Columbus streak ends as Omaha holds off late Clippers rally

Nolan Jones gave Columbus exactly the kind of start that usually keeps a streak alive, then Omaha took over and showed the Clippers where the pressure points still are. Jones drilled a second-inning solo homer to right-center for his seventh of the season, but that was Columbus’ only hit until Cooper Ingle singled in the sixth, and the 6-4 loss at Huntington Park ended the Clippers’ seven-game run.

The game turned on more than one swing. After Jones’ homer, Columbus went quiet for long stretches, and Omaha used that pause to build a 5-1 lead that forced the Clippers into chase mode almost all afternoon. Ingle’s sixth-inning single nearly opened the door, but Dayan Frias was thrown out at the plate on the play, a missed chance that left Columbus still reaching instead of pulling even. Omaha starter Ryan Ramsey handled the middle of the game with 5.1 innings of one-run ball, while Kameron Misner delivered the damage on the other side with his 10th and 11th home runs of the season.

Columbus kept coming anyway. Ralphy Velazquez doubled in the seventh and Angel Genao followed with a sacrifice fly to trim the gap, then the Clippers loaded the bases in the eighth and forced Omaha to sweat again. Bo Naylor drew a walk to bring home one run, and a wild pitch added another, pulling Columbus within 5-4 and turning the late innings into a real test of whether Omaha’s bullpen could finish off the home side. The Storm Chasers answered with an insurance run in the ninth, though, and that extra cushion held.

If the loss exposed anything for Columbus, it was less about a collapse than about how quickly the lineup can go from dangerous to dependent on one swing. Jones, Ingle, Velazquez and Genao all had moments that mattered, but the Clippers never produced the steady traffic needed to erase Omaha’s early surge. Austin Peterson supplied the clearest reason for optimism despite the defeat, striking out nine over 4.2 innings and allowing just two runs. The right-hander, a 26-year-old Cleveland draftee out of Connecticut who returned from the 7-day injured list in late April, looked like one of the arms closest to helping the organization if he keeps missing bats like this. Columbus fell to 33-26, but the final sequence suggested a team that still has enough pieces to stay in the race, even if Thursday showed the margin for error is small.