Lexington won all of its games this weekend. That earns them the right to lead off the weened update. The Legends haven’t won more than one game in a row since the first day of June when they completed their last 3 game string. Friday, they rode a 15 strike out performance by Cespedes (6), Kelly (4) and Pacella (5) to a 5-3 win. Saturday, Jeff Icenogle kept the Ks coming with 9 in 5 2/3 innings as the Legends won 4-2. Sunday, the bats took over in a 16-10 victory over Columbus. Jonathon Fixler homered 3 times and hit a two run single to go 4 for 5 with 6 RBI and 4 runs scored. Kyle Miller, recently called up from Greeneville, went 2 for 5 with a pair of doubles and 4 RBI.
Greeneville took Bluefield to the woodshed Friday night 10-0. Ebert Rosario lead the offense with a double, a homer and 4 RBI. But the pitching continues to shine for Greeneville. Kyle Greenewalt allowed only 2 hits over 6 innings. He has allowed just 2 earned runs over his last 18 innings. Zach Grimmett pitched two solid innings of relief and was followed by Andrea Lucati making his U.S. debut pitching a one hit scoreless ninth.
Saturday, David Dinelli’s struggles continued as he walked 3 batters in 2 1/3 innings to take the loss after giving up an unearned run. Dinelli has now walked 17 batters in 15 2/3 innings pitched.
Sunday, Greenville won an afternoon tilt with Princeton. Jordan Lyles got his first win of his pro career, striking out 7 over 5 innings.
Tri Cities has found some wins recently. Friday, they won 7-1 over State College. Saturday, Jon Gaston hit a pinch hit walk off homer to lead the ValleyCats to a 9-8 victory.
“Hopefully, winning like that is going to give us a little spark. You look for little things to try and ignite your club a little bit. If a flame’s going to burn, you’re going to need a little spark,” Rancont said.
Sunday, the little spark was extinguished by Lowell starting pitcher Brock Huntzinger. He got his 4th win and lowered his ERA to 0.49 at the expense of the ValleyCats who only scratched one hit off of him.
48th round draft pick, Danny Meszeros joined the VallyCats this weekend. Here is the initial scouting report:
“I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. He has a good arm, three pitches and a solid feel to get hitters out which in the end is what pitchers are supposed to do,” Heck told the Houston Chronicle….
“He’s going to be aggressive on the mound just the way his delivery sets up when he comes at you. I’m pretty excited to get him out there,” (Tri Cities pitching coach Don) Alexander said. “He’s been pitching in the Cape, so he’s in shape and ready to go.”
Salem had Sunday off and split the other games this weekend. Friday, Douglass Arguello pitched 6 strong innings to improve his record to 7-3 on the year. He has become the ace of the Salem staff.
Arguello is 7-3 and hasn’t pitched fewer than six innings since May. Eight of his nine outings since then have been quality starts, and even the outing in which he gave up five earned runs in six innings ended up as an Avalanche win.
Not impressed yet? Salem is 9-17 in the second half, 4-1 with Arguello on the mound.
“There is a confidence, there is an air, a feeling,” Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits said about Arguello’s mystique. “That if they keep up the good at-bats, if they keep playing good defense, he’d going to keep you in the game.”
Saturday, Corey Bass pitched better but didn’t get the run support in a 3-2 loss.
“He’s making progress,” Pankovits said. “His past couple of outings have been better. … We can’t rely on [Douglas] Arguello and [Erick] Abreu every night.”
Brian Bogusevic says his time as a pitcher is helping him in the transition to outfield.
“Like the other night, there was a man on third with one out, the infield was in and I knew they were going to try to get a ground ball. And I understand what the pitcher is trying to do,” Bogusevic said. “A hitter who has been around a while will know what they were going to try to do, but I knew how they were going to try to do it.”
Corpus Christi say some good pitching Friday night as Casey Hudspeth was out dueled by Frisco starter Neftali Feliz. Hudspeth went six innings allowing only one run but Frisco’s Feliz was dominating striking out eight Hooks in six innings.
“He throws hard and he has a really, really good breaking ball,”(Chris) Johnson said. “That’s tough when you’ve got a guy throwing upper 90s, so you’ve got to, I don’t want to say you guess, but you pick one and stick with it.”
Saturday, the Hooks had better luck with the bats winning 9-4. Sunday, the Hooks Polin Trinidad fluctuated between brilliant and batting practice. He gave up 7 hits and no walks over 7 innings. He struck out 6 batters. But of the 7 hits, 3 were doubles and two left the ball park. That led to a 4-2 loss.
“You give up four runs in this ballpark — that’s not a lot of runs,” Corpus Christi manager Luis Pujols said. “I think (Trinidad) threw the ball well. If we average five, six runs a game, we win this game. It’s too bad.”
Round Rock’s Nick Gorneault hit two homers Friday night, including his second grand slam of the week to lead the Express to a 8-6 victory. Saturday, Gorneault hit another homer but the result wasn’t a victory. The Express lost 9-2. Sunday, Gorneault went 0-6 in a double header but the Express still swept the twin bill 5-4 & 2-1.
All or Nothing: Gorneault has hit six home runs in his last nine games. He has only had eight hits during that span.