San Antonio, TX – INF Bruce Caldwell delivered the go-ahead blow with a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the eighth inning, lifting the Springfield Cardinals in front for the 3-2 win against the San Antonio Missions before 5,129 fans at Wolff Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Cardinals remain tied with the Tulsa Drillers for 1st place in the North Division Second Half Standings with 25 games remaining in the regular season.
The Cardinals (29-16, 64-51) dealt the first blow in the top of the third inning, cracking the scoreless tie against LHP Eric Lauer. SS Tommy Edman set the table with a one-out double to right field, before racing home one out later on an RBI double from CF Oscar Mercado inside the left field line, lifting Springfield into the 1-0 lead.
Cardinals RHP Chris Ellis (W, 4-6) had cruised through a pair of scoreless innings to start, but San Antonio (26-18, 67-47) squared the score against him in the bottom of the third. Leading off the inning, CF Auston Bousfield skied a solo home run to right-center field, tying the game at 1-1.
The Missions tilted the lead their way in the bottom of the fifth. With one away, C Webster Rivas tripled into the right field corner. He then tagged and scored on an RBI sacrifice fly to left field from Bousfield, providing the 2-1 lead for San Antonio.
Ellis, however, bounced back with scoreless work through the sixth and seventh, closing his third-straight 7.0-inning start with just the two runs on five hits while striking out four.
After Ellis tossed a scoreless seventh, the Cardinals struck in the top of the eighth against RHP Eric Yardley. 3B Jacob Wilson led off with a single to get the tying run on base. Following a strikeout, INF Bruce Caldwell checked in as a pinch hitter for Ellis. Caldwell came through with a go-ahead, two-run blast to left-center field, his 13th home run of the year, catapulting the Cardinals back in front, 3-2.
RHP Landon Beck then took over for the bottom of the eighth and slammed the door with a pair of scoreless innings, closing the 3-2 win for the Cardinals.
