After an inning was in the books at Huntington Park Friday, it looked as though the scoreboard might be in for a challenging night. The visiting Iowa Cubs plated three runs in the top of the inning to take a quick lead and chase Columbus Clippers starter Aaron Davenport from the game in his first Triple-A start.

The Clippers responded in the bottom of the first with five runs. The first six Columbus hitters reached base. Petey Halpin led off with a double and came home on Brayan Rocchio’s shot over the right field wall. In his first at-bat with the Clippers this season, Chase DeLauter followed with a single.

Then, Johnathan Rodriguez singled and C.J. Kayfus walked to load the bases. Kody Huff doubled to bring in two. Huff now has 21 runs batted in, first on the club. An out later, Yordys Valdes grounded out, bringing Kayfus to the plate. After a productive inning of play for both teams, the Clippers led, 5-3.

That was all the scoring that Columbus would manage in the contest, but the Cubs scored four more, three in the fourth inning and one in the ninth, to win the game, 7-5. It was Iowa’s second straight win in the four games played so far in the series. Two games remain – one on Saturday and one on Sunday.

The loss went to Clippers’ reliever Mason Hickman (1-1), his first of the season. He gave up three runs in three innings of work, giving up four hits and three walks. Zak Kent and Franco Aleman each tossed a scoreless inning out of the Columbus bullpen to lower their ERAs to 1.08 and 2.45, respectively.

Game five of the six-game series will be played Saturday beginning at 7:05 p.m. Doug Nikhazy (1-3, 4.99) will get the start for Columbus, with Jordan Wicks (0-2, 4.91) going to the hill for the Cubs.