New Hampshire had a big come from behind win against league leading Altoona with Adam Loewen and Shawn Bowman leading the hitters. Kyle Drabek had an odd start with lots of walks and strikeouts. Dunedin won in extra innings while Lansing lost a rain shortened affair. Las Vegas lost as Tacoma hit a grand slam off Brad Mills.
Brad Mills ran into some big problems in the fourth inning. He walked two hitters and gave up a ground ball single to load the bases. Then Mike Wilson hit a grand slam off Mills and the 51's were losing 4-0 and they hadn't had a baserunner to that point.
The lack of a baserunner continued through 4.2 innings but then JP Arencibia hit a solo home run to break the drought. The team exchanged runs in the bottom of the fifth, top of the sixth and that was it for the scoring. Mills pitched seven innings, he had nine baserunners (six hits, three walks) and he fanned five.
Las Vegas had just six hits, Arencibia was 3-4 and Luis Figueroa had two hits.
The second innings summed up Kyle Drabek's start. Altoona scored three runs off him but he struck out the side. He walked three, including walking in a run, he hit a batter, but he came back to strike out the final two hitters of the inning. His other four innings were great. Drabek's final line was five innings pitched with 8 K's but he walked five, gave up three runs, but only allowed three hits.
On Friday night Shawn Bowman had the Fisher Cats only run with a solo home run, he added another solo home run in the fourth inning Saturday. In the seventh inning Adam Loewen hit a ground rule double and two walks loaded the bases with one out. Manny Mayorson singled two score two runs and tie the game.
Tim Collins pitched two perfect innings with three K's and Trystan Magnuson gave up two hits in the eighth but induced a double play to escape without damage.
In the bottom of the eighth Danny Perales, Eric Thames and Bowman each singled to load the bases. Loewen followed with a two run single to put the Fisher Cats up 5-3. That was enough for Danny Farquhar to pitch the ninth for the save.
Loewen went 3-4 and Bowman 2-4.
St Lucie 6 Dunedin 7 - 10 innings
Kenny Rodriguez is still looking for his good form that had him in AA in 2009. On Saturday three St. Lucie doubles put the Jays down 2-0 in the first inning. Dunedin went one better in the second, Mike McDade, John Tolisano and Brad McElroy doubled and with a Jon Talley single added in the Jays took a 3-2 lead. The Jays went ahead 4-2 in the third without much effort, three walks and a passed ball generated the run. However Tyler Pastornicky had to leave the game with an injured leg. A solo home run by St Lucie put them within a run but Tolisano singled in a run in the fifth to make it a 2 run game once again.
In the sixth Wellinton Ramirez singled, stole second and third and scored on a single by Justin McClanahan. St Lucie rebounded to score three runs off Frank Gailey in the seventh to tie the game at 6 all. Alan Farina and Dumas Garcia combined to pitch 3.2 perfect innings. St Lucie might have had a bus to catch because in the bottom of the tenth Jon Talley led off with a single. John Tolisano tried to sacrifice him to second but an error by the catcher let both runners stay on base. Brad McElroy then bunted and the pitcher this time threw it away to allow the winning run to score.
Jon Talley and John Tolisano had two hits each.
Quad Cities 3 Lansing 2 - 6 innings
Lansing scored first, in the third, Brad Glenn doubled and Balbino Fuenmayor tripled. Quad Cities had only one hit off Chad Jenkins until the fifth. A one out walk was followed by back-to-back doubles and a ground out led to Quad Cities taking a 3-1 lead. In the bottom of the sixth Ryan Schimpf walked, Chris Hopkins was hit by a pitch and two ground outs scored a run and put the tying run on third base with two outs. But then the rain started and didn't stop and Lansing lost with the tying run on third.
Jenkins pitched six innings and gave up all three runs on three hits with four K's. The Lugnuts had three hits two, Balbino Fuenmayor had two of them.
Three Stars
3rd star - John Tolisano
2nd star - Jon Talley
1st star - Adam Loewen
