LIMA — Move over beer batter.
It’s free pizza time.
Imagine plopping your tail down in a seat at Simmons Field for a couple of hours and coming away with a free pizza.
You didn’t enter a raffle and didn’t have to come up with the right answer to the trivia contest.
That’s the beauty of winning a free pizza at the Lima Locos’ games this year.
The Locos are doing what the Reds have been doing, via the free-pizza route.
In order to win a 10-inch, two-item pizza from Lima’s Westgate Lanes, the Locos pitchers need to strike out a total of 11 hitters in a game.
That’s exactly what happened in the Locos’ home opener Saturday night. In the end, the Locos’ pitchers had 14 strikeouts in the 15-7 victory over Xenia. After the game, fans were awarded a ticket for the pizza.
Locos starter Garrett Peek (Alabama-Birmingham) led the way with six strikeouts over his three innings of work. Logan Barnette (Georgia State), who earned the win, had one strikeout over three innings.
Left-hander Drew Faintich (Central Florida) helped the pizza cause with three strikeouts in the seventh inning. He was given a huge ovation on each strikeout, even though the Locos were leading at the time, 11-4.
That gave Locos’ pitchers a total of 10 strikeouts entering the top of the eighth. It was announced several times that 11 was the magic number for free pizza.
So when Cole Gordon (Mississippi State) struck out Xenia’s Austin Orr in the eighth inning, for the team’s 11th strikeout, the Locos’ crowd of over 700 let out a thunderous roar.
Then, came a few sighs when it was announced that the pizza had to be exchanged only on Monday.
As it turns out, Westgate Lanes is closed on Mondays, so Saturday’s pizza must be exchanged today.
Westgate Lanes is planning to run the promotion all season long. And if the Locos do strike out 11, fans must exchange their ticket for the pizza the following day only.
By the way, the Locos’ pitchers averaged 8.4 strikeouts-per-nine-inning game over the 40-game regular season last year.
Before the pizza giveaway, the Locos two top promotions/games were the beer-batter promotion and the dizzy-bat race.
Before the game, an opposing hitter is announced to the fans as the beer batter. If that batter strikes out during the game, the price of beer is $1 off the rest of the inning.
On Saturday, the beer batter, Xenia’s Jonathan Bravo, struck out.
The Locos’ pitchers registered 11 strikeouts for free pizza.
And the Locos won.
It all happened under the mega-bright, new lights at Simmons Field.
It’s hard to have a much better night than that.
