Charleston, WV (July 23, 2009) – The Savannah Sand Gnats scored early and often for the second night in a row and endured a late Power rally to take the second game of the series with a 7-6 victory over the Power at Appalachian Power Park on Thursday night.

Josh Satin brought in the game’s first run on a double in the second inning. A pair of Power errors allowed the Sand Gnats to add two more to their lead. Satin scored the next run in the second after Joey August reached on Kyle Morgan’s fielding error and Quincy Latimore’s error in left brought August in to complete the inning. Another error brought in Savannah’s fourth run as Greg Picart booted a one hopper off the bat of August in the fourth inning which scored Eric Campbell and Jean Luc Blaquiere came home on Imbewer Alvarez’s sacrifice fly.

The Power rallied for four runs in the bottom of the fourth. The first seven batters of the inning reached safely. Jeremy Farrell started the inning with a single and moved to third on Austin McClune’s double. Bobby Spain was hit by an 0-2 pitch before Danny Bomback belted a bases clearing triple. Bomback scored a few pitches later on Greg Picart’s single. West Virginia was down by a run with the bases full and nobody out but failed to score a run.

The Gnats responded with two runs just a half inning later. Campbell reached on a fielder’s choice which allowed Jordan Abruzzo to score and Campbell came in on Blaquiere’s double. The Power made it a two-run game in the sixth inning on Tony Sanchez’s RBI double and they scored their final run in the eighth inning on Kyle Morgan’s run scoring single. The Power had the tying run at second base with nobody out in the ninth inning. Bobby Spain hit a hard line drive right at first baseman Josh Satin, who made the catch and then threw to second to get Austin McClune on a double play.

Phillips Orta (1-0) worked himself out of the bases loaded jam in the fourth inning and allowed a run on no hits over two and two-thirds to snag the victory. Rhiner Cruz (19) held the Power scoreless over the final inning and a third to snag the save. Gabriel Alvarado (5-8) allowed seven runs, three earned on six hits over four innings and was tagged with the loss. West Virginia has committed ten errors in the first two games of the series.

West Virginia fell to 39-56 overall, and 12-13 in the second half after the loss, while the SandGnats improved to 51-46 overall and 16-11 in the second half after the victory. Tony Sanchez and Austin McClune paced the Power with two hits a piece. Sanchez has reached in all 14 games with the Power and has hit safely in 11 of those 14 games while McClune extended his hitting streak to eight games. Robbie Grossman paced the Power with a 3-for-5 performance. Jeremy Farrell singled in the fourth inning to extend his on base streak to 24 games. Quincy Latimore doubled in his second at bat and has hit safely in his last eight games.

West Virginia will continue the four game series against the Savannah SandGnats at Appalachian Power Park on Friday night. The Power will start left hander Rudy Owens (10-1, 1.75) and the Sand Gnats will counter with right hander Kyle Allen (7-5, 4.08). The first pitch will be delivered at 7:05 PM.