Cody Hebner tossed five shutout innings, and Austin Hedges hit a grand slam as the TinCaps rolled to an 8-1 win over the South Bend Silver Hawks on Tuesday. Fort Wayne used a seven-run fourth inning to surge to the win.
Fort Wayne (2-3) scored in the first when, with runners at first and third, South Bend (2-3) pitcher JR Bradley (0-1) was called for a balk. That allowed Donavan Tate to score.
The first seven TinCaps batters in the fourth to reached on base hits, and all of them scored. The big play was Hedges’ grand slam that put the TinCaps in front 6-0.
It was the first home run of the year for Fort Wayne, which entered the game as just one of three teams in the league without a home run. The TinCaps scored twice more in the inning. Hedges finished the game with four RBI.
Hebner (1-0) went five innings in his Fort Wayne debut, striking out six of the first seven batters he faced, nine total. Luis De La Cruz, Robert Eisenbach and Matt Stites combined for four innings of one-run relief.
In addition to Hedges, Tate, Casey McElroy, Travis Whitmore and Kyle Gaedele all had multi-hit performances.
The final game of the series pits Fort Wayne lefty Frank Garces (0-0, 0.00) against righthander Archie Bradley (0-0, 0.00) for South Bend. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
