A generally good day on the farm. Michael MacDonald and Kyle Yates pitched very well, and both were supported by the offense. Dunedin's bullpen lost a game for the second day in a row. Lansing won easily and Josh Bell homered for both Lansing and Great Lakes.
The Syracuse hitters have struggled this season, coming into this game the team batting average was tenth in the league. So it was nice to have the bats and pitching in sync leading to a comfortable win. The Chiefs got things going in the third, Brad Hassey singled, Wayne Lydon walked and Russ Adams delivered an RBI single with the runners advancing on the throw home, 1-0. Howie Clark followed with a two run single, 3-0. Many of the same players featured in the two run fifth, Lydon reached on an error, Adams walked, Clark doubled to drive in Lydon, followed by a Kevin Barker RBI groundout, 5-0. In the sixth Rey Olmedo and Hassey singled, Lydon grounded out to score one run, Adams singled and Clark delivered an RBI single, 7-0. In the seventh John-Ford Griffin singled, Curtis Thigpen walked, Olmedo had an RBI single and Lydon a sac fly, 9-0. Syracuse scored four of their runs off Devern Hansack and two off Mike Timlin.
Meanwhile Michael MacDonald was outstanding on the mound, he pitched seven shutout innings and only gave up four hits and one walk to drop his AAA ERA to 4.06. Ryan Houston gave up a two run home run to Michael Tucker in the ninth.
Howie Clark led the way with the hitters, he was 3-5 with four RBI's. Russ Adams, Rey Olmedo and Brad Hassey had two hits each.
New Hampshire got on the board in the first inning, Juan Peralta walked, Sergio Santos singled and David Smith reached and a run scored on an error. Kyle Yates followed up his last excellent start with another one. Yates allowed a single, and nothing more, in each of the first four innings, had a 1-2-3 fifth before giving up a hit and a walk in the sixth. yates pitched six shutout innings allowing the five hits and one walk with 3 K's. The Fisher Cats padded their lead in the sixth, Chip Cannon doubled and Ryan Patterson homered. In the seventh Dustin Majewski singled and scored on a David Smith single. Tracey Thorpe and Jean Machi finished off. Peralta, Patterson and Ryan Klosterman had two hits each.
Another 3-2 Dunedin loss for the second game in a row and again the bullpen lost the game. AJ Wideman cruised through six innings allowing a solo home run in the second inning. In the bottom of the fourth Josh Kreuzer walked, Jacob Butler singled and Brian Jeroloman walked with two outs to load the bases. A throwing error by the St. Lucie shortstop allowed two runs to score. Wideman pitched six innings and gave up one run on 6 hits, no walks and five K's. Yesson Berroa came on for the seventh and gave up a single and double to the first two hitters and ultimately gave up two runs to give St. Lucie the lead. For the last three innings Dunedin had only one baserunner, and that by an error. Jacob Butler was 3-4.
Chase Lirette had a rocky start, he hit the first batter then gave up a single to put two on then a couple of ground outs scored a run. In the second Joshua Bell tripled and scored on a sac fly. The triple set up an unusual event, Joshua Bell was on third standing next to Lansing third baseman Josh Bell. With the Lugnuts down 2-0 Lansing went to work in the fourth. Sean Shoffit walked and Josh Bell homered to tie the game. Matt Lane followed with a double and scored on a Jonathan Jaspe single to give Lansing the lead. In the fifth Scott Campbell singled to lead off the inning and promptly stole send base. The steal worked out as Campbell scored on a single by Shoffit. Bell reached on an error and Matt Lane doubled, again, to drive in one run and make it a 5-2 game. Lansing made it 6-2 in the sixth when Jaspe and Campbell singled and Jaspe scored on a wild pitch. In the bottom of the sixth Lirette gave up a lead-off double but then recorded two outs. A single scored a run but Lirette was left in to face Joshua Bell. That Bell homered to make it 6-5. Adrian Martin replaced Lirette who had pitched 5.2 innings, with six hits and one walk.
Lansing answered with four runs in the seventh. Lane singled, Brian Pettway walked, Jaspe walked with one out to load the bases, Raul Barron walked to score a run and then with two out Yuber Rodriguez doubled to clear the bases and make it 10-5. Adrian Martin pitched the last 3.1 innings allowing three hits and lowering his ERA to 1.07. Lane was 3-5 with two runs and an RBI. Campbell, Shoffit, Bell and Jaspe had two hits each. The Yuber express slowed a little, he was 1-6 with 3 K's.
3 star selection
3rd star - Matt Lane
2nd star - tie - Michael MacDonald and Kyle Yates
1st star - Howie Clark
Team Records
Syracuse 20-28, 5th place, 9 games behind
New Hampshire 24-21, tied in 2nd place, 6 games behind
Dunedin 22-27, 4th place, 10.5 games behind
Lansing 25-21, 3rd place, 5.5 games behind
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