STAFF REPORTS
news@allwnynews.com
NORFOLK, Va. — The Buffalo Bisons and Norfolk split a double header Wednesday night at Harbor Park with Norfolk taking the first game, 4-0 and Buffalo winning game two, 2-1.
Rain in Buffalo last week and in Norfolk on Tuesday forced the teams to schedule back-to-back doubleheaders with the first half on Wednesday night. By International League rule, the Bisons served as the home team in game two -the makeup for the game lost at Coca-Cola Field. The teams will play a second doubleheader on Thursday afternoon at 12:05 p.m.
Norfolk wasted little time in game one, picking up the win just over an hour and a half. The Bisons had five hits in the contest, but by only a pair of batters. Christian Lopes went 3-3 with a double but was stranded on base each time he reached. Darrell Ceciliani singled twice while the rest of the team went 0-18 at the plate, including 0-5 with runners in scoring position.
The Tides opened the scoring with a Pedro Alvarez sacrifice fly in the first inning before tacking on a three-run rally in the fourth. That handed Luis Santos (0-1) the loss in his first career Triple-A start. The righty worked four innings and yielded five hits.
Buffalo rebounded to squeak out a 2-1 win in the night cap. The Bisons had the bases loaded with no outs in back-to-back innings, but scored only one run each time. Ceciliani scored first when he raced home on doubleplay ball off the bat of Rowdy Tellez in the fourth inning. Lopes drove in the eventual game-winning run in the fifth when he beat out a potential doubleplay with the sacks packed.
Jarrett Grube (2-1) got the win in game two, yielding only a Henry Urruita home run in five innings of work. Jeff Beliveau got three ground outs and a pair of strikeouts to earn his first save of the season.
