Round Rock
The Express lost to the Redbirds 10-4 last night. Nieve wasn’t sharp giving up 3 runs off 9 hits but left the game leading 4-3. He was aided by some stellar defense to get out of a bases loaded no out jam in the sixth.
Memphis led off with three straight singles off Nieve to load the bases. Cazana-Marti grounded a ball to Saccomanno, who touched third base to force out Freese before throwing home, where catcher Josh Paul tagged out a charging Stavinoha.
On the next play, Redbirds catcher Mark Johnson lined a single to right field. Round Rock’s Reggie Abercrombie fielded the ball cleanly and fired a strike to Paul, nailing D’Angelo Jimenez, who was trying to score from second.
The Express had two run triples from MarK Saccamanno and Danny Klassen. Both were hit with no outs and neither was able to score. Those extra runs would have helped as the Redbirds scored 7 runs off the Express bullpen.
Corpus Christi
Bud Norris pitched 5 strong shut out innings and Ryan Thompson pitched 4 shut out innings to finish the game. The only problem was what occurred in the 4 innings in between. Norris left with a 2-0 lead after 5 and Thompson came in to a 5-5 game in the 10th. THe Hooks won 6-5 in 13.
Rob Cosby got the game winner on a hit that should have been an out but the Hooks will take it.
On a 2-0 count, Cosby, denied a chance to provide the game-winner in the 10th, lofted a towering fly that Myron Leslie appeared to lose in the pitch-black sky. The ball landed behind Leslie and bounced into the left-field berm, scoring Sutton.
Salem
Chris Salamida got his first start of the season and earned the win in Salem’s 7-4 victory. Tim Torres went 2-3 with 3 RBI to lead the offense.
The key turning point in the game was Salamida’s ability to get out of 5th inning where Kinston hit the ball hard 4 times but got no runs out of the innings.
Jerad Head’s leadoff single was followed by a failed Cirilo Cumberbatch hit-and-run attempt that saw Head gunned down easily at second. Cumberbatch — as hitters do after baserunning mistakes when things are going badly — promptly followed with a sharp single to left, and Alex Castillo singled to the same spot to put runners on first and second with one out.
The Indians, trailing 4-2 with leadoff man Adam Davis coming up, were in business.
But Davis’ rope of a line drive was stabbed by Avs second baseman Greg Buchanan, who flipped to second to double off Cumberbatch and give the threat a fitting end….
“It was important for us to get a win,” said Salem manager Jim Pankovits. “We’ll take one any way we can get it. This is a tough place to get them historically.”
Lexington
Sergio Severino had control problems last night. He only gave up 3 hits and struck out 6 batters but he walked 4 and hit two batters. That resulted in a short night for him only lasting 3 innings after giving up 3 runs.
The defense was ready for a line dance because the had their boots on. Six errors resulted in 4 unearned runs on the night. Manager Greg Langbehn is frustrated to say the least.
“Our inability to make … relatively routine plays, it’s killing us,” Manager Gregg Langbehn said. “We’re digging our own grave and not covering it up. We did it a couple of times on the road trip; we were able to do it.
“You can’t give teams 31, 32, 33 outs and expect to win. It’s not realistic.”…
“We didn’t pitch well. We didn’t play defense very well,” Langbehn said. “Quite honestly, offensively we benefitted from two balls that were lost in the sky. Otherwise, we probably don’t score.”
The result was an 8-2 loss.
Legends C Max Sapp (groin) missed his ninth game in a row and probably will miss the rest of the homestand. … Legends LH Jeff Icenogle (calf) will throw off a mound Wednesday. If all goes well, he could be activated in about a week.