5/17/12

Bisons bats come alive in 14-7 eruption

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In game 2 of the Bisons long homestand, the Herd bounced back from last night's loss with a bang to win 14-7 against the Gwinett Braves on Wednesday night at Coca-Cola Field.
 
Third baseman Matt Tuiasosopo highlighted a 17-hit Buffalo attack with an inside the park home run in the bottom of the 1st inning.


"It was really good to see and Matt ran hard out of the box," Manager Wally Backman said. "It definitely helped to give Olsen run support early on."

He was the first Bisons player to hit an inside the park home run since Mike Jacobs on June 9, 2010 and the first to do it in Buffalo since Karim Garcia on June 6, 2001.

In the bottom of the first, outfielder Vinny Rottino hit a two-out infield single. Valentino Pascucci followed with a walk, which brought Tuiasosopo to the plate. The slugger hit a fly ball to Braves right fielder Felix Pie that drifted out of his reach. As the ball skipped away from Pie, Tuiasosopo motored around the bases and slide head first into home for the inside the park home run.

"I think it's my first inside the park home run in my career," Tuiasosopo said. "It was definitely assuring to get those and make it to home plate with not much gas left in the tank."

After Tuiasosopo's impressive feat, the Herd didn't take long to add to its offensive explosion. On the very next pitch, Bisons second baseman Brad Emaus hit a solo home run to left-center in a conventional way for his first home run as a Bison.

The onslaught continued in the bottom of the 3rd inning, with Bisons shortstop Omar Quintanilla hitting a three-run triple to give the Herd an 8-1 lead.

"He has so many big hits down in the lineup," Backman added. "I'd love to move Omar up in the lineup but he seems to be comfortable where he's at."

All the offense went to benefit Bisons starter Garrett Olsen, who picked up his first win of the season. The southpaw allowed three runs while striking out six in five innings of work.

In his previous seven starts, three losses and four no-decisions, Olson received just 17 total runs in support.

"It's great we were able to give Olsen enough run support," Tuiasosopo added. "It felt good to help out his pitching performance."

The Bisons tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fifth and solo runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth for the 14-7 win.

BISONS NOTES: OF Vinny Rottino to extend his hit streak to 19 games. He finished the game 2-4 with a pair of runs scored...SS Omar Quintanilla now has 21 RBIs on the season, the second player on the Bisons with 20 or more (Valentino Pascucci has 25)... Valentino Pascucci went 1-3 with two walks and two RBIs to extend his hit streak to 10 games.

from team press release

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