SOUTH JORDAN, UTAH – Gavin Cross hit a go-ahead, 9th-inning grand slam as the Omaha Storm Chasers (13-11/46-52) beat the Salt Lake Bees (9-15/48-50) on Thursday 12-9. Cross’ grand slam was one of Omaha’s 16 hits in the game, as 6 Storm Chasers had multi-hit games for the team’s 7th straight win.
The Bees took the first lead of the game when Storm Chasers starter Mason Black gave up an RBI single in the bottom of the 1st inning to give Salt Lake a 1-0 lead.
The Bees added another run off of Black in the bottom of the 2nd inning on an RBI groundout, but Omaha came back with 4 runs in the top of the 3rd inning, starting with an RBI double from Kyle Isbel. John Rave subsequently hit an RBI single, then Brett Squires drove him in with a 2-run home run to make it 4-2 Omaha.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Black allowed a leadoff home run and a sacrifice fly to tie the game 4-4, but in the top of the 4th inning, Isbel hit another RBI double to give the Storm Chasers a 5-4 advantage.
Salt Lake tied the game again 5-5 in the bottom of the 4th inning on an RBI double off Black, but once more Omaha took the lead back the next inning, scoring 3 runs in the top of the 5th inning to pull ahead 8-5. The first 2 runs of the frame came across on Luca Tresh’s RBI single, then Gavin Cross plated another with an RBI single of his own.
After a 2-run home run with no outs in the bottom of the 5th inning cut the Storm Chasers’ lead to 8-7, Omaha turned to Ethan Bosacker out of the bullpen, and he worked out of the frame without further damage.
The Bees then took the lead 9-8 in the bottom of the 6th inning, scoring on a wild pitch and RBI single off Bosacker before Aaron Bummer made his Storm Chasers debut, striking out the final batter of the frame.
Bummer worked a scoreless bottom of the 7th inning, and Jose Cuas (5-2) fired a perfect bottom of the 8th inning to keep it a 1-run game heading into the 9th inning.
With 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning, Gavin Cross hit a 2-out, go-ahead grand slam to put Omaha ahead 12-9.
Cuas then retired the first batter in the bottom of the 9th inning, and Anthony Gose sat down the next 2 to finish the game and earn his first save of the season.
The Storm Chasers will return to Salt Lake to take on the Bees for the fourth game of the series Friday evening. First pitch is set for 7:35 P.M. CT and Omaha has Vince Velasquez in line for the start.