Omar Narvaez, Leury Garcia make key plays late in Charlotte Knights’ 6-5 win

Omar Narvaez smacked a two-run double in the eighth inning Thursday to lift Charlotte to a 6-5 Class AAA International League baseball victory win over the Syracuse Chiefs in the finale of their three-game series at NBT Bank Stadium.

The win propelled the Knights into a first-place tie in the South Division with the Gwinnett Braves.

Tied 4-4 after seven innings, Charlotte got to Syracuse’s bullpen. Reliever Nick Masset (0-3) allowed a leadoff walk to Danny Hayes. Jason Coats followed with a sacrifice bunt to move Hayes to second base. After Masset got Nicky Delmonico to strike out swinging, Leury Garcia was intentionally walked. That set the stage for Narvaez.

Earlier in the day, the Knights put catcher Kevan Smith on the disabled list and called up catcher Chris O’Dowd from Class AA Birmingham. With that, Narvaez was given back his starting catcher duties. He made the most of that opportunity.

On a 1-1 pitch, Narvaez hit a two-run double off Masset to give the Knights a 6-4 lead. Narvaez finished 2-for-4 with the two RBIs.

The Chiefs nearly tied the score against reliever Brad Goldberg In the ninth inning. Matt den Dekker started with a single and went to second base on a wild pitch. Matt Skole then walked. Jason Martinson moved the runners to seconed and third with a sacrifice bunt before Caleb Ramsey singled home den Dekker to cut the lead to just a run. Syracuse had the chance to tie on the play, but Skole was thrown out at the plate by center fielder Leury Garcia. Goldberg then got Tony Campana to groundout to end the game.

The Knights will head to Rochester, N.Y., to open a three-game series at 7:05 p.m. Friday against the Red Wings.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 10:36 PM with the headline "Omar Narvaez, Leury Garcia make key plays late in Charlotte Knights’ 6-5 win."