Despite the rain in the forecast, the skies opened up and it turned into a beautiful day for Braves baseball.
Rome would send lefty Luis De Avila to the bump as they looked to clinch the series against the Hudson Valley Renegades. De Avila would find himself in a jam early with the bases loaded in the top of the first. De Avila would ultimately work out of the early mess unscathed by getting Aldenis Sanchez to chase a fastball up and out of the zone to leave the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the first, Vaughn Grissom would send a ball on the ground out to short and a fielding error by Eduardo Torrealba would score Cody Milligan as the game’s first run.
Luis De Avila would find the bases full of Renegades once again in the bottom of the third. A diving stop and tag by Beau Philip would start the double play De Avila needed to work out of the jam.
Rome would tack on two more runs in the bottom of the third thanks to a single from Cody Milligan and a ground ball double play from Bryson Horne. The hit parade would continue for the next three innings as Rome scored two runs in both the fourth and fifth as well.
Luis De Avila would finish his day with four and one third of an inning pitched, no runs on six hits, one walk, and five strikeouts.
Beau Philip would be the offensive star on Sunday, going two for three with two runs batted in.The bullpen would do its job and limit the damage, as they only allowed Hudson Valley to score three runs. Two of the runs would come off of a Cooper Bowman two-strike and two-out homer in the top of the ninth. Nonetheless, Dylan Spain would shut the door out of the pen and the Rome Braves came out of top by a score of seven to three.
Rome takes the series against Hudson Valley by a score of four games to two, and now shifts their attention to the number one team in the South Atlantic League. The Braves will pack up and head north to Bowling Green to take on the red-hot Hot Rods. The High-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays currently sit atop the South Atlantic League with eight wins and one loss, and are set to welcome the Braves on April 19th.
