The Calgary Vipers broke a four game losing streak with a 6-4 win over the Kansas City T-Bones at Foothills Stadium in Calgary, Alberta. The Vipers got solid pitching from Chris Schutt and Ryan Olson and were able to contain the T-Bones offense.
Kansas City scored right away in the first inning with a double and walk by Geoff McCallum and Rob Watson. After a Mario Delgado sacrifice bunt, Al Benjamin plated the game's first run with a groundout.
The Vipers tied the game at one in the bottom of the second inning. Jason Colson and Kyle Nichols hit singles to start the frame. Nelson Castro followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt and Shaun Ashman drove in Colson with a line drive to right field.
The T-Bones reclaimed the lead in the fourth inning with a leadoff double by Delgado and RBI single from Benjamin.
In the fifth inning Aharon Eggleston walked and moved to second base on a McCallum groundout. With two outs, Watson singled home Eggleston for the 3-1 lead.
Calgary responded in the bottom of the inning with a walk and stolen base by Manabu Kuramochi. With two outs, Drew Miller hit a RBI double and Carlos Duncan lifted his eighth homer of the year for a 4-3 score.
Nelson Gord led off the seventh with a double and was moved to third on a Eggleston ground out. Again with two outs, Watson came up huge with his second RBI single to tie the game at four.
For the third straight game Miller clubbed a two run homerun to give Calgary back the lead at 6-4. The homerun came after a Darryl Brinkley single and is Miller's fifth of the year. Miller has also drove in 11 runs in during the three game series.
Olson picked up his second victory of the season going the final two and a third innings while giving up only one hit and striking out three. Schutt gave the Snakes another quality start going six and two thirds while giving up four runs and striking out four.
On Monday July 30th at 11:30 AM (MDT) the Calgary Vipers and Cardel Homes host a Media Conference for the Cardel Night Under the Stars coming up on August 18th and 19th. Their will be a ballpark lunch and the Vipers will also announce a new marketing partnership with the Capacity Group. The Capacity Group is a new Calgary company comprised of three experienced baseball executives, Darren Parker, Travis Tinning and Craig Burak.
