ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Six straight wins. Sole possession of first place in the South Atlantic League Southern Division. And a dominant pitching performance.
Wednesday night had everything, and the Tourists came out on the right side of all of it, beating the Hub City Spartanburgers 10-8 behind a gem from Yeriel Santos and big nights from Freuddy Batista and Chase Call.
Santos was at his best. The right-hander was untouchable through six innings, allowing just two hits and two walks while striking out four. It was the best start of his season and gave the Tourists bullpen a comfortable cushion to work with, though they would need every bit of it before the night was over.
The offense wasted no time. With two runners on in the first, Chase Call slipped a single under the glove of Gleider Figuereo at third to score two runs. 2-0 Asheville. Batista added an RBI single in the second to make it 3-0, then cracked a double to left in the fourth to score another. Justin Thomas Jr. stepped in right after and drilled his 11th home run of the season to score two more. 6-0. Marcus Brown followed in the fifth with a line drive to left to score another run in his first game at HomeTrust Park since being acquired from the Washington Nationals. 7-0.
Call put the finishing touch on the offensive explosion in the sixth. With two runners aboard, he launched a moonshot off the scoreboard in left field, 440 feet, to clear the bases and push the lead to 10-0. The Tourists had scored the first ten runs of the game.
Then Santos handed it to the bullpen, and things got interesting.
Garrett Apker handled the seventh cleanly but ran into immediate trouble in the eighth, loading the bases with nobody out before being pulled for Raimy Rodriguez. Rodriguez walked Gleider Figuereo to force in a run. 10-1.
Then came one of the strangest sequences HomeTrust Park has witnessed this season.
Quincy Scott rolled a ball all the way to the right field wall, where it became wedged underneath the padding. Right fielder Chase Call threw his hands up immediately, begging for time to be called. But home plate umpire Jose Sandoval and base umpire Patrick Goode stood and watched as Scott circled the bases for what appeared to be an inside-the-park grand slam. 10-5.
Call continued to signal frantically that the ball was stuck. Goode eventually jogged out to the wall, gave the ball a tug, and confirmed it was wedged in the padding and wouldn't come free. He stepped back and put up two fingers, signaling an automatic double, which would have scored only two runs instead of four, making it 10-3.
But then Sandoval called Goode in for a discussion, and the ruling changed again. The umpires determined that because Call had made an attempt to show how stuck the ball was, long after the play had ended, that the runs all scored. Asheville manager Nate Shaver came out to argue, visibly frustrated, but the ruling stood. The inside-the-park grand slam counted. 10-5.
Rodriguez stayed in and allowed another run on a Yeison Morrobel flare single to shallow right-center. 10-6. With the bases loaded again and the tying run at the plate, Rodriguez was replaced by Michael Cuevas. What followed was one of the at bats of the season. Cuevas and Hector Osorio battled through nine pitches, including a 400-foot foul ball that missed being a game-tying grand slam by a matter of feet. Cuevas got Osorio to strike out swinging to end the inning.
Cuevas came back out for the ninth and walked the leadoff batter before Maxton Martin took him deep off the scoreboard in left-center. 10-8, nobody out, tying run at the plate. Cuevas dug in. Strikeout. Groundout. Strikeout. Game over.
Batista was outstanding at the plate, going 4-for-4 with two RBIs. He is now 7-for-8 with a home run and four RBIs over his last two games. Call finished 2-for-5 with five RBIs, capped by the 440-foot moonshot in the sixth.
Asheville has won six straight for the first time since 2023 and takes sole possession of first place in the South Atlantic League Southern Division after Bowling Green fell to Greensboro on Wednesday.
The Tourists and Spartanburgers meet again Thursday night at HomeTrust Park. Kellan Oakes takes the ball for Asheville against Hub City's Kamdyn Perry. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m.