ZooKeepers Get Back On Track Against Hi Toms

The Asheboro ZooKeepers made the short journey to Thomasville once again.

For the second time in as many days the Hi Toms and ZooKeepers battled it out, this time at Finch Field.

Over the course of the last week the ZooKeepers have struggled dropping their last four games.

Nic Schutte would get the ball in what would be his final game in a ZooKeepers uniform this season.

Hot Start

Coming into the game ZooKeepers manager Korey Dunbar expressed to his players just how much this game means.

The message was received well from the players as the bats exploded in the early innings.

The ZooKeepers put up back to back three run innings in both the second and third inning.

The six run barrage was highlighted by a Zach Evans solo home run and an Owen Blackledge two run home run.

Seemingly everything was going the ZooKeepers way on offense through the first four innings.

Quality Start

As for Nic Schutte, over the course of the last few games he has been exceptional.

Prior to tonight’s game Schutte had not allowed more than three runs in a game since June 1st.

For Schutte, he was exceptional yet again in his final start.

Schutte would up going four innings and giving up two runs, only one of them being earned.

While Schutte only struck out one batter he got several flyouts and groundouts in critical situations.

Schutte would be taken out after four innings of work and finish his summer with a 5.87 ERA.

Hi Toms Fight Back

The ZooKeepers bullpen took over in the fifth inning and Richie Cimpric was the first out.

Cimpric was phenomenal out of the bullpen going three innings and just allowing two hits.

After Cimpric came in it was Zach Taylor who was next up.

Taylor had one previous outing this season and failed to get out of the inning.

Once again Taylor would fail to get out of the inning as he gave up five runs on three hits.

He failed to record an out and all of a sudden the ZooKeepers lead had been cut from 8-2 to 8-7.

Luckily for Dunbar and pitching coach Grant Crosby they had one workhorse left in the pen, Danny Thompson.

As he has done seemingly every single outing, Thompson came into the game and shut it down.

Thompson did give up two hits but struck out five batters sealing the game for the ZooKeepers.

Wrap Up

After it was all said and done the ZooKeepers hung on to win by a score of 8-7 snapping their four game losing streak.

The ZooKeepers along with every other CPL team will now have three days off for the all star break.

Five ZooKeepers will be represented in this year’s all star festivities.

This year’s festivities will be held in Forest City and can be seen on Flo Sports.

The next game for the ZooKeepers will be Wednesday night in Thomasville once again.

The game can be heard on the ZK Baseball radio Network: https://zkbaseball.mixlr.com/

First pitch is scheduled for 6:30pm.