After being rained out Tuesday evening, the Columbus Clippers and Indianapolis Indians finally got their six-game series underway Wednesday with a matinee contest at Victory Field. Despite a threat from the Indians in the ninth inning, Columbus came away with a 3-1 win.

The Clippers got the scoring started when Estevan Florial went deep with the bases empty in the third inning. It was his first home run of the season.

In the seventh inning, Florial singled, then scored on Bryan Lavastida’s double to left field. Lavastida came around to score two batters later when the Indians tried to complete a ground ball double play, but the throw from shortstop Liover Peguero to first resulted in an error and an unearned run.

The lead story for the Clippers was the start of lefthander Doug Nikhazy (2-0), who went six innings of shutout baseball, allowing only two hits, striking out eight and not walking a batter. Columbus gave up a run in the eighth when Seth Beer scored from third on a double play behind him.

The bottom of the ninth provided some scary moments for the Clippers. Andrew Walter came out of the bullpen looking for his first save of the season. Peguero reached on an error by shortstop José Tena to lead off the inning. Walter then struck out Henry Davis looking. Davis appealed the third strike call but was unsuccessful.

After that, Walter walked Jake Lamb and Malcom Nuñez to load the bases with one out. Matt Gorski flied out to Johnathan Rodriguez but the ball to left field was not deep enough to score the runner from third. The game ended when Beer struck out on a foul tip into Lavastida’s mitt.

The Clippers and Indians will play two seven-inning games Thursday to make up Tuesday’s rain-out. The first pitch is slated for 5:35 p.m.