Guardians Farm Report: Big Inning For Lehigh Valley Takes Down Columbus On Opening Night

The 2022 minor league season opened Tuesday with the Triple-A Columbus Clippers, the only Cleveland Guardians affiliate in action. The rest of the organization's minor league affiliates are slated to open this Friday.

Triple-A Columbus Clippers

Lehigh Valley 7 Columbus 3

The Columbus Clippers opened the 2022 season on the road last with a tough late-inning loss to the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. Columbus jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning after second baseman Jose Fermin hit a two-run home run, scoring Alex Call who had walked earlier in the inning. The next batter up David Fry then hit a solo home run, going back-to-back with Fermin giving the team a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning.

#Guardians 23yr old INF prospect Jose Fermin with a 2 run HR in the top of the 5th inning for Columbus vs Lehigh on Opening night.#ForTheLand #Future pic.twitter.com/7Jaj0Q20qD
— Guardians Prospective (@CleGuardPro) April 6, 2022

That would be all the scoring in the game until the bottom of the eighth inning when Lehigh Valley erupted for seven runs. The inning saw the Clippers commit two errors, allow three walks, five hits and one batter was hit by a pitch. Columbus would fail to score in the ninth inning despite getting two runners on base.

Starter Kirk McCarty and Thomas Ponticelli piggybacking each threw three scoreless innings a piece over the first six innings of the game. McCarty struck out five over his three frames while Ponticelli added four punch outs.