Despite an explosive 8th-inning comeback, the Locos fell short of victory, 10-8, in yesterday’s contest against the Joes. 

Jacob Emerson made his Locos debut and tossed 2.2 innings of work and allowed 4 runs off of 5 hits. He was in line for the loss for much of the matchup, but the loss was ultimately handed to Thomas Howard after he allowed 2 runs in the 9th when the game was tied entering the inning. 

Cooper Fiehrer pitched 5 innings of 1 run baseball and was in line for the win until the 8th. Abe Crall ended up earning the win in the end. 

The first two frames flew by hastily. In the 3rd inning, the Joes broke the scoreless tie after a Niehaus RBI double. Szymczak then laced another RBI double off the wall. The inning’s final run was knocked in by Allen to give Hamilton a 4-0 lead. 

In the 4th, Hamilton scored yet again. Niehaus hit an infield single and Osting doubled to make the score 6-0. In the bottom half of the inning, the Locos got into the scoring column thanks to a Brice Estep RBI sacrifice fly. 

The 5th inning saw no scoring, but the Joes scored again in the 6th. Cam Gilkerson smashed a long ball to right field that left the yard. Then in the 7th Frassman scored Baird after an infield single. 

Heading into the bottom of the 8th inning the score stood Hamilton 8, Lima 1. Bowen, Alexander, and Richards loaded the bases with not an out. Andrew Stechshulte then reached on an error and a run scored, 8-2. Landon Tate then hit an RBI single to center field, advancing each runner 90 feet. Caden Lockwood then continued the hitting party by hitting a 2 RBI single to cut the Lima deficit to 3. After Lockwood, Bo Shinkle hit a sac fly to make it a 2 run contest. Lou Fujiwara was able to hit another single to score another run, then Sebastian Alexander knocked in the tying run. 

With the game now tied and all the momentum on Lima’s side, the Joes were able to start off the 9th with a double. Then Howard walked Baird to put 2 on with no outs bringing Frassman to the plate. After there was a wild pitch, putting 2 runs in scoring position, Frassman hit a sac fly to deep right to give the Joes the lead back. On that same play, Richards’s throw went offline allowing Allen to round 3rd and score the inning’s second run. 

In the bottom of the 9th, the Locos were unable to score making the final 10-8. The Locos look to win the series tonight on the road.