The GCL Blue Jays won in extras thanks to a wild eleventh inning. Meanwhile, Las Vegas won a rare 1-0 game with a four-man shutout. New Hampshire lost and Dunedin split their doubleheader because of a Tampa grand slam in the first game, but won the second on a three-run triple by Eric Thames. Auburn and Lansing won by the same 3-1 score with key relief being provided by Mathew Morgal and Jason Roenicke, respectively.
Reno 0 @ Las Vegas 1 – Boxscore
Four pitchers combined for the shutout for Las Vegas in a tight contest against Arizona’s Triple-A team. Dirk Hayhurst started and went 4 innings, allowing two hits. It was only Hayhurst’s sixth start of the year and he did well in his longest appearance of the month. Sean Stidfole allowed three hits and a walk in his 2 innings, but didn’t allow a run and picked up the win. Zach Stewart pitched 2 innings of two-hit relief and turned the ball over to Jeremy Accardo for his eleventh save of the year.
Jason Lane was the only 51 to have two hits in the game, as he went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk. Howie Clark had the team’s other double and added a walk, while leadoff hitter Buck Coats added a single and a walk. Brian Dopirak, Kevin Howard and Aaron Mathews added singles and JP Arencibia was held hitless. Angel Sanchez and Adam Calderone also didn’t have hits, but Calderone and Howard did earn walks. Las Vegas’s run came in the fifth as Howard and Mathews singled to begin the inning. Sanchez sacrificed both runners into scoring position, which worked perfectly for Calderone’s sacrifice fly.
Harrisburg 4 @ New Hampshire 2 – Boxscore
Randy Boone took the loss and fell to 9-8 on the year. Boone went 6 innings and allowed four runs, all earned. Harrisburg had six hits off Boone and also worked three walks. Boone threw five scoreless innings, but allowed all four earned runs in the sixth. Wilfredo Ledezma threw 2 scoreless innings and struck out four while allowing one hit. Danny Farquhar pitched the ninth, striking out one.
Scott Campbell was the only Fisher Cat to have a multihit game, going 2-for-4 with a double. He was driven in by Brad Emaus who went 1-for-4. David Cooper went hitless, but worked New Hampshire’s only two walks of the game. Darin Mastroianni went 1-for-4 with a double and three strikeouts. Mastroianni scored New Hampshire’s other run. Jonathan Diaz and Bryan Kervin also had singles and Kervin added an RBI.
Tampa 6 @ Dunedin 3 (Game 1 – 7 innings) – Boxscore
Dunedin got out to a 1-0 lead in the first with a solo homer by Brad McElroy. They also added two runs in the bottom of the seventh with Jesus Gonzalez and Kevin Ahrens scoring runs. John Tolisano, Jonathan Jaspe, Adam Loewen and Sean Shoffit all had singles, while Gonzalez had a single and a double and Ahrens added a double. Luis Sanchez added an RBI and McElroy and Loewen had walks.
Ryan Page started and went 4 strong innings, before things fell apart in the fifth. Dunedin still had a 1-0 lead in that inning, but Tampa scored all six runs that inning with the bulk of the damage coming on a grand slam by David Adams. Page finished with 5.1 innings allowing seven hits and three walks. Boomer Potts came in for relief and struck out two over 1.2 innings.
Tampa 1 @ Dunedin 4 (Game 2 – 7 innings) – Boxscore
Dunedin’s first four batters – McElroy, Tyler Pastornicky, Moises Sierra and Eric Thames – each scored one of the team’s four runs. McElroy had a walk and Sierra finished 2-for-3. Thames came to bat in the fourth with all three batters in front of him on base and hit a bases-clearing triple. Jesus Gonzalez doubled him home later that evening to give Dunedin an insurance run. Ahrens also added a double.
Andrew Liebel started and threw a five-hit complete game. Brandon Laird hit a solo homer in the second to account for the only run off Liebel. The Dunedin starter gave up five hits and a walk, but struck out four in his fifth win of the year.
Western Michigan 1 @ Lansing 3 – Boxscore
Western Michigan scored their run in the top of the first and kept that 1-0 lead until the bottom of the sixth, when Lansing tied the game. Lugnuts started Ryan Shropshire lowered his ERA to 1.98 after three starts for Lansing with 4.2 innings of one-run ball. Shropshire didn’t have his best outing, as he walked three and gave up five hits. He turned the ball over to Jason Roenicke, who threw 3.1 innings of one-hit ball. Meanwhile, Kenny Wilson scored on a Johermyn Chavez sacrifice fly to tie the game.
With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the eighth Balbino Fuenmayor and Justin McClanahan were retired to give Lansing two outs. But, Kenny Wilson started the rally with a walk and then stole second before Ryan Goins walked. Wilson came around to score and give Lansing the lead on a Mark Sobolewski single and Goins advanced to third and would later score an insurance run on a Chavez single. Chris Emanuele, Welinton Ramirez and Jon Talley added singles, but weren’t involved with the scoring.
Williamsport 1 @ Auburn 3– Boxscore
Six Doubledays had one and only one hit, as Auburn managed to manufacture a couple of their runs in the victory. Ryan Schimpf, Jonathan Del Campo and Kevin Nolan were all held hitless. Eric Eiland and Yan Gomes had doubles, while Chris Hopkins, Bradley Glenn, Kyle Gilligan and Marcus Brisker all added singles. Gomes, Glenn and Brisker scored the runs. Nolan drove home Glenn with Auburn’s first run in the second on a ground out. A 1-1 tie was broken by Eiland’s double in the seventh that scored Gomes and Del Campo’s grounder scored Brisker the following inning.
Williamsport scored its lone run off starter Steven Turnbull in the first inning. Turnbull pitched 5 innings and surrendered five hits against four strikeouts. He retired 8 of 11 batters on balls in play on groundouts. Matthew Morgal threw 3 innings of two-hit relief to pick up the victory and Casey Beck got the save with a scoreless ninth that included two strikeouts.
GCL Yankees 3 @ GCL Blue Jays 4 (11 innings) – Boxscore
Sam Strickland started and went 4.2 innings with four strikeouts. He allowed four hits, three walks, two runs and one solo homer. Lance Loftin came in with a runner on base and eventually got out of the fifth, but he ran into problems in the sixth. He departed with the bases loaded after allowing five hits in his 1 inning of relief. Aaron Loup came in and got out of the jam on his way to 2.1 hitless innings of relief with three strikeouts. Brian Slover threw a scoreless inning with two walks and Shawn Griffith came in for the tenth. He threw two innings of one-hit relief with three strikeouts to pick up the victory.
The first four batters – Gustavo Pierre, Oliver Dominguez, Carlos Perez and Nick Zaleski – combined to go 2-for-20 with a double and an RBI. Jack Murphy had a double and a run scored and John Roberts scored a run, drove in a run and added a walk. Kevin Denis-Fortier had an RBI and Yelco Aponte scored a run after entering the game as a pinch-runner. The start of the lineup was at the bottom though, as Matthew Nuzzo reached base in all five plate appearances. The winning run was gift-wrapped to the GCL Blue Jays as Nuzzo singled with one out in the bottom of the eleventh. He then advanced to second on a wild pitch and then to third on another wild pitch. Pierre grounded out and then pitcher Sam Elam threw his third wild pitch of the inning to score Nuzzo.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – Matthew Nuzzo, 4-4, R, BB, 4 TB
2nd Star – Dirk Hayhurst, 4 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K
1st Star – Andrew Liebel, 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K
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