The Buffalo Bisons brought out the big-boy bats at BB&T Ballpark Saturday evening, pounding out three home runs as they cruised to an 8-3 victory over the Charlotte Knights.
Both teams exchanged scoreless innings for the first third of the game but then Buffalo got the ball rolling, or rather, sent the ball flying in the fourth.
Matt Dominguez stroked a one-out single through the middle of the infield, then coasted home on Casey Kotchman’s shot to the concourse beyond the right-field seats.
Two batters later, Erik Kratz lined a base-hit to right and trotted the rest of the way around the bags as Jio Mier made it a 4-0 contest, blasting his third homer of the year into the first row of seats in center.
Up 4-2 in the seventh, Matt Dominguez got in on the fun as he plated Jesus Montero with a sky-high ball onto the short porch in left.
Kotchman followed Dominguez’s homer with a sharply-hit double off of the right-field wall. Kratz was then hit by a pitch and both men scored, as Mier sent a liner over the head of centerfielder Jacob May for his third hit of the night.
The shortstop’s third and fourth RBI of the game gave Buffalo an 8-2 lead.
In his 30th career start as a Bison, Scott Copeland dodged trouble for the most part of 5.2 innings. The Longview, TX native had runners aboard the bases in every inning but gave up only two runs.
The first Charlotte tally came on an inside-the-park home run from Adam Engel. The speedy outfielder lined a ball to shallow left that eluded a charging Darrell Ceciliani, allowing him to circle the bases while the outfielder headed back to the corner to retrieve the sphere.
Copeland fanned four Knights and was helped out by some nifty defense from his middle infielders.
Mier and Alexi Casilla each made separate flips from behind the second-base bag to each other, converting both into double plays in the fourth and sixth innings.
Dustin Antonlin came on for Copeland with two on and two out in the sixth, and quickly ended the frame with a 93 MPH heater to punch out Engel. Antolin struck out two more as he worked a scoreless seventh inning.
Matt Dermody gave up a run and struck out two as he finished off the final two frames.
BISONS NOTES:
The four-RBI effort was the most in a game by Jio Mier since August 20, 2012 when he accomplished the feat for Single-A Lansing…Casey Kotchman’s seventh home run of the year extended his hitting streak to nine-games…Jesus Montero used a single in his fourth at-bat to push his streak to 13 games…Dustin Antolin made his 41st appearance, more than any other Buffalo hurler…Matt Dominguez leads the Herd with 17 home runs and 63 runs batted in.
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