Y'ALLS COME BACK TO TAKE GAME 2 OF THE SERIES
Coming off a one-run loss in Game 1 of a three-game set, the Florence Y'alls (8-6) saw their bats come alive at Ozinga Field in a 6-1 victory over the Windy City Thunderbolts (6-8). The Y'alls tallied double-digit hits (10) for the third time in five games. Much like the game prior, Saturday's game began as a pitcher's duel. Y'alls righthander Nate Florence and Windy City lefthander Kenny Mathews traded blows through three scoreless innings. In the fourth, Florence third baseman Brian Fuentes hit a Mathews pitch to left for a solo home run to make it 1-0 Florence. In the fifth, the Y'alls widened their lead. Designated hitter Sam Plash laced a single to right with one out before left fielder Marcos Castillo chopped an infield single to third. Second baseman Craig Massey then drove in Plash with a base hit before first baseman Brennan Price doubled in Castillo and Massey to make it 4-0 Y'alls. That was all the Y'alls would need behind Florence, who dazzled in his third professional start. Florence pitched six innings of shutout baseball, allowed no runs on three hits, walked one, and struck out eight. Florence has yet to allow a run through his first sixteen professional innings across three starts. Florence tacked on two more runs in the eighth on a Brennan Price two-run home run to left field that made it 6-0. Windy City offered little resistance besides a single run in the ninth after a one-out double and a wild pitch. Price finished the day 2-for-4 with a double and four RBI, while Castillo extended his hitting streak to nine games with a 3-for-5 day.
The Ottawa Titans (5-9) got key performances from Jamey Smart and Alec Thomas in a 6-2 victory over the New Jersey Jackals (6-7) at Hinchliffe Stadium on Saturday. Alec Thomas (win, 1-0) and Vin Mazzaro (loss, 0-1) went toe-to-toe on the mound, each posting five shutout frames. In his second start of the season, Thomas went five scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit, walking four, and striking out six to keep the Titans level. Mazzaro would work five and a third no-hit innings before a one-out single from AJ Wright pushed a Jacob Talamante walk across the diamond, putting the Titans in business with runners on the corners. After Dazon Cole got Jason Dicochea to strike out, the Jackals' righty would walk Gabe Snyder to load the bases. Jamey Smart would cash in a pair with an RBI single to left to open the scoring. On the play, the throw from Josh Rehwaldt bounced off the catcher Justin Mazzone and hit the home plate umpire John Lamattina and rolled away, scoring Snyder to make it 3-0. Following a lengthy delay, the home plate umpire would exit the game with an injury. The Jackals responded with a run in the bottom of the sixth and added a solo homer in the seventh. In the ninth, Jamey Smart would add to the lead with a two-run homer to right-centre, making it 5-2. After a double from Taylor Wright, Manny Garcia would make it 6-2 with an infield RBI single.Gleyvin Pineda, Matt Valin, Nelson Gonzalez, and Trevor Clifton would keep the lead intact out of the bullpen, helping the Titans snap their three-game slide. In the win, Jamey Smart went 2-for-4 with a homer and four RBI. Smart now has recorded 15 RBI through 14 games this season.
The Schaumburg Boomers scored nine runs on just three hits in the bottom of the seventh inning to score their first series win of the year by taking down the New York Boulders 13-1.The Boomers did not trail in the game, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Kyle Fitzgerald and Will Praterboth notched RBI singles. Chase Dawson, who will be honored with a bobblehead tomorrow night, drove home a run with his first triple of the year in the bottom of the second to push the lead to 3-0. Miles Simington made it 4-0 with a sacrifice fly in the fourth. New York pulled within 4-1 in the top of the seventh and had the tying run at the plate, but Kristian Scott induced an inning-ending double play to set the stage for the huge bottom of the frame. The Boomers drew six walks in the inning and were hit by a pitch as 13 men came to the plate. Prater stroked a two-run single in the inning while Fitzgerald and Simington also tallied run scoring singles. Gaige Howard, Blake Grant-Parks, Alec Craig and Dawson also knocked home runs in the inning. Miguel Reyes was the beneficiary of the run support, working into the seventh inning and allowing just one run. Scott posted the three outs in the seventh and Cristian Lopez tossed the final two frames. Prater finished with three hits and three RBIs. Dawson and Fitzgerald both totaled two hits and two RBIs. Simington also knocked home a pair. Howard has reached base in all 12 games this season.
The Empire State Greys (4-9) defeated Trois-Rivières (5-9) 16-6 in game two of the three-game set and got contributions from the whole team as every player in the Empire State lineup reached base safely in the game. After both clubs scored a run in the third, the Greys turned on the gas in the fourth and fifth. Zak Whalin led off the fourth inning with a solo shot off of Sam Pollquin (L, 0-2) to give the Greys the lead in which they wouldn't let up. Two batters later, Mike Gulino followed up his homerun from last night with a 2-run blast. In the fifth, John Mead delivered a 3-run home run giving the Greys a 10-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. The middle innings were highlighted by Greys' relief pitcher Wilber Perez (W, 2-0). Coming off earning the save last night, Perez was excellent throwing the sixth and seventh innings. Over the course of the two innings, Wilber struck out three and allowed just one hit and one walk. Empire State rallied once again, scoring six runs across the seventh and eighth innings. Trois-Rivières attempted a comeback in the eighth, scoring two on two-out Nate Scantlin triple that narrowed the deficit to 16-6. Following the triple, the Aigles offense could not get anything going. Tanner Propst shut the door in the ninth throwing a 1-2-3 inning.
The Gateway Grizzlies scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to break open a back-and-forth game on Saturday night against the Joliet Slammers, and got five RBIs from Peter Zimmermann in beating the visitors 11-6 to win their fourth straight contest and clinch the weekend series at Grizzlies Ballpark. It was Joliet that took the initial lead against Joey Gonzalez (2-1) in the top of the first inning when Scott Holzwasser hit a solo home run for a 1-0 Slammers advantage. That lead lasted until the bottom of the second, when Jairus Richards came up with a runner on base and crushed a two-run home run out of the ballpark to right-center field, making it 2-1 Grizzlies. A Peter Zimmerman grand slam immediatley followed by a solo home run from Andrew Penner provided the Grizzlies a cushion that they would not relinquish. The 11-run outburst marked the third-straight game the Grizzlies had put up 10 runs or more, with six Grizzlies in total recording two-hit games, led by Zimmermann's 2-for-5 showing including a career-best-tying five RBIs. Gonzalez pitched a "quality start" as well, allowing three runs over six innings while striking out eight. Gateway has now won six of their eight games at Grizzlies Ballpark this season.
The Sussex County Miners knocked a season-sigh sixteen hits around Skylands Stadium en route to a convincing 10-3 win over the Lake Erie Crushers on Saturday night in front of 2,429 fans that saw fireworks both in the game and then after the game. The Miner bats were paced by Gavin Stupienski, who had four hits on the night, with five runs batted in. At the top of the lineup, both Edwin Mateo and Will Zimmerman had three hits and three runs scored. Juan Santana had two hits of his own, and Jasno Agresti had a pair of runs batted in, as the Miners had at least two hits in six of the eight innings they came to the plate. Every Miner batter also reached base at least once on the evening. The Sussex County bullpen once again was stellar. Freisis Adames allowed one unearned run and two hits over three innings of relief, and Ronnie Voacolo came on in the ninth and worked around a leadoff single to get the final three outs to give Sussex County their second four-game winning streak of the young season.
The Washington Wild Things ended a losing streak with a walk-off hit in extra innings en route to their 13-12 win against the Tri-City ValleyCats. This was a relentless comeback by the team in the field and at the plate on Saturday night. Andrew Czech was the man behind the magic tonight for the Wild Things as he drove in five on three hits including the walk-off hit to end the night. Zach Blankenship, Andrew Mitchell and Arrison Perez combined to throw three shutdown innings for the Wild Things, allowing no runs, striking out two and only letting up one hit. The bullpen would stay dominant as Christian James would come in and throw a scoreless frame in the eighth, and Lukas Young shut the ValleyCats down in extra innings.
At Stade Canac in Quebec City, the Capitales won their fourth consecutive game by prevailing in a back-and-forth battle with the Evansville Otters. The Otters scored first for their twelfth consecutive game, courtesy of a leadoff double by Noah Myers and an RBI base hit by Ethan Skender. Quebec took the lead back in the first with three runs on a pair of walks, an error and two hits. Evansville tied it in the fourth with two runs both scoring on sacrifice flies. Quebec answered with a home run in the bottom of the fourth to retake the lead. Evansville would tie things in the sixth with two walks and a RBI groundout before taking the lead in the seventh. Quebec scored the decisive two runs in the bottom of the seventh as two walks and two hit batters cost Evansville. The game winning run scored on a sacrifice fly.
