COLUMBUS, OH - The new era of technology in baseball was on full display Wednesday night at Huntington Park as the Columbus Clippers beat up on the visiting Toledo Mud Hens, 9-7. Over 9,600 fans turned out on a beautiful night for baseball in the Arena District.
Columbus exploded for a seven-run 1st inning rally on just three hits. With two outs, the umpire's call of strike three against Bo Naylor appeared to end the inning, but after making a successful ABS challenge, Naylor went on to walk in the game's first run. Kody Huff also walked in a run, and then Milan Tolentino cleared the bases with a triple to make it 5-0. The Clippers weren't done yet. Two batters later, Cooper Ingle doubled to deep right-center field to bring home two more.
The Clippers proved to have a better grasp of the challenge system on this night than the visitors. Max Clark, Toledo's stud prospect, was justifiably denied the opportunity to challenge a pitch in the 3rd inning after looking into his dugout first. He then struck out.
The rout was on at that point. Ingle hit his 15th homer of the season in the 3rd inning, and in the 4th a sacrifice fly by Ralphy Velazquez brought the score to 9-0.
Right-hander Austin Peterson picked up his first victory of the season with 5.0+ innings of one-run baseball, striking out seven.
The Mud Hens made a run late in the game, scoring seven times between the 6th and 8th innings, but the team from northern Ohio's bark was worse than their bite on this evening as the comeback fell short in the 9th.
Columbus now has an overall record of 54-49, while Toledo drops to 50-53.
The Clippers and Mud Hens continue the series with a business day special on Thursday! You can be there to see two of the game's top prospects battle with first pitch set for 12:05pm! Get Clippers tickets with lower online fees than ever at ClippersBaseball.com.
