The Norfolk Tides (83-53) fell to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (67-69), 4-3 in 11 innings on Saturday night at Harbor Park.
Entering tonight as one of the most effective pitchers in the International League since his promotion from Double-A almost two months ago was Chayce McDermott. The Indiana-born righty toed the rubber for the Tides, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, this evening and tossed three shutout innings to open play, striking out seven batters along the way.
Jacksonville, the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, scratched the first run of the night on a Griffin Conine sacrifice fly in the fourth on a ball he struck deep to center field, but was flagged down at the wall by Colton Cowser to prevent extra-bases.
The game would remain at a 1-0 Jumbo Shrimp lead until the Tides loaded the bases in the eighth. With two away in the frame, Coby Mayo took one the other way against a shifted infield to drive in the go-ahead run. Jacksonville quickly matched the Tides in the top of the ninth with C.J. Hinjosa driving in the equalizing run to force extras.
Both sides would trade runs in the tenth to extend play as Charles Leblanc came around to score on a fielder’s choice for Jacksonville while Joseph Rosa crossed home plate on a sac fly by Cowser.
Conine scored on a wild pitch in the following frame, ultimately becoming the game-winner as the Tides were unable to score in the home half of the 11th, falling by a 4-3 score to the Jumbo Shrimp.
Norfolk will look to earn a series split against Jacksonville tomorrow afternoon with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. The Tides will trot out LHP Cade Povich (1-3, 7.22), while Jacksonville is expected to send LHP Daniel Castano (5-1, 4.06) to the hill.