Friday Night, the Legends built a lead 6-3 lead off the continued power surge of Colin Delome who hit his 6th homer this season and Steve Brown who hit his third of the season. Hickory came back with 5 in the 8th of Fernando Abad. Abad had been very effective in his first 5 outings this season allowing only one earned run in 11 innings before allowing 5 runs in the 8th last night. The Legends lost 8-6.

Saturday, the Legends were rained out.

Sunday, the Legends split the double header. The opener was an ugly 10- 9 come from behind win. Leandro Cespedes have up 8 runs but only 2 were earned. Due to the extra work caused by 3 consecutive errors, he only lasted into the 3rd inning where he faced 6 batters. After 3 it was 9-4. The bullpen held and the offense responded with 4 in the 5th and 2 in the 6th for the 10-9 win. Colin Delome hit his 4th homer in 4 games. He now leads the Sally League with 7 round trippers.

In game 2, the Legends found themselves in a 4-0 hole after 2 innings and couldn’t dig out. The final was a 6-2 loss. Delome went hitless ending his 9 game hitting streak.

The Legends are off on Monday.

Salem

Friday night, Salem pitches go hit hard in an 11-2 loss.

“It was brutal,” Salem catcher Koby Clemens said. “It was just tough. Guys had trouble locating their pitches tonight and they [Lynchburg] took advantage of hitters’ counts.”

Clemens, in his first season as a catcher, tried to shoulder some of the blame.

“I was talking to [pitching coach] Gary Ruby about it tonight,” Clemens said. “I felt like sometimes I don’t know what [pitches] to call. It seemed like whatever I’d throw down, they were hitting it. I feel like a video game player, I’m calling for the pitches.”

But Pankovits said the pitchers have the ultimate control.

“The pitcher has the ball, they have the ability to shake [off] any pitch,” Pankovits said. “And most of the time, when they shake, it isn’t a very good idea.

“It’s called taking responsibility.”

Also in Friday’s paper, there is a story on Osvaldo Fernando’s transition from player to coach.

“He understands the game,” said Astros’ farm director Ricky Bennett. “He has very good communications skills; he’s bilingual. He has all the intangibles.

“His presence helps out not just the Latin players, but all of the players.”

“And he throws good batting practice,” added Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits, who is out from throwing BP himself until he is fully recovered from offseason shoulder surgery.

Saturday, Salem committed 3 errors and left seven runners on base in the 4-3 loss. The three errors pushed the Avs total to 21 in 15 games that have resulted in 12 unearned runs.

“It’s definitely been pretty much a collective effort. We certainly work on it; we certainly emphasize it,” Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits said. “We’ve had pretty good defensive teams in the past couple of years, and that’s a big reason why we’ve been successful in the past.”

David Qualben got the start and didn’t make it through the 5th allowing 8 hits. He did have a signature pick off. Jordan Parraz was the most effective Av at the plate, going 3-5 with a triple short of the cycle.

Sunday, Polin Trinidad continued his impressive start to the 2008 season, prompting his manager to ask, “How long will he be here?” and give some rare praise.

“He does everything you ask,” said Pankovits, not a noted overpraiser of pitchers. “He’s aggressive. He has a great feel for how to pitch a game. He knows when to change speeds, he knows how to locate, he knows when to pitch around somebody.”….”He doesn’t throw 93 or 94, his breaking ball doesn’t break a foot, he doesn’t have devastating stuff,” Pankovits said. “But he knows how to win. Knock on wood, he’s as good as I’ve had here.”

The Av’s got lucky with a blown call by an umpire gave Koby Clemens credit for a home run on a ball that was obviously foul.

“Yeah, I think they missed it,” Pankovits admitted after the game. “But they’re human. That ball was a rocket and it had a lot of hook to it.”

The Avalanche’s scoring was capped by an unusual play where Jordan Parraz scored from first on a blooper by Clemens.

The second baseman was covering the bag, and the right fielder was too deep to get to the ball. By the time the ball was even picked up, Parraz was dashing home.

Corpus Christi

Friday, the Hooks could get the big hit when they needed it in their 5-2 loss.

“We had plenty of chances, we just couldn’t get those breaks,” Hooks outfielder Mitch Einertson said. “We hit a lot of balls hard that were stopped in those situations. Sometimes, that’s just how that works and other times we get those breaks. (This) just wasn’t one of those nights.

“The main thing is that everybody’s swing seems to be coming through and everybody is getting hits as the season’s going on. It’s just one of those nights and I’m sure we’ll come out (tonight) and get them.”

Chris Johnson returned to the line up going 1-4 and making a nice defensive play as well.

Saturday, Corpus Christi got crushed 15-5.

“We got whipped,” Hooks manager Luis Pujols said. “This was one of those games that happen every year. I just talked to all the pitchers and told them that I appreciated what they did because it was a tough night.

“But I also reminded them that they pitched well for 14 games, and (this) is going to happen once in a while. They just need to keep their heads up and keep pitching well. … You just hope the team goes home, doesn’t do anything crazy and regroups (today).

Sunday, the Hooks salvaged one win for the weekend. Brad James got plenty of run support starting with a 5 run first inning.

“Brad always gives us a quality outing,” Manzella said. “We’re going to get a lot of ground balls and that’s what you need at this field. To come out and jump on them early really put the pressure on them and we just leaned on (James) the rest of the game.”

Round Rock

Friday, the Express 9th inning rally fell short in their 6-4 loss. Mark Saccomanno lead the Express hitters going 3-5 with a triple.

Saturday, Round Rock also left seven runners on base in their 4-2 loss.

“It goes back to the basics,” Express manager Dave Clark said. “When you get a guy on base you’ve got to find a way to get him over. You can’t be striking out as much as we’ve been doing at the plate.

“Right now the bats are quiet, and I’m waiting for the bats to wake up. Hopefully I won’t be waiting much longer.”

Sunday, the Express got a strong outing from Chad Reineke but it wasn’t enough as Memphis scored a tie breaking run in the 9th to win 3-2.

“He came out on a mission to prove that he could go deep and he did today,” said Round Rock manager Dave Clark. “I felt that he was on top of his game today.”

Marc Saccamonno accounted for the Express runs with a 417 foot, 2 run homer in the 8th.

Transactions: The Astros announced that Tim Byrdak will be called up to take Wandy Rodriguez’s place on the roster with Wandy going on the DL. They also said that Jack Cassell will be called up later in the week to start in Wandy’s spot.

Chad Reineke lasted only 3 1/3 innings for the second consecutive start. The Express couldn’t dig out of the hole and lost 6-1.

Corpus Christi

Brian Bogusevic pitched six solid innings but got no decision. New acquisition, Jose Oyervidez, was the man of the hour putting out the 2 on, nobody out fire in the 9th with only 6 pitches to preserve a 3-2 win.

The Hooks bats are warming up and a few are even streaking:

Manzella (five), Paz (six), outfielder Ray Sadler (four) and Sutton (six) extended hitting streaks on Tuesday. Sutton, who is batting .375, has hits in all 11 of his starts.

Salem

The Av’s are nothing if not competitive. Five of Salem’s six wins have been by one run. So have 4 of their 5 loses. Last night it was one of the loss variety. Polin Trinidad pitched 6 perfect innings, then he came out for the 7th and ran out of gas. In the 7th he sandwiched a double between two walks to load the bases with no one out. He was relieved by Jason Dominguez who walked in a run and surrendered a sac fly to tie the game up at 2. Fredrick scored in the 12th for the victory.

Trinidad was very effective according to the Key’s players:

“He kept on pounding his fastball inside and we couldn’t do anything with it,” Davison said.

Lexington

The Legends took advantage of some Crawdad errors in the first to build a 3-0 lead. They held on for the 6-4 win. Carlos Ladeuth got his first win of the season going six innings allowing only one earned run on six hits, one walk with six strike outs. Matt Cusick hit his second home and his forth double of the season during the game. Brandon Barnes is struggling in a mighty way. He went 0-4 with 4K’s last night bringing him to 20K’s in 36 AB.

The Express got rained out and their flight got canceled. They were like many other travelers impacted by American Airlines wiring inspections. So, the AAA boys got reminded of life at the lower levels with an 830 mile bus ride from Omaha.

We had to make a decision to just get on the bus,” said Express chief executive Reid Ryan.

The Austin Paper this morning has a story about Lance Niekro and growing up in the Astros’ clubhouse.

Reid Ryan recalled that Niekro, who had a surprisingly deep voice for a 6-year-old, once hunted down his father in the clubhouse. The young Niekro was on a mission to warn his dad to eat the clubhouse spread because mom was cooking meatloaf at home.

“Every time I look at Lance, I get a smile on my face,” Ryan said. “I think it would be a real neat story if he made it back to the big leagues.”

Corpus Christi

If the chicks who dig the long ball were at the game last night, they were happy because all the runs scored were the result of homers thanks to a 27 MPH wind blowing out to center. However, the Hooks didn’t win the the home run derby. All 3 of the Drillers HR were hit off Brian Bogusevic. Iorg and Sutton homered for the Hooks both have been impressive at the plate to begin the season.

Drew Sutton, who has a hit in all six games he has started, ripped his first home run of the season, a two-run shot in the third that drove in Kazuo Matsui. That brought the Hooks within 3-2. Eli Iorg’s solo homer, his first, accounted for Corpus Christi’s final run. Iorg has hit safely in six of seven games.

Iorg also struck out for the first time this season giving him 1 K in 27 AB. Kaz Matsui went 2 -4 in his rehab start, hitting 2 more doubles.

Salem

After back to back last at bat wins, the Avs lost a late one last night. Wilmington scored 4 in the 9th for a 5-4 win. Polin Trinidad had another solid start, allowing 1 run off 5 hits in 5 innings. The Av’s pitching and defense fell apart in the 9th. Here is how the local paper described it:

Dominguez came in to close out the game in the ninth, but instead allowed a leadoff single and followed it with a walk. A wild pitch put the runners at second and third, and then, Wilver Perez — Wednesday’s losing pitcher and Thursday’s DH — hit a grounder to Sutil at short.

Sutil made the scoop, but his throw was low and bounced past first baseman Ori. One run scored and Perez went to second on the error.

The next batter, Josh Johnson tripled to the gap in left-center field, bringing Anthony Seratelli and pinch-runner Jarrod Dyson home to tie the score with still no outs in the inning.

Jeff Howell’s single to left brought the winning run to the plate.

Sutil took the loss hard:

“When you don’t feel comfortable with yourself … ” Sutil started. “When you don’t have security, that’s when it [errors] happens. … I’m not hitting good. Maybe it’s the problem. I’m thinking too much about hitting when I’m on defense.”

Lexington

The Legends had visitors from Houston arrive yesterday. A bunch of them:

Tom Wiedenbauer, minor-league field coordinator, was joined by pitching coordinator Britt Burns, hitting coordinator Orv Franchuk and Matt Galante, an infield instructor and special assistant to the general manager.

And they got to see first hand what Manager Greg Langbehn has been fussing about in the Legends 5-2 loss to Greenville. Langbehn on this team last night.

“But the bottom line is we competed for one inning and that’s not good enough. They need to figure out, to learn, how to compete every night for all nine innings. Right now, we’re just not doing it.”….”it just wasn’t a good night,” Langbehn said. “We get to come back tomorrow and try to get better. That’s all we can do. It’s early. We’ve just got to try to figure out a way to be more consistent and keep competing.”

Craig Corrado is off to an impressive start this season hitting .429 and has stolen 4 bases. He has yet to be caught stealing in his pro career (14 out of 14).

Josh Mueke’s bounced back after giving up a first inning homer to only allow 2 other hits over 5 innings, while striking out 5 and walking none. He earned the win after his teammates scored 2 in the sixth and single runs in the 7th and 8th for a 4-2 win.

Corpus Christi

The bats came alive for Corpus Christi as they tied a team record for runs in a 15-5 drilling of Tulsa. Although the bats were the story, Brian Bogusevic had a decent start to his 2008 season. He reached his 75 pitch limit 2 batters into the 5th and ended with a line of 4 innings pitched, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk and 3 strike outs.

“It was pretty good,” Hooks manager Luis Pujols said. “We were able to score early in the game and maintain. Bogusevic gave us four good innings, and we were able to hang on.”

Remember that, 10 run wins equal holding on for Manager Pujols.

Ryan McKeller pitched 3 innings of shut out relief for the win and got a hit and an RBI as well.

Kaz Matsui will be joining the Hooks on Tuesday.

“That’s the plan right now,” said Ricky Bennett, the Astros’ assistant general manager and director of player development. “He’s got a doctor’s appointment Monday and if all goes well then he’ll go on assignment in Corpus on Tuesday. There’s an off day Wednesday and he’ll got back (to Houston) and then to Tulsa Thursday, Friday and possibly Saturday. That’s the plan right now. That all could change pending his doctor’s appointment.”

Salem

Polin Trinidad shook off a line drive off his pitching hand from the first batter in the first inning and earned an opening day win for the Avs.

“There’s something about that kid, he just competes,” Avalanche manager Jim Pankovits said. “He may not throw 92 or 93, his stuff might not be eye-opening, but he knows how to pitch and he’s mature beyond his years.

“He’s got a bright future ahead of him.”

The Avalanche scored 4 runs in the 5th with 2 outs to put enough runs on the board for the 4-3 over Potomac.

Clemens Spotted Spending

The local paper has a story about how nicely people behaved having Roger Clemens in the house to watch Koby. Apparently southern decorum doesn’t extend to keeping transactions private.

Still, in this town, benefit of the doubt and courtesy rule. Clemens easily made his way through the crowd to the gift shop and spent about $220 on 10 Avalanche T-shirts and four or five hats, according to the shop employees. Even those who asked for autographs did so respectfully, waiting until after he’d finished his shopping.

“He was so low-key and polite,” said Charles Cooper, who helped ring up Clemens’ merchandise. “He talked to everybody. Very pleasant.