The Roswell Invaders have some pop in their bats after a 5 home run performance that led to an 8-7 win over the Kamloops Sun Devils at the World Baseball Challenge on Saturday.
Roswell flexed hit their first moonshot in the bottom of the 1st courtesy of Cody Bishop who hit two in the game.
Brennan Hegel blasted a single for the Sun Devils scoring Brad Bitz and Cole Laviolette to put Kamloops up 2-1.
That lead was short-lived thanks to a 3 run jolt in the bottom half of the inning which included a solo home run from Cody Coffman.
Both teams would then score two each in the fifth inning courtesy to make it a 5-4 Invaders advantage after 5 which included Bishop’s 2nd long ball of the contest followed by a moon shot from Joey Miller.
The scoring would pick up again in the ninth with the Invaders up 8-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Kamloops would cut the deficit to 8-7 and had a chance to tie it but were picked off at 2nd base with one out to destroy any hopes of a comeback.
Invaders Centerfielder, Cody Bishop says the five home run performance by the club is pretty much par for the course.
“We have been living off the long-ball which is kind of bad but we hit a lot of them so it worked today. The Sun Devils didn’t make many mistakes that was one of best things about playing them.”
This is not Bishop’s first foray into Canada as he played in the American Association Independent League and played against the Winnipeg Goldeyes.
Sun Devils Manager, Ray Chadwick says it was scrappy effort that came up just a little bit short.
“We battled, we gave up 8 runs with 5 or 6 of those going out of the ballpark that probably would not have in a few other diamonds we have played at, we had our chance in the last inning to tie it up but the closer made some good pitches. The theme for the whole tournament will be keeping the ball in the small park.”
“We’re short a lot of guys because of the time and just finished two different tournaments but the guys battled hard and hopefully we get some different results later on.”
Roswell plays Team Japan on Sunday at 4PM while Kamloops continues against the Thurston County Senators at 8PM.