BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR STAFF

ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

Things were looking pretty decent for the Elizabethton Twins after the Major League Baseball All-Star game as the E-Twins were coming into the second half of the season with a two-game lead over the Johnson City Cardinals.

However, since that time the E-Twins have ran into a stumbling block on the road resulting in the team sliding to 1.5 games behind the front-running Cardinals after dropping two games to Bristol and the first two games in their current road trip to Burlington.

Elizabethton’s road record this season is 7-13 while the Twins have fared better in the friendly confines of Northeast Community Credit Union Ball Park with a 14-6 record.

While Elizabethton is in the midst of a two-game losing streak as of Wednesday and are 4-6 in their last ten games, the Cardinals meanwhile are starting to heat up as they have won four in a row and are 7-3 over their last 10 games.

Here is a look at the last two losses on the road to Burlington:

Burlington……5

Elizabethton…1

Although the Twins rapped out eight base hits, they could not bring the runs home when the opportunity presented itself as Elizabethton stranded nine base runners in the contest scoring only the one run.

Max Smith and Kidany Salva led the hit attack with two hits each as Smith collected a pair of doubles.

Trevor Jenson accounted for the only run for the Twins with a solo home run in the third inning.

Tyler Benninghoff  (2-3) absorbed the loss on the mound going 4 1/3 of an innings allowing five runs on five hits. Benninghoff fanned four Royal batters but also had four base-on-balls.

Erik Cha finished the contest and held the Royals scoreless allowing only one hit and recording four strikeouts. Cha walked three Burlington batters.

Burlington……9

Elizabethton…8

In a game that went 10 innings, the Twins managed to finally score some runs but fell just short to the Royals in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the tenth inning.

There were a total of 25 hits combined and 17 runs as the Twins scored five runs over the eighth and ninth inning to force a extra inning but couldn’t pull it out.

A big lick in the comeback was a Will Holland three-run home run in the eighth that tied the score at that point of the game.

Elizabethton had the chance to blow the game open after the homer as they loaded the bases with one out but failed to capitalize at the critical juncture.

The Twins collected 10 hits in the contest led by two hits apiece from Matt Wallner, Charles Mack, and Kyle Schmidt. Wallner hit his third homer of the season in the third inning, a two-run shot.

Frandy Torres (1-1), the fourth Twins pitcher of the night, took the loss. Ben Gross started the contest but was roughed up by the Royals allowing five runs on six hits while uncorking three wild pitches.