Two excellent pitching performances and some excellent hitting helped Dunedin and Lansing to wins. New Hampshire won despite a weak start by Bobby Bell while Las Vegas were fogged out. Henderson Alvarez gave up one run over seven innings while Ryan Tepera did better, shutting down Bowling Green over seven innings with only three hits allowed. On the hitting side Mark Sobolewski and Tyler Pastornicky were the stars, neither of them made on out on Saturday. Pitchers have perfect games, hitters don't but these two had perfect Saturday's. Eric Thames, David Cooper, Tim Collins, Daniel Perales, Travis D'Arnaud and Bradley Glenn also played well.
Las Vegas at Colorado Springs - Postponed due to fog
The snow must be melting in the mountains as fog shut down baseball on Saturday. The teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday.
Bobby Bell ran into trouble in the second inning. Four hits, a walk and a hit batter led to five runs. The Fisher Cats had a feast in the fourth inning, fourteen hitters came to the plate and they scored ten runs. David Cooper and Eric Thames had a single and a double each in that inning. Brian Jeroloman also had a two run double.
However Bell gave up a two run home run in the fifth and the New Hampshire lead was down to 10-7. Adrian Martin relieved Bell and he gave up a solo home run and it was a 10-8 game. In the seventh inning Adam Calderone led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Loewen. Jon Diaz doubled in both runners and he scored on a double by Jeroloman. With the lead back up to five Tim Collins came on for the eighth inning. He struck out two hitters in a perfect eighth and repeated the feat in the ninth.
Collins has now pitched 4.2 innings, allowed one hit and two walks, while recording nine K's.
For the Cats Eric Thames had three hits and is now hitting over .300 after a slow start. David Cooper had two hits and has moved his average up to .270. Brian Jeroloman had two doubles and he is also hitting over .300. Adam Loewen is sitting at .280.
Henderson Alvarez gave up a double to the first hitter he faced and that runner scored on a ground ball single but that was it for Brevard County, Alvarez held them to one run on five hits over seven innings, no walks and three K's. Alvarez turns 20 on Sunday, this was an excellent way to feel good on your birthday.
Dunedin had taken the lead on back to back doubles to lead off the game by Tyler Pastornicky and Brad McElroy. But it was in the third that the Jays moved ahead with four runs. Pastornicky singled and McElroy walked. Travis D'arnaud singled to load the bases. One run scored on a sac fly by Brian Van Kirk; another on a John Tolisano single; a third on a single by Daniel Perales; and the fourth on another sac fly from Wellinton Ramirez. In the sixth D'Arnaud doubled in two more to make it 7-1. In the eighth Van Kirk singled in Pastornicky and in the ninth Daniel Perales homered and another run scored on a ground out.
Dunedin had 17 hits. Pastornicky was 4-4, scored four runs, had two doubles and two walks. Even with his recent hot hitting his average is only up to .268. Perales also had four hits and is hitting .229. D'Arnaud was 2-5 and is hitting .425.
With Ryan Tepera talking care of business on the mound, the Lansing hitters took care of business early in this game. Kenny Wilson led off with a triple and scored on a sac fly from Oliver Dominguez. Mark Sobolewski doubled and scored on a single by Bradley Glenn. In the second inning Chris Hopkins singled, stole second and scored on a double by Wilson to make it 3-0 Lugnuts. Sobolewski and Glenn tacked on another run in the third, Sobo with the double and Glenn with an RBI single. In the fifth Sobolewski singled to drive in another run and it was 5-0. In the seventh Chris Nolan finished the Luggies scoring with a two run double.
Tepera pitched seven shutout innings, a three hitter, with one walk and four K's.
Sobolewski was 3-3 with a walk to push his average over .300. Glenn had two hits and is hitting .366.
Three Stars
3rd star - Henderson Alvarez and Tyler Pastornicky
2nd star - Mark Sobolewski
1st star - Ryan Tepera
