Written By: Alex Brophy
LAFAYETTE, IN. – On a night when the city of Lafayette honored a local hero, the product on the field could not equal the environment of the crowd. Lafayette suffered a 9-3 loss to the Chillicothe Paints. The Aviators had big plays in small moments and couldn’t cool the Paint’s hot bats. Chillicothe ended the night with 13 hits and two home runs. The Fly Boys had a deep shot themselves, but not until the game was out of reach.
The action opened up with a leadoff home run in the top of the second inning. Paint catcher, Hunter Klotz, homered to right field making it a 1-0 ballgame. This was the start of a seven-run scoring spree across three innings. In the third, Chillicothe would lead off with their second home run from Sentrel Farmer. This was followed by two RBI singles and a SAC Fly to bring the lead to 5-0. An error in the fourth inning would allow two more runs, one unearned, to score and make it a 7-2 lead over Lafayette. The final runs came in the eighth inning when Tim Orr doubled and sent in a run, with one final RBI-single to cap off the barrage at nine runs.
Lafayette had an unfortunate night at the plate. They had only six hits for three runs, with a home run coming in garbage time in the eighth inning (Bogard hit his first home run to right field). The two meaningful runs came in the bottom of the third inning in response to the Paints. Ethan Bedgood hit a SAC Fly and Mike Koszewski scored an unearned run off of an error. These two runs were an example of what was on the table tonight. The Aviators left eight runners on base including back-to-back innings with bases loaded and only came away with two runs. Pitching fell off quickly as Brody Fine allowed seven hits for seven runs in his start and loss.
The Fly Boys are 24-32 and have three more games at home in this 2022 season, including tomorrow’s matchup against the Danville Dans. The first pitch will be thrown at 7:00 p.m. EST and fans can tune into Prospect League TV for all the action.
