Salt Lake 3 @ Las Vegas 4 (11 innings) – Boxscore
Fabio Castro’s first start for Las Vegas didn’t go as well as he hoped, as he lasted only 5.1 innings. Castro surrendered five hits and three walks, while striking out five. The southpaw allowed two runs before turning the ball over to TJ Beam, who allowed Castro’s third run to score. Aside from that RBI single Beam didn’t allow another hit over his 2.2 innings and struck out three.
Meanwhile, Brad Knox threw 7 innings of shutout ball for Salt Lake, but the offence kicked into gear once Kevin Jepsen took over in the eighth. Scott Campbell and Buck Coats singled and then Howie Clark hit a 3-run homer to tie the game. Randy Ruiz walked and Brett Harper singled to give the 51s two shots at taking the lead, but Francisco Rodriguez (no, not that one) retired Jason Lane and JP Arencibia to escape any further damage. Accardo struck out a couple of batters over the ninth and tenth and then turned the ball over to Jonah Bayliss. Bayliss got into a mini-scare in the top of the eleventh letting a Salt Lake runner reach second with one out, but Bayliss sandwiched two outs around a walk and escaped without any damage.
After a couple of 1-2-3 innings, Brett Harper began the bottom of the inning with a single and was replaced by pinch-runner Russ Adams. Lane sacrificed Adams to second and gave Arencibia a chance to play hero. It was a chance Arencibia would not pass up and he doubled to drive home Adams and give Las Vegas fans a walk-off victory.
New Britain 3 @ New Hampshire 2 (10 innings) – Boxscore
Reider Gonzalez took a magic wand out on the mound with him yesterday evening. Despite allowing 12 baserunners over 6 innings, Gonzalez only let up one run, as he was helped by an Adam Calderone outfield assist that retired a runner at home plate. The Fisher Cats only turned one double play with Gonzalez on the mound leaving New Britain to strand 9 runners on base over the first six innings. Comparatively, New Hampshire only stranded four runners over the first two-thirds of the game, with the most costly being the inability to cash Cody Haerther home after his triple.
Rommie Lewis got through the seventh and eighth without difficulty, although the Fisher Cats went down 1-2-3 in both innings. Lewis allowed a couple of batters to reach base in the top of the ninth before Leon Boyd came in and put away the danger to keep New Britain’s lead at one. New Britain brought in Anthony Slama for the save and he was promptly greeted by a Brad Emaus triple. David Cooper hit a sac fly and knotted the game at one apiece. With two out Brian Jeroloman walked, Harther singled and Luis Sanchez worked a walk, but Nick Gorneault struck out with two out and sent the game to extras.
A solo homer and an RBI single off Boyd, the first runs he’s given up this year, gave New Britain a 3-1 lead after the top of the tenth. With one out in the bottom of the inning Calderone doubled and he was followed by Emaus, who hit the ball to the left field wall. Calderone scored and Emaus, in what was perhaps an unwise piece of aggressive baserunning, tried to stretch the hit into his second triple of the game and was thrown out at third. Cooper singled, but Dopirak flew out to end the game. The Fisher Cats had seven hits, six of which came from Calderone, Emaus and Haerther.
Clearwater 2 @ Dunedin 3 – Boxscore
Andrew Liebel had his best start of the year for the Dunedin Blue Jays as he went 6 innings for the second straight start. One of the four hits he surrendered was a solo homer to the best position player prospect in the Phillies system, Dominic Brown. Otherwise Liebel was near perfect, as he struck out five, didn’t walk a batter and only allowed that one run.
Dunedin jumped out to a 1-0 lead on a John Tolisano home run in the fourth inning. Moises Sierra followed with a double, but unfortunately Eric Thames, Manny Rodriguez and Jonathan Jaspe were unable to cash him in. The game was tied at 1 in the seventh when Robert Bell replaced Liebel. The second batter of the inning reached on a Justin Jackson error. With one out the next two Phillies batters singled and flew out, but then Bell allowed a 2-out double to give Clearwater a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the seventh Adam Loewen and Jackson walked and with two out Darin Mastroianni singled, but Dominic Brown threw Loewen out at home to preserve the Clearwater lead. Cody Crowell pitched a scoreless eighth and then a pitch hit Sierra with one out in the bottom of the inning. Sierra ended up on third with two out and hopes fell on the shoulders of Manny Rodriguez to poke a single into the outfield and tie the game. Rodriguez decided that tying the game was the easy way out and launched a homer to right centre field to give Dunedin a 3-2 lead. Danny Farquhar picked up his fourth save with two strikeouts in a hitless ninth. Dunedin only had six hits, with no Blue Jay picking up more than one, and the batters to reach base twice were the middle infielders, as Jackson was 0 for 1 with a pair of walks and Tolisano added a base on balls to his solo homer.
Lansing @ Kane County (Postponed)
Rain postponed the second game of the 4-game set against the Kane County Cougars.
Three Stars:
3rd Star – John Tolisano, 1-3, R, HR, RBI, BB, 4 TB
2nd Star – Brad Emaus, 2-4, 2B, 3B, RBI, 5 TB
1st Star – Andrew Liebel, 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K
