The Constable was on his early-morning paper-round, and got a flat tyre. He could not get back to his mothers basement in time to blog. So you are stuck with the "new guy" again. Apologies.
The Brief Summary
* Affiliates go 0-5, but at least the ML team didn't lose!
* Oklahoma City is shut out. And therefore lost. Can't win when you don't score runs.
* Corpus wasn't shut out. Nor did they win. 6-5. Late comeback fell short.
* Lancaster followed up two days of High Desert domination with one day of High Desert dominated.
* Quad Cities lost two 7-inning games to Clinton, blowing a narrow lead in the second game.
Oklahoma City (15-13)
Frick on a Stick!! The RedHawks were shut out for the second time this season, losing 3-0 to the 15-12 Round Rock Express. The Express scored 2 in the second, and one in the ninth. The RedHawks scored none at all.
Hurlers: Nick Tropeano pitched 4 innings of 4H, 2R/ER, 2BB, 4K ball, throwing 65 pitches in the process. He was relieved by Chia-Jen Lo, who threw 1.2 scoreless (1H, 3K), who in turn was followed by Rhiner Cruz, who threw 1.1 scoreless (1K). Kevin Chapman pitched the last two, giving up 2H, 1R/ER, 1BB, 4K. The Redhawks struck out 12 versus 3 walks.
Hitters: PLUNKINGTON!! Possibly in retribution for the possible bunt-against-the-shift of yesterday, three more hitters were plunked, 2 of them RedHawks. This included Ronald Torreyes and Max Stassi. It's a bean-ball war!! The "offence" was provided mainly by Ronald Torreyes (2-3, beaned-by-pitch, dammit), with the four other hits recorded by Bob Grossman (1-4, 2B, K), Domingo Santana (1-2, BB), Max Stassi (1-3, beaned-by-pitch, dammit) and Erik Castro (1-4, 3K).
Man Of The Match: No one gets MOTM after a shutout. Except Chia-Jen Lo and Rhiner Cruz, who win the Man Of The Match. But no one else wins one.
Corpus Christi (14-13)
Moving to West Texas now, the Hooks lost by one to a strong Midland squad (17-9). Midland scored 4 in the first, and the Hooks were down 6-3 entering the ninth, and they fell just short in their comeback, losing 6-5. The Hooks committed two errors in the process, and both led to unearned runs. In the final wash-up, that was the difference.
Hurlers: Brady Rogers started, and had trouble in the first, pitching 4.1, yielding 6H, 4R/ER, 1BB, and striking out 1. He threw 83 pitches and took the loss, going to 1-3 on the year. He was relieved by Travis Bellow, who went 1.2, 2H, 1R/0ER, 2BB, 1K. He, in turn, was relieved by Pat Urckfitz, who pitched 2 innings, giving up 2H, 1R/0ER, 0BB, 1K. The errors were both committed on throws, by Tyler Heineman and Joe Sclafani.
Hitters: Andrew Aplin, who has been mentioned in these interweb pages a bit recently, went 2-4, 2R, 2x2B, 3B, BB. Pretty awesome... He was assisted by Jio Mier (3-5) and Leo Hera (2-5, R, 3B). Joe Sclafani went 1-5 with a double. Chris Epps hit a 1-out home run in the 5th, going 1-4, BB, 3K.
Man of the Match: Hard to go past CF Andrew Aplin. And I didn't. He wins the MOTM.
Lancaster (16-12)
The High Desert Mavericks (16-12), perhaps embarrassed by the last two days, didn't get either shut out, nor did they strike out 17 times (actually, they struck out 14 times). High Desert won, infact, 13-7 over the Lancaster JetHawks. Lancaster tried to come back with 4 runs in the bottom of the ninth, but the 10-run deficit they started the inning with was a little too much.
Hurlers: This isn't going to be good. Chris Devenski went to 1-4 on the year, throwing 4 innings, yielding 6H, 5R, 4ER, 2BB while striking out 8. JD Osborne relieved, and poured gasoline on the already raging inferno, going 1.2, 5H, 5R/ER, 2BB. Mitchell Lambson relieved him, and threw 2 inning of 1H, 1R/ER ball, striking out 3. Richard Rodrigues allowed 1H, 1R/ER, 1K in 0.1IP. Jamaine Cotton (ERA 1.35) allowed his first run of the year with a 1IP, 2H, 1R/ER, 2K performance. Not. Good.
Hitters: Three players went 2-4 (Anthony Kemp, BB; Rio Ruiz, BB, R; and Roberto Pena, R, 2B, BB, 3RBI). Danry Vasquez went 1-4, 2B. Brandon Meredith (0-3) and Dan Gulbransen (0-3, 2R) both walked twice. Lancaster drew 9 walks versus 5 strikeouts. And still lost. After their opposition struck out 14 times. Wow.
Man of the Match: Roberto Pena had a strong offensive game. He takes home the MOTM trophy, which is big and gold.
Quad Cities (11-15)
Quad Cities lost both games of the 7-inning-each-game double-header against the Clinton LumberKings (12-13). In the first game, Quad Cities fell behind early - 5-1 after 3 innings. A 3-run 6th inning dragged them back to one run, but they could not complete the comeback. In the second game, Quad Cities got within 2 outs of a 1-0 shutout, but gave up 3 runs in the top of the 7th, losing 3-1.
Hurlers: Game 1 was started by Andrew Thurman, who got in trouble early, giving up 3R/ER on 4H, 4BB, 2K in 2IP. He was relieved by Chris Cotton, who threw 3IP, yielding 3H, 2R/ER, 2BB, 1K. Patrick Christensen finished off with 2 innings, giving up 1 hit and striking out 2. Omar Lopez, the manager, was ejected.
In Game 2, Chris Lee started and pitched 4 no-hit shoutout innings, despite walking 6 and striking out 3. Andrew Walter relieved, and give up 1H in 1IP (2K). Tyler Brunnemann added another K in a scoreless inning. Alex Gonzalez (not recently released by the Tigers) took the loss, pitching 1 inning, yielding 3R/ER on 3H, 1K. And yes, the 3-run HR was the difference.
Hitters: In Game 1, catcher Brian Holberton went 3-3, 2R, 2B, HR, BB for a fantastic first game. Chan Moon (2-3, BB) was the other multiple-hit player, whilst Brett Phillips (1-4) and James Ramsay (1-4, R) added doubles. Ramsay also added an outfield assist, gunning down a runner at home.
In Game 2, Brett Phillips (R, 2B, 3B) and James Ramsay (2B) both went 2-3. Tyler White (0-1, SF), Ronnie Mitchell (0-2) and Tanner Mathis (0-1) each added one walk. Thomas Lindauer acknowledged yesterdays shout-out with an 0-3, 2K day.
Man of the Matches: Pretty hard to go past a 3-3, 2B, HR, BB performance in Game 1, especially when it is from your catcher, Brian Holberton. He can have the MOTM for Game 2 as well, despite not playing, mostly because I am generous. And lazy.
Thank you for reading if you made it down this far. Hope you enjoyed it.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
