Round Rock
Ray Sadler may his debut at Round Rock memorable Friday night with a homer in his first at bat and gunning down a runner at second to help Round Rock hold on to a 5-4 win.
“This kid is a good defensive player,” Express manager Dave Clark said. “He’s got a very good arm, very accurate.”
Saturday, Jack Cassell pitched around 8 hits, two errors, and two wild pitches in the Express’ 7-1 victory. It was a tight game until the Round Rock line up pieced together a 5 run 7th inning.
Get out the brooms! The Express swept the I-Cubs Sunday with a 9-1 romp. Reggie Abrocrombie stole his league leading 12th base in the game. He is also in the top 3 in strike outs.
“He’s so exciting. He’s one of those kids that I would pay money to come and watch play,” said Clark. “He can beat you with his bat, he can beat you with his arm and he can beat you with his legs.”…”He’s still a work in progress but he’s getting better pitches to hit,” said Clark. “He’s starting to lay off those breaking balls in the dirt and if he can continually do that then we’ve got ourselves a pretty good player.”
Roster notes: Chance Douglass was called up from Corpus to take Nieve’s spot on the roster.
Corpus Christi
Brad James went 6 innings allowing two runs. Offensively, six Hooks had at least one RBI in a 8-2 drumming of Midland. Billy Hart went 2 for 3 stretching his hitting streak to 8 games.
Saturday, Brian Bogusevic gave up 8 runs on 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings, absorbing his 4th loss of the season. He is still looking for his first win. The Hooks offense was shut out. The only bright spot was Billy Hart extending his hitting streak to 9 games.
The Hooks need to make sure the bats are in the on position. After getting shut out, the Hooks exploded for 10 runs in a 10-1 shellacking of Midland. Mitch Einertson’s average isn’t much to write home about but he is tied for the team lead in homers and leads the team in RBI.
Salem
David Qualben had a rough outing and wasn’t helped by his defense. After the first inning, the Avs were in a 6-3 hole. The P-Nats six runs came off of two hit batters, two errors, two doubles and a homer. Qualben pitched three batters into the 4th giving up 8 runs but only 3 were earned and took the loss bringing him to 1-6 on the season.
“We’ve got to play a whole lot better,” Pankovits said. “We’ve strung some half-decent games together. We took a huge step back defense-wise.
“But Qualben’s got to throw better.”
Travis Sweet made his debut with the Avs going 2 for 4 but was picked off once. Jimmy Van Ostrand was 3 for 5 with 3 RBI but committed an error on a sac bunt attempt in the 4th. Greg Buchanan was 2 for 4 with a double but also committed a big error in the first inning that lead to the six run hole the Avs couldn’t find their way out of.
The Roanoke Times continues their track record of good Saturday features with a nice piece on Jimmy Van Ostrands’ Olympic dreams. It turns out he had a shot at them in another sport before turning his full attention to baseball.
“If I’d have stuck with it [badminton], making the Olympics would have been the reason,” Van Ostrand said. “It’s kind of crazy that I made it with baseball.”
Saturday, Polin Trinidad’s pitches were up. That led to nine hits, five of them doubles. That led to six runs. Which was plenty as Salem could only put together four hits in Potomacs 10 -1 drumming of the Avs.
“It seemed like every hit he gave up was a pitch up,” Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits said. “It’s not characteristic of him. He usually gets ground balls. … Things just weren’t going our way. Which right now is us in a nutshell.”
Roster notes: David Qualben, who has struggled of late, has been sent back to Lexington. Chad Wagler was activated off the the DL to take his spot on the roster.
Sunday’s game was postponed thanks the storm that never came.
Lexington
Carlos Ladeuth went seven innings allowing only two runs while striking out nine. When he left, the game was tied 2-2. After the 8th, the Legends were down 5-2 and that is how the game ended. Cat Everett wore the golden sombrero in his debut with Lexington.
The Legends my be on the road, but Brian Pellegrini is at home. He had about 40 fans in the stands to watch him go two for five with a triple and a homer. Since his call up he is hitting .417 with 2 round trippers and 7 RBI. His four RBI Saturday led to a 7-1 Legends triumph over 1st place Lake County.
“The triple was on a fastball down and the dinger (home run) was on a curve down and in. I was looking to make good swings and drive the ball,” Pellegrini said.
Not to be overshadowed by a homecoming, Anthony Bello was another star of Saturday’s game.
Bello (2-2, 3.19 ERA) was perfect through five innings before committing a throwing error in the bottom of the sixth to allow the first base runner of the game for the Captains. The Captains’ catcher Pickens hit a ball to Bello, who then overthrew first baseman Eric Taylor allowing Pickens to advance to second. Shortstop Ron Rivas went on to get the first hit of the night for the Captains on a double to right. Pickens scored, while Rivas was retired at third when he tried to extend his hit into a triple.
On the night, Bello went seven innings, giving up one run on one hit, no walks and five strikeouts to earn his second win of the year.
On Sunday, the Legends faced Jake Westbrook, who is on rehab assignment from the Indians. They scored a run on him but that was all they got in a 6-1 loss.