HRCBL: Storm thrash Knights for 11th win in a row

Paul Dennis was on the losing side for the Knights after surrendering ten runs on seven hits and four walks over two innings on the mound.

Jack Defayette had two hits for the Knights and Christian Brown had the only other hit off Maloney.

Jacob Yager was a top contributor for the Storm with a 2-for-3 night that included three RBIs and a run scored.

The Storm set the tone for being patient at the plate with their top four hitters in the lineup. Luke Duffy, Ryan Ash, Jason Sosa, and Ryan Bilka combined to go 4-for-7 with an RBI, seven walks, and seven runs scored. Pat Purcell drove in a pair, Chris Ubner and Matt Depolito each had a hit, a walk, and an RBI, and Maloney hit a two run homer.

Duffy scored the first run for the Storm in the bottom of the first on a wild pitch and they took a 1-0 lead. Then Yager hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring Sosa home from third and the Storm were up 2-0.

Maloney was sharp on the mound from the gitgo, striking out Josh Foglia, Christian Brown, and Camdyn Ames in order in the top of the second. Ubner worked a walk to lead off the bottom half for the Storm. He quickly scored when Depolito came up next and ripped an RBI double into right field to widen the lead to 3-0.

Maloney stepped into the box with one out, and smashed a two run shot over the fence to push it to 5-0 for the Storm. Duffy and Ash followed up the homer with back-to-back walks. Sosa came up and worked the count full and turned it into a walk to load the bases for the Storm. Ryan Bilka was up next and Paul Dennis hit him with a pitch to force in a run and the nightmare inning continued.

Yager roped a two run double into the gap and 6-0 became 8-0. Purcell was the ninth batter of the inning for the Storm, and he provided an RBI groundout to make it 9-0 in favor of the Storm. Ubner got his second at-bat of the inning next and got another hit, an RBI single to cap off an eight run inning for the Storm as their lead grew to 10-0.

With two outs in the top of the fourth, DJ DeLamater reached on an error by the first baseman to try and create some offense for the Knights. Jack Defayette hit a single and DeLamater moved to second on the play.

Foglia loaded the bases thanks to an error by the second baseman and the Knights were knocking on the door. However Christian Brown hit a sky high pop up to second base and it was caught for the third out.

The Storm added one more run in the bottom of the sixth when Ryan Ash scored on a fielder’s choice by Jacob Yager and the lead was now 11-0.

Defayette got a one out base hit for the Knights in the top of the seventh, their last chance at the plate. Maloney battled back and struck out Foglia for out number two, but Christian Brown kept the inning alive with a single.

Camdyn Ames came up and grounded a ball to Ubner at second base who flipped to Ash for a fielder’s choice to end the game and secure the win 11-0 for the Storm.

The Storm have now won 11 straight games going into the weekend and increase their lead in the standings once again. The Knights dropped to 11-8 on the season, but still sit in second place in the standings, four and a half games behind the Storm who are now 16-4.