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Squirrels lose lead in eighth again

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The Flying Squirrels (39-56) faltered again in the eighth inning on Thursday, dropping the series opener to Akron (47-47) by a final score of 4-3 at Canal Park. For the third consecutive night, Richmond squandered a one-run lead entering in the eighth inning. Starting pitcher Tyler Herb turned in a quality start for the Squirrels and Jerry Sands smashed his first home run of the season in the loss. Game two of the series at Canal Park will be on Friday at 7:05 p.m.

richmond flying squirrelsThe Squirrels led 3-2 entering the eighth inning, but were unable to hang on. Reliever Carlos Alvarado yielded a one-out double to Mike Papi and then the go-ahead home run to Tyler Krieger to relinquish the lead. Alvarado (0-3) suffered the loss in two innings of relief.

Due to consecutive doubleheaders, the RubberDucks were forced to call up lefty Tanner Tully from Single-A to make the spot start against Richmond on Thursday. Tully retired the side in the first inning on 12 pitches but was touched up for a run in the second. Brandon Bednar launched a triple into the right center field gap and Caleb Gindl knocked him home on a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 Richmond lead.

Akron responded immediately to tie the game with a run in the bottom of the second. Yu Chang worked a walk and advanced to second base on a soft ground ball to second. Krieger then lined a single to left field, scoring Chang with the ‘Ducks first run.

Squirrels right-hander Tyler Herb managed to keep the game tied, despite a pair of errors early on. Herb escaped a pair of runners in scoring position in the third inning, however, the miscues forced his pitch count to 55 through three frames.

Richmond rallied with five consecutive hits in the fifth to pull ahead, 3-1. With one out, Jerry Sands ripped a solo home run – his first since joining the Squirrels. Sands blast carried deep over the right field wall for a 2-1 advantage .Bednar, Gindl and Dylan Davis all followed with singled before Daniel Carbonell added an RBI base hit to right field. Akron’s lefty Tanner Tully slipped away from any more damage by inducing a ground ball double play to end the inning.

The ‘Ducks pulled back to within one in the fifth inning. Joe Sever made it a 3-2 contest by drilling a curve ball off the batters eye in center field. Sever took a pair of fastballs to start off the at bat before finally getting the off speed pitch he was looking for.

Herb escaped another jam in the sixth inning, working around another error. With the bases loaded, Herb punched out Todd Hankins on his 101 pitch of the day. The righty lasted six innings and allowed two runs on four hits in a no-decision. Herb walked two and struck out four while pitching with at least one runner on base in each inning.

Carlos Alvarado replaced Herb and tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh. Alvarado suffered the loss by allowing the two-run homer in the eighth.

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