(5-6, 4th–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
The Express rally with one run in the 8th and 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to take a come-from-behind win over the Iowa Cubs. The 2 runs in the final frame came on a Brooks Conrad walkoff HR.
Conrad bookended the game, leading off the RR run-scoring with a solo shot in the 1st. The homers were his 1st and 2nd of the year. He also walked in another plate appearance and scored, giving him a total of 3 runs scored and 3 RBIs in the game.
OF Luke Scott was 3-4 with a 2-run homer (#3).
SS Jesse Garcia had a couple of base hits.
Starter Jason Hirsh had the mediocre outing (5.1 IP 5 H 4 R 4 ER 1 W 4 K).
Aaron Williams hurled a scoreless frame for the second day in a row.
(5-5, T2nd–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
The Hooks take to the road after 9 games at home to open the season. They’re greeted with a 20-10 pasting by the Midland RockHounds. And no that’s not me fumbling with the keyboard. Both teams combined for an incredible 41 hits (26 of those were by the home club).
Normally, a team scoring 5 runs in the 9th inning would be in line for a victory. In this case, all it did for the Hooks was narrow the margin of victory for their hosts from 15 runs to 10 runs. Midland scored at least one run in every single inning they came to bat.
RF Hunter Pence, C J.R. House, CF Josh Anderson and 1B Josh Bonifay were all 3-5 in the game.
Both Pence (#4) and Bonifay (#2) went yard and both also drove in 4 runs apiece. In what is becoming routine for him, Pence’s homer was a 430-foot blast to LF.
House had a 2-bagger and plated two.
SS Ben Zobrist was 2-4 with a walk.
Starter Josh Miller (6 runs allowed) and relievers Blake Allen (4 runs), Dave Rollandini (6 runs) and Jon Skaggs (4 runs) all stoked the bonfire.
Also contributing to the carnage was 5 errors by CC which led to 4 unearned runs.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Pence now leads the club with 12 RBIs. (2) One of Anderson’s hits was a double, just his 1st extra-base hit of the year. (3) Midland 2B Kevin Melillo had 6 hits in the game and teammate RF Jason Perry hit for the cycle.
Quoting:
Smoke was seen coming from manager Dave Clark’s ears after the game:
“The worst game for this team?” Clark said. “It’s probably the worst game to ever (expletive) be played with what we went through. It was (expletive). It was everything. In all phases of the (expletive) game, we didn’t do (expletive). We showed up – that’s all we did.
“We got our (butts) kicked. That’s the only way I can explain it – we got our (butts) kicked.”
(4-6, 3rd–Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
The Avalanche out-hits Wilmington for the second straight day (7-5), but again find themselves on the wrong end of the runs scored column and suffer the 4-2 loss.
Troy Patton takes the loss but it ain’t ’cause of any lousy pitching on his part (6 IP 5 H 4 R 0 ER 1 W 9 K).
Rory Shortell followed Patton with 2 scoreless.
2B Drew Sutton went deep but it was a solo shot (#1).
DH Neil Sellers had a walk and a single as did RF Francisco Caraballo. Sellers swiped his 3rd base.
Continuing his fielding woes that go back…well…forever, Wade Robinson committed a couple of errors (giving him 3 in 5 games played on the year).
(8-3, 1st–SAL Northern)
Game Notes:
The West Virginia Power comes up with 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th and hold on for the 4-3 win over the Legends.
7 singles + one triple = just 3 runs for Lex offense.
CF Josh Flores had the triple plus a single in 5 plate appearances.
3B Koby Clemens knocked in his 9th run with an RBI single and also drew a walk.
C J.R. Towles and LF Ryan Reed had 2 hits apiece.
Starter Tip Fairchild put his club in a position to win with some decent work (6 IP 9 H 2 R 2 ER 1 W 7 K).
The loss gets hung on reliever Jamie Gant, who surrendered the 2 runs in the 8th. He ends up working 1.1 innings with 3 hits and 2 walks allowed.