Storm Chasers crush Mud Hens with six homers in 10-5 win

John Rave set the tone and kept raising it, finishing with two home runs as the Omaha Storm Chasers launched six long balls in a 10-5 win over the Toledo Mud Hens on Tuesday night at Fifth Third Field.

The game, delayed 90 minutes by inclement weather and finally starting at 8:05 p.m., never looked like a typical cold, wet grind once Omaha started swinging. Abraham Toro opened the scoring with a leadoff homer in the second inning, Rave added his first blast, and then the fourth inning turned into the defining stretch of the night when Kameron Misner and Drew Waters both went deep. By the end, Omaha had its season-high six-homer game and had pushed its record to 12-9, while Toledo fell to 9-13.

That kind of production does more than fill a box score. It gives the Storm Chasers a power identity that can travel, and it forces attention around the names making up the lineup’s upper tier. Rave, who entered the game hitting .294 with a .419 on-base percentage and a .978 OPS in Triple-A play, had already been named International League Player of the Week for April 6-12 after going 9-for-19 in a road series at Iowa. His two-homer night in Toledo only strengthened the case that his bat has become one of Omaha’s most reliable weekly anchors.

Toro’s early homer mattered too, especially after a slower start to his own numbers this year. He entered the game batting .239 with one home run, and his first-inning-like jolt in the second inning helped Omaha get to Toledo’s pitching before the Mud Hens could settle in. Misner and Waters then showed how different this lineup can look when contact turns into damage quickly, a reminder that Omaha does not need one singular threat to beat a staff.

Luinder Avila provided the kind of starting foundation that lets that offense breathe, allowing just one run over three innings while striking out three. Toledo briefly answered through former Storm Chaser Tyler Gentry, whose three-run homer pulled the Mud Hens within 5-4, but Omaha ended the threat fast. After Toledo went to its bullpen in the fifth inning, the Storm Chasers scored five insurance runs and turned a tense game into a comfortable finish.

For a club trying to build momentum in the International League, this was the sort of night that changes the conversation. Six homers on the road against a familiar opponent did not just beat Toledo; it showed Omaha a version of itself that can overwhelm mistakes, stack innings, and make a lineup feel deeper by the hour.