the seventh. The game tying score came when Kevin Mench walked with the bases loaded, and then the go ahead when a wild pitch allowed Boomer Whiting to score from third base.
In the bottom of the seventh, Robert Hudson hit a solo home run off of Chiefs starter Craig Stammen. Victor Garate then replaced Stammen who went 6.1 innings and did not get a decision. That home run was the fourth and final run of the night for Charlotte, but it did tie the game at that point.
Syracuse scored the winning run on a Chase Lambin RBI single in the 8th for their fifth tally off of Knights pitching.
Victor Garate picked up the win in relief and improves to 1-0. Knights reliever Clevelan Santeliz took the loss and drops to 0-2.
On Sunday the Chiefs and Knights will play game two of their four game series. Erik Arnesen (0-2, 6.59) is scheduled to pitch for Syracuse and Charlotte will send Daniel Hudson (8-2, 3.86) to the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 2:15 p.m.
