Power 4, Gnats 1

Missed opportunities and nine stranded baserunners were the story of the night for the Sand Gnats as they had their five-game winning streak broken by a, 4-1, West Virginia Power victory. Kyle Allen (7-6) ends up on the losing side of the scoresheet despite allowing four runs (two earned) on six hits with six strikeouts.

The Sand Gnats scored first in the game off Power starting pitcher Casey Erickson (3-1). Josh Satin doubled with one away in the second and came around two batters later on an RBI single by Kai Gronauer. For Gronauer it was his eighth RBI in his last four games.

West Virginia took the lead with two unearned runs off Allen in the third. Danny Bomback hit a ball to the hole on the right side that both Satin and Eric Campbell made a play for. Satin gloved it and threw to Allen covering at first but the ball popped in and then out of his glove. With two down, Quincy Latimore dumped a single into right-center field to score Bomback from third and tie the game.

Kyle Morgan followed Latimore’s single with one of his own to give the Power a one-run advantage. Latimore was thrown out at third by Sean Ratliff to end the inning but the run had already crossed the plate.

Savannah put the leadoff man on in four straight innings late in the game but none of them were able to come around and score. The Power bullpen worked 3.2 innings of one-hit baseball and held the Gnats off the scoreboard.

The Colorado-native Ratliff extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his three hits, just one shy of the season-high set by Campbell. Gronauer also chipped in three hits for his second three-hit game of 2009.