Sky Sox sock Baby Cakes bullpen, 11-8

METAIRIE – The Colorado Springs Sky Sox scored nine runs over the final three innings to rally past the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 11-8 on Saturday night.

The game featured three lead changes, as each team squandered three-run cushions, and featured a combined 17 walks.

After Austin Nola delivered a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to draw the Baby Cakes even at 8-8, Christian Bethancourt took Nick Wittgren’s first pitch of the ninth over the fence in left-center. Brett Phillips later added a two-run double, and Erik Davis retired the ‘Cakes in order in the bottom of the ninth to record his second save.

Shane Opitz opened the scoring with an RBI double in the second, the third straight time Colorado Springs was first on the board. Peter Mooney’s three-run double in the fourth vaulted New Orleans into the lead, and after Phillips homered in the fifth to bring the Sky Sox within one, the Baby Cakes netted a pair of runs in the bottom half on wild pitches to go in front, 5-2.

Colorado Springs began its comeback in the seventh, courtesy of two unearned runs scoring on a Tyrone Taylor single. In the eighth, Jake Hager drilled his first home run off Tyler Kinley to knot the score, 5-5, and Orlando Arcia put the Sky Sox in front with a single before pinch hitter Quintin Berry tacked on an RBI double.

The Baby Cakes’ bullpen, which had allowed just two earned runs in its last 38 2/3 innings, was charged with nine runs – seven earned – in four innings on Saturday. Starter Jeff Brigham, making his Triple-A debut, scattered two runs and six hits in five innings and finished with six strikeouts.

Wittgren (0-3) suffered the loss after Tyler Kinley took his second blown save of the year. Quintin Torres-Costa (1-0) picked up the win despite taking a blown save for the Sky Sox.

The final-ever meeting between Colorado Springs and New Orleans wraps up the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.