Final score – Rome 3, Hickory 0
(Media release from the Rome Braves):
In a pivotal moment in Rome’s six game stent with the Crawdads, Andrew Hoffmann stepped up and delivered a much needed outing.
Rome entered Thursday night’s matchup with the Hickory Crawdads down two games to none in the series. In the prior two contests, the Braves had been outscored twenty-one runs to nine. To avoid falling in a three nothing hole in the series, Braves manager Kanekoah Texeira gave the ball to one of Atlanta’s top thirty prospects in right handed pitcher Andrew Hoffmann.
Rome and Hickory seemed to be locked into a pitcher’s duel until the bottom of the third when Justyn-Henry Malloy would drive a sacrifice fly to left field deep enough to score Cade Bunnell. The Rome Braves donned the 1974 throwback Atlanta Braves jerseys, and they played ball like it was 1974. Station to station tactics would see Rome score two more runs on another sacrifice fly from Justyn-Henry Malloy, and Christian Robinson would ground into a double play to plate the third and final run for the Braves.
The story of the night would be the zero in the run column for the Crawdads. Rome’s Andrew Hoffmann hurled six shutout innings, giving up only four hits, two walks, and striking out seven. The Braves’ pen would continue their absolute dominance in the month of June, as RJ Freure and Jake McSteen would combine to eat the last three innings of the game. The righty and lefty duo would collectively give up two hits, no runs, one walk, and fan four Crawdads batters.
The dominant pitching outing would give the Braves the win by a final score of three runs to none, their thirty-sixth win of the season. Andrew Hoffmann earned his sixth win of the season and Jake McSteen picked up his second save of the year. Rome and Hickory will tee it back up tonight for another 7:00 PM first pitch, with the first one thousand fans through the gates going home with a bobblehead of former Rome Brave and World Champion Charlie Morton presented by our friends at Giggity’s Sports Bar & Grill.