(11-10, 2nd–PCL American South)
Game Notes:
The Express and Omaha Royals managed to get the 1st game of the DH in before the rains came, with RR coming out 7-3 winners.
Round Rock scored 5 of their 7 runs in Saturday’s game on 3 longballs, and they used almost that exact same formula on Sunday.
LF Luke Scott went deep (#6) for the second day in a row and also drove in a 2nd run on a single. He also drew a walk.
1B Royce Huffman (#1) and RF Joe McEwing (#2) also had the long flies. Huff’s was a 2-run shot while Super Joe had a second base hit in the game.
DH Alan Zinter doubled and had a RBI single.
Whiff…whiff…whiff…whiff goes CF Charlton Jimerson. Yeah, that’s a shocker.
Jared Gothreaux’s 5-inning/79-pitch outing was marred by a couple of gopher balls which accounted for all three of the O-Royals’ runs scored against him.
Mark McLemore makes his 1st appearance since April 9th and hurls a 1-2-3 6th inning.
Travis Driskill pitched a scoreless 7th.
UT-ex J.P. Howell was the starting pitcher for Omaha, getting lit up for 6 runs on 10 hits in 5 IP.
Other News and Notes:
(1) As noted previously, McLemore’s sitting out the last 3 weeks was due to a bit of a setback in the recovery from last year’s shoulder surgery. (2) Omaha DH Rick Bell is another one of Buddy’s sons. Not a big surprise papa’s Royals are giving him a shot with Omaha, but this is his 5th organization (and 6th uniform) in the last 2 seasons.
(15-9, 1st–Texas League South)
Game Notes:
The hot…hot…hot Hooks had to battle back twice before finally defeating the Arkansas Travelers 9-8 in 12 innings. Just an awesome win.
Down 6-4 going into the bottom of the 8th, CC rallied for one run in that inning and another in the bottom of the 9th (via a game-tying double off the bat of 2B Jonny Ash) to push the game into extra innnings. It looked bleak for Corpus when the Travs scored twice in the top of the 10th but they again rallied (the big hit a triple by RF Hunter Pence) to tie the score at 8 apiece. Finally, a single by LF Jorge Cortes scored Pence (who had led off the inning with a single) from 3B with the game-winner in the bottom of the 12th.
In all, Pence reached 5 times on 2 walks, 2 singles and the triple.
3B Josh Bonifay and Ash joined Pence with 3 hits apiece. Son of Cam had 3 RBIs in the game, one coming on his 6th longball of the year. Ash also joined Pence in reaching base on 5 occasions with a walk and plunk added into the mix. He belted a pair of doubles.
SS Ben Zobrist was on base 3 times with 2 singles and a walk, scoring twice.
CF Josh Anderson walked and singled in 7 trips and swiped his 8th and 9th bases of the year.
Starter Chance Douglass had the excellent outing as the only run scored off him in 6 innings came on a solo shot.
Things went into the crapper in the 7th when the bullpen came on. Dave Rollandini gave up 2 walks and a single before exiting with the bases loaded and 2 out. Jon Skaggs continued the walk-a-thon with 3 straight free passes. He gave way to Aaron Williams who surrendered a double before getting the last out of the inning. Total damage (mostly self-inflicted) in inning 7? 5 runs.
One reliever who did stand out was Blake Allen, who blanked Arkansas over the final 2.1 frames to pick up the win.
Pence twice gunned out runners who tried to stretch singles into doubles.
Other News and Notes:
(1) The Hooks have won 10 of their last 13 games. (2) Ash had just 3 extra-base hits for the season entering the game. (3) Bonifay did pick up his 8th error of the season, but again that’s primarily a result of playing out of position at 3B. (4) This was the 4th straight game that CC pitchers have struck out at least 10 batters.
(9-14, 4th-Carolina League Southern)
Game Notes:
The Avalanche break their 6-game losing streak behind some strong pitching, decent hitting and a ton of errors by Kinston as they defeat the Indians 7-2.
Starting pitcher Evan Englebrook goes to 2-0 with another fine performane (6 IP 4 H 1 R 1 ER 2 W 4 K).
Ryan Thompson continues to pitch well out of the bullpen for the Avs, going 2 scoreless in this one while allowing just one baserunner.
Kinston starting pitcher Scott Lewis entered the game not having given up an earned run in 4 previous starts this season. He had allowed just 11 hits in 17.2 IP with a 22:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Avs’ hitters touched him up for 3 runs and 5 hits in 4 innings, although only one of the runs was earned.
The middle of the lineup did the most damage as 3B Neil Sellers, RF Frankie Caraballo and 1B Scott Robinson each went 2-4 and combined for 4 RBIs while DH Billy Hart doubled, walked and laid down a sac bunt. Sellers and Caraballo had 2-baggers as well while Robinson hit his 2nd yack of the year.
The K-Tribe’s 5 errors resulted in 4 of Salem’s runs being unearned.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Make that 2 extra base hits now for Hart’s career. (2) Backup catcher Jeffrey Mackor had his 1st extra base hit of the year (a double) in the game.
Quoting:
Manager Jim Pankovits on planned changes for his ballclub:
“The players will spend a lot more time here working on both mental and physical preparation,” (he) said. “We’ll have meetings to talk about hitting, scouting reports. Obviously there are some guys here who have a lot of work to do to be successful.”
“I’m willing to do whatever it takes, and they, well, they don’t really have a choice.”
(14-10, T1st–SAL Northern)
Game Notes:
The Legends are taken out back for a whipping by Hickory as the Crawdads prevail 10-3.
Raymar Diaz’s only prior start this season went well (1 run in 5 innings), but not so this time out as he gives up 4 runs all via the HR ball in 4 innings. Certainly not much of a consolation, but we do note he struck out 7 ‘dads.
Relievers Garrett Murdy (3 runs in 3 innings) and Chris Blazek (3 runs in 1 IP) provided more grief than relief.
SS Tommy Manzella hit his 2nd homer in as many days and drove in 2 runs.
RF Eli Iorg was 3-4 with a double and an RBI.
1B Mark Ori doubled and walked in 4 trips.
Other News and Notes:
(1) Manzella did have a throwing error in the game, giving him 5 miscues in 20 contests this season.