Hoots Win Home Opener 8-3 Over Waleska

Columbus – In front of a historic crowd at their inaugural home game, the Columbus Chatt-a-Hoots (1-1) rallied from a 3-2 deficit in the seventh to score six runs and win 8-3 over the Waleska Wild Things (1-1) Saturday night at Golden Park.

The win is the first in team history for the Columbus organization, in its first year of existence.  A Sunbelt League record 1904 people attended the Chatt-a-Hoots first ever home game to help celebrate the return of baseball to the Columbus community.

Trailing 3-2 in the seventh, the Chatt-a-Hoots started their rally by loading the bases on two walks on a hit by pitch.  Then with one out, Ethan Anderson relieved Colt Taylor (0-1) for Waleska and promptly walked the first batter he faced to bring home the tying run.  Anderson then threw a wild pitch that allowed the go-ahead run to score before allowing a base clearing double by Cameron Gray that put the Hoots up 6-3.  Two more runs scored on a base hit by Henry Daniels and a run-down on a double steal attempt to make it 8-3.  From there, Chatt-a-Hoots reliever Slade James (1-0) shut down the Waleska bats to secure the victory.

James pitched three perfect innings of relief, retiring all nine batters he faced and recording four strikeouts.  Logan Seehafer also delivered a solid relief outing with 2.2 scoreless innings and led all pitchers with five strikeouts.

Marcerio Allen led the Wild Things with two hits.  Henry Daniels also had two hits for the Chatt-a-Hoots and scored in the second after leading off the inning with a triple to give Columbus an early 1-0 lead.

Hits were at a premium for both teams as the Chatt-a-Hoots were held to five hits and the Wild Things managed just three.  Both sides also hurt themselves with a combined 19 walks.  The Wild Things pitching staffed finished with 10 walks, while the Chatt-a-Hoots had nine, including three-straight with the bases loaded to give the Wild Things a 3-1 lead in the fourth.

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