New Hampshire mimicked the Red Sox by sweeping a doubleheader, but they didn’t even have the benefit of playing at their home ballpark. Las Vegas won, while Dunedin avoided the sweep behind some fine relief pitching from the usual suspects and some offence and defence from one of the hottest bats in the entire system. Only Lansing prevented a day of wins, from the parent club on down, as the Lugnuts lost convincingly to South Bend.
Fresno 4 @ Las Vegas 6 – Boxscore
Brad Mills started for the 51’s and threw 6 innings. Mills walked three and struck out four, while allowing five hits and three runs. Jonah Bayliss threw 2 innings and didn’t allow a baserunner and struck out two. Closer Jeremy Accardo came in for the save and gave up a couple of hits and a run, before shutting down the Grizzlies for a save.
Las Vegas’ scoring was lead by the top of the lineup with the first three hitters going 6 for 10 on the evening. Howie Clark was 2 for 4 with a walk and began the game with a home run. Buck Coats was also 2 for 4 with a double to raise his average to .225 on the year. Randy Ruiz reached base every time he came to the plate, adding a walk and a hit by pitch to two singles. Brett Harper went hitless, but both Jason Lane and JP Arencibia were 1 for 4 with a double. Aaron Mathews and Scott Campbell, who is now batting eighth after struggling at the beginning of the year, both added a hit, while Anibal Sanchez batted ninth and went hitless. Las Vegas had multi-run innings in the 1st and 7th, the former revolving around a Clark homer and a Ruiz RBI single and the latter around a sac fly by Harper and a two-run double by Lane.
New Hampshire 4 @ Connecticut 3 (Game 1) – Boxscore
In the first game of a twin bill, Luis Perez took the ball and didn’t pitch as well as he did the last time I did a minor league update when he threw 7 innings of shutout ball. However, he did pitch well enough for the win. Perez struggled with his control, walking four batters, but he only allowed three runs and struck out four. It was a shortened affair, so after Perez threw 5 innings Celson Polanco and Leon Boyd each threw a frame and they combined to strike out three and give up one hit.
Brian Dopirak got the scoring started in the second with a homer to begin the inning. After Kyle Phillips grounded out, Nick Gorneault singled and promptly stole second. Adam Calderone went down swinging, but then Luis Sanchez drew a walk to set up Sean Shoffit for the biggest hit of the game. Shoffit doubled to scored Gorneault and Sanchez. He was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple, but the two RBIs would prove key when Connecticut scored three in the fourth. Brad Emaus hit a homer to leadoff the third, which prove to be the winning run. That scoring summary recapped four of the Fisher Cats five hits on the evening, with Nick Gorneault adding a single later to finish 2 for 3. Sanchez reached base in every trip to the plate, going 0-0 with three walks.
New Hampshire 5 @ Connecticut 1 (Game 2) – Boxscore
New Hampshire jumped out to an early lead against Connecticut in the second game, using most of the same lineup that led the Fisher Cats to victory in game one. The Fisher Cats had four hits in the first inning – three singles and a doubles – but only scored two runs. After singles by Brad Emaus, David Cooper and Brian Dopirak, Nick Gorneault doubled home Cooper and drove Dopirak to third base. Unfortunately, with one out and two runners in scoring position Kyle Phillips pops out and Chris Guttierez flew out.
Luis Sanchez homered in the second to double New Hampshire’s lead to 4-0, as his blast also scored Sean Shoffit, who had reached on a fielding error by the first baseman. Connecticut changed pitchers to begin the third, but that didn’t slow down the Fisher Cats, at least not to begin with. Dopirak greeted reliever Steve Edlefsen with a leadoff homer, although Edlefsen threw three innings without surrendering another run. Each of the first six Fisher Cat batters had at least one hit, although the bottom three of Guttierez, Shoffit and Jonathan Diaz went 0 for 7.
The story of the second game for New Hampshire though was on the mound. Randy Boone threw 6.2 innings and only gave up a single run. Boone gave up six hits and three walks and only struck out one batter. The raw stats weren’t great and Boone allowed Defenders runners to reach second base in the first four innings, but Boone worked out of each jam he got into and kept Connecticut off the scoreboard and his ERA now sits at 0.67 after two starts. Edgar Estanga relieved Boone in the seventh after a couple of runners reached base, but he gave up a single to Eddy Martinez-Esteve to score Connecticut’s first run.
Daytona 5 @ Dunedin 7 – Boxscore
The Dunedin Blue Jays avoided the sweep with a 7-5 win over the Daytona Cubs in a close game in Florida. Dunedin jumped out to a four run lead, as Chris Emanuele reached on an error and John Tolisano doubled him home. Eric Thames singled and then Moises Sierra singled home Tolisano, before Manny Rodriguez drove them both home with a double. Daytona chipped away at the lead, scoring two in the third and another in the top of the fifth. Dunedin took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth on a fielding error by the Cubs shortstop which scored Thames, who had reached on a double.
Tim Collins came out for the sixth inning, ending Marcus Walden’s night. Walden gave up seven hits over 5 innings, but struck out three and only walked one. Tim Collins threw two shutout innings of relief, striking out four and not allowing a baserunner. Dunedin added to their lead in the sixth, on an Thames RBI triple that cashed Justin Jackson. After Robert Bell threw an inning and struck out three of the four batters he faced, Chris Emanuele homered and gave Dunedin a four run lead. The Blue Jays would need those add-on runs as Ross Buckwalter allowed both batters he faced in the ninth inning to reach base. Danny Farquhar came in for the save and ran into trouble himself, as he loaded the bases with none out and a 7-4 lead. However, he got out of it with the help of a key outfield assist, as Thames threw out a Daytona runner, with what would have been the sixth run, at home plate. Farquhar then retired the next two batters for the save.
South Bend 8 @ Lansing 1 – Boxscore
Lansing scored a pair of runs over 5 innings in Trevor Harden’s last start, but the Silver Hawks hurler decided this wasn’t good enough and threw 7 innings of one run ball this time. Sean Morgan came in for two innings and only gave up one hit. The Lugnuts had six hits off South Bend pitching, but struck out nine times. Kenny Wilson had the only multi-hit game for Lansing, but the damage came on Yohermyn Chavez’s solo homer in the seventh. Chavez also drew both of Lansing’s walks during the game and his line for the season now is a very impressive .306/.385/.571. Tyler Pastornicky, Jonathan Del Campo and Michael McDade all had hits.
There wasn’t much to write about on the mound for Lansing yesterday. Henderson Alvarez started and allowed six runs, four earned, over 4 innings McDade’s error led to two runs, but Alvarez ran into plenty of trouble in the fifth and turned the ball over to Jonas Cuotto, who allowed both of the inherited runners to score before letting two runs in himself. After South Bend’s six-run fifth Cuotto settled down and threw three more innings, but by this point South Bend had a commanding lead and the only issue was whether Harden would throw a shutout.
Three Stars:
3rd Star - Brian Dopirak, 3-6, 2 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 9 TB
2nd Star – Randy Boone, 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 1 K
1st Star – Eric Thames, 3-4, 2 R, 2B, 3B, RBI, 6 TB, Outfield Assist (at home)
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2009042310363219