Flag City topples Mariners, pushes win streak to three

Flag City topples Mariners, pushes win streak to three CELINA – Chris Franks led off the top of the second inning Sunday with a home run, breaking a 1-1 tie and leading the Flag City Slugger to their third straight win, a 4-1 victory over the Flag City Mariners.Sluggers leadoff hitter Brett Reed doubled, singled twice and drove in two runs, but the story of the game was the Flag City bullpen.Kobe Ladd made his Sluggers' debut, starting on the mound and allowing two hits and a run while throwing four innings.After that, relievers Hayden Gilmore, Talmadge Davis and Cooper Ashby combined to throw five scoreless innings. Gilmore got the win; Ashby the save. Jake Lopez singled and drove in a run for the Mariners.The Sluggers bats were in full force Saturday, when their hitters connected on 16 base hits – five doubles – and outslugged the Mariners, 16-10.Flag City's Will Lafftery slashed three hits and drove in four runs, while Harrison Engskov had three hits and drove in three runs.The Sluggers scored four runs in the first inning, another six in the third, and then three runs each in the fifth and sixth.Trey Gardner singled, doubled and scored three times for the Sluggers, while Matt Gardner did the same.Findlay High School graduate Ben Best recorded his second win for Flag City, as he came on in relief and pitched the sixth inning, allowing a run on two hits while striking out a pair of batters.Grand Lake starting pitcher Ty Kiehl went 2 2/3 innings, allowing eight earned runs on seven hits, taking the loss.Flag City is 16-16. It will play at the Hamilton Joes at 7:05 Tuesday. TRIPLE AOMAHA, Neb.-- Toledo Mud Hens pitchers Sawyer Gipson-Long and Geoff Hartlieb combined to no-hit the Omaha Storm Chasers for six innings, and went into the break with a 6-1 win.The Mud Hens went into the four-day break – which mirror's the big league All-Star Break – with a record of 50-43, 11-7 in the second half.Gipson Long threw 4 2/3 scoreless, hitless innings to start the game. He struck out five and walked one.Hartlieb relieved and went 1 1/3 perfect innings, striking out two.Despite their efforts, the Mud Hens led just 1-0 going to the seventh.Justyn Henry-Malloy – who had a big weekend – singled in a run to make it 2-0, then Andy Ibanez slapped an RBI double to push the lead to 3-0. Eduardo Valencia followed with a two-run double and Toledo led, 5-0, going to the bottom of the inning.The Mud Hens turned to Wilkel Hernandez to pitch the seventh.The Storm Chasers' Drew Waters greeted him with a double to break up the no-hitter.Waters also homered in the ninth for Omaha's lone run.On Saturday, Malloy had three hits and drove in five runs as the Mud Hens squeaked by the Storm Chasers, 7-6.Eduardo Valencia smacked a solo, tie-breaking home run in the sixth for the Mud Hens, who banged out 11 hits against five Storm Chaser pitchers.The Storm Chasers starting pitcher was Dallas Kuechel, the former Astros ace who won the Cy Young Award for the American League in 2015. On Saturday, he went four innings and allowed two runs on four hits, walking two and striking out one.The Storm Chasers led 4-2 going to the fifth, when Malloy hits came up with the bases loaded and cleared them with a double to left. That put Toledo up, 5-4.The Storm Chasers – the Royals Triple A affiliate – tied things in the bottom of the inning when former Tiger Harold Castro drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.After Valencia's homer allowed the Mud Hens to regain the advantage, and added a run in the eighth on Malloy's RBI single. Omaha made it close in the ninth against Toledo reliever Woo-Suk Go, pulling to within a run on a Cavan Biggio RBI single.But Go finished the ninth for his second save.Mud Hens reliever Ryan Miller recorded the win after 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Brandon Johnson took the loss for Omaha.Toledo will be back in action Friday, when it hosts Memphis at 7:05