Round Rock
The Express opened the weekend with a nice 10-6 beating of Memphis. Every batter in the line up had at least one hit.
Saturday, the Express, J. R. Towles started to work on getting his confidence back and saw how far he has to go. He went 0-3 with two K’s. Nieve, added some drama but still got the save in the 3-2 Express victory.
Sunday was another close game but the Express lost 4-2. However, Towles started finding his stroke going 3 for 4 with a double, a homer.
Corpus Christi
Friday Polin Trinidad made an impressive home debut in a 4-1 Hooks victory.
The Dominican left-hander tossed six innings of one-run ball, yielding only four hits. He took a shutout into the sixth inning before giving up a two-out homer to Jesus Guzman.
“I’ll take six innings like that anytime,” Pujols said. “He was down (in the zone) from the beginning and liked to throw the ball inside. I like that.”
On Friday, the Texas League All Star teams were announced. Representing Corpus Christi will be: Drew Sutton, Tommy Manzella, Brad James, Chris Johnson, Billy Hart & Ryan McKeller.
Saturday, Sean Walker struggled in the first inning, as he often has this season. It lead to a 9-8 loss for the Hooks.
“It’s something that’s puzzled me all year,” Walker said. “It seems there’s that stigma in the first inning. There’s nothing within me that feels different other than I try to get out of the gates attacking the zone and throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes and a lot of fastballs. Guys are getting hits in certain counts where you start to question whether you should start mixing (pitches) up a little earlier.
“Just tonight, watching the singles happen, one play is all it takes to get out of those innings, and I that’s the case for a lot of these starts. One play would make the difference in that first inning.”
Sunday, the Hooks lost their 15th game in 18 tries and were mathematically eliminated from the first half title.
Salem
Friday, catcher Kevin Carkeek had the big hits for the Avs in their 5-2 win. He also had his hands full behind the plate trying to catch Douglass Arguello, who had 3 wild pitches in the game.
“Dougie, he’s an emotional guy,” Carkeek said. “It sometimes plays into what he’s doing. It’s almost a good thing. Hitters are probably pretty scared. … But he can throw strikes when he needs to.”
What has lead to the recent hot streak by Jhon Florentino?
Hitting coach Keith Bodie helped change Florentino’s batting stance from an upright, elbows out, hands under chin style to a more athletic crouch, with his hands back toward his right shoulder and his right elbow tucked down.
“I can see the ball better,” the 6-foot, 155-pound native of La Barias, Dominican Republic said with help from translator Osvaldo Fernando. “I can tell what pitches are good.”
Saturday, the lack of clutch hitting lead to a Salem loss and their mathematical elimination from the first half title.
Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits summed it up simply: “We couldn’t get the big hit.”
Like in the bottom of the eighth inning when Salem was down 5-3 and its first three batters reached base. Roberto Mena walked and then sped to third base when Travis Sweet doubled to left. Mena scored on a single by Jordan Parraz, that moved Sweet to third base.
The Hillcats made a pitching change, bringing in Kevin Roberts to replace Christian Castorri and face Salem’s second, third and fourth hitters. Tim Torres struck out, though Parraz did take second on a wild pitch. Mark Ori struck out. Then, Jimmy Van Ostrand broke his bat and grounded out.
Three runners on before the first out and only one run scored.
Sunday, after being baffled by sinkers for the first 6 2/3 innings, the Avs tried to rally but couldn’t get close enough to comeback. How badly were they baffled by Lynchburg starter Michael Crotta? Just ask Koby Clemens.
“He pitched great, but I don’t think we had that many great at-bats,” Avalanche designated hitter Koby Clemens said. “And I count myself in this, we had a lot of bad at-bats and we didn’t make adjustments and he shoved it up our rear end.”
Lexington
Friday night, the Legends were doomed by the long ball in a 7-3 loss.
Saturday, they were eliminated from the first half title chase while losing 4-2 to West Virginia. Brandon Barnes was re-added to the roster from Extended Spring and Joe Melton was released.
Slamming Sunday! Max Sapp and Craig Corrado both hit grand slams as the Legends battled back from a 6-1 deficit and ended up winning 16-8. Corrado was 5 for 5 on the night. Colin DeLome & Eric Taylor also went yard as the Legends unpacked the whoopin sticks.
The Power also hit 3 home runs off Legends starter Leandro Cespedes, who is struggling to keep the ball in the park right now. Jordan Powell came in and held the Power at bay and ended up getting the win for his good work in relief.
”I was getting ahead of guys,“ the right-hander said. ”Charley (Taylor, the pitching coach) came down to the bullpen while I was warming up and said, “You know, let’s just come in on these guys and get them to roll over your two-seam, and that’s what we were doing.“