Link Report for Sun. 7/20 -- Brantley, Zarraga Leave Games Early

[DHonks]

Amazing to think that Rolando Pascual is still only 19. He's had some good innings (the 8th today), and given the patience they've shown with Peralta and Mercedes, I would assume they'll be cautious with him.

[TheCrew07]

Watch out for Bowman people.... I called my shot on him, he's going to be stud. In fact, he's pretty close to becoming my favorite minor league pitcher and bumping Periard out... it's a close call. And That will call it Blasphemy, but what can I say?

 

Luetge has been awesome thus far, when Ordorizzi gets bumped I wonder if he gets bumped to WV.

 

Poor Mike Jones, he's been such a trooper through all the injuries, the results just aren't there.

 

Fredrickson... bleh... I've mentioned it before but I don't think we'll see improvement from him till they can tweak his delivery over the winter.

 

Aquilar with a solid 2 innings, good to see.

 

edit. Of course I read the summaries now and see that Mass pretty much already posted word for word what I just said. I'm sorry Mass, just got home from building lockers all day and refreshed all my box scores and started posting. Also, reading some of the other comments... I like that Gindl is getting time in CF... I wish all of the managers had a little bit of Kremblas in them and moved guys around to get them experience with the different positions, provided they have the tools to succeed at said position.

[LouisEly]

With West Virginia in first place I think there's a good chance that Luetge and Wooten will be there in the next couple of weeks to help make a run at the playoffs.

 

Anyone know if Cleveland's scouts have migrated more to Huntsville (suggesting Brantley or Cain) or if they are staying in Brevard (suggesting Lucroy or Green)?

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Stars one game back in North

Smokies hand Huntsville 7-3 loss

By JOHN FERRY

Huntsville Times Sports Staff, john.ferry@htimes.com

 

There are phrases for what happened to the Huntsville Stars on Sunday at Joe Davis Stadium.

 

"Not much going for us tonight," outfielder Cole Gillespie said.

 

"I hope all it is is a bump in the road," said manager Don Money.

 

What happened was Tennessee built a four-run lead in the third inning, then overcame an eighth inning that saw the Stars within one swing of taking the lead.

 

The Smokies left with a 7-3 victory and a one-game lead over Huntsville in the Southern League North Division's second-half standings.

 

"I felt we could have won more games here," Tennessee manager Buddy Bailey said. "Huntsville has a good club with a lot of good hitters."

 

The Stars took the series 3-2 to move to 10-4 against Tennessee for the season.

 

Mike Jones (0-4) started the game for the Stars and had a 65-pitch limit. He used 57 of those over his three innings, allowing four runs and five hits in the third.

 

Sam Fuld and Blake Lalli belted long two-run homers to right for Tennessee in the third.

 

Nate Spears doubled home Fuld in the sixth and it was 5-0.

 

Tennessee had gotten five solid innings from starter Mark Holliman, who allowed three hits and improved to 1-3.

 

"Holliman was executing and we swung at a lot of balls outside the zone," Money said.

 

The Stars got on the board in their sixth when Lorenzo Cain tripled off reliever Matt Avery and Alcides Escobar got the RBI with a ground out.

 

Tennessee's advantage was 6-1 in the eighth when the Stars send eight batters up against Rocky Roquet and Jose Ceda. Gillespie and J.R. Hopf drew bases-loaded walks to close the gap, but with the lead batter at the plate and one out, Huntsville got a pop fly and a strikeout.

 

"We couldn't throw strikes in that eighth inning," Bailey said, adding that four of the 23 pitches were in the strike zone.

 

Jake Fox homered over the fence in center to lead off the ninth for the Smokies and end the scoring.

 

"That homer got momentum back for us," Bailey said.

 

"One of those nights," said Gillespie. "We can't get ten hits and score ten runs every game."

[wvpowerblkwel]

Amaury Rivas the beneficiary of the Darren Ford trade getting the call to Brevard County after the game sunday nite. Good luck Amaury!

[Mass Haas]

Brewers demolish Ghosts

By Helena Independent Record

 

CASPER, Wyo. - The visiting Helena Brewers slammed the Casper Ghosts 19-11 in Pioneer League action.

 

The Brewers, 17-15 on the year, claim sole possession of second place in the North Division with the win Sunday.

 

Helena banged out 19 hits, led by Michael Marseco and David Fonseca, who both knocked four base raps apiece.

 

Marseco stroked a single, a double and two triples, while driving in four runs. Fonseca ripped a pair of doubles and scored three runs.

 

The Brewers big inning was the fourth, when they broke loose to score seven runs. Marseco and John Delaney each singled, followed by Fonseca's double.

 

After Erik Komatsu walked, Brock Kjeldgaard and Corey Kemp each stroked a single. Next, Mike Roberts drew a base on balls, and then Marseco culminated the inning's scoring with a bases loaded triple.

 

In the seventh frame, the Brew Crew plated four runs, provided by Kjeldgaard, Kemp, Michael Vass, Roberts and Marseco. The Capital City group led 19-6 going into the top of the ninth, before the Ghosts scored five runs in their final at-bat to get within eight.

 

Contributing to the Brewers' offense with two hits apiece were Vass, Kamatsu, Chris Dennis and Kjeldgaard. Vass belted a triple and a homer, scoring three runs.

 

Lucas Luetge was the winning pitcher. Luetge went four innings, and did not permit an earned run. In 14 innings pitched this year, Luetge still carries a perfect 0.00 ERA. The losing pitcher was Allen Deratt. The home team's top hitters were Wilin Rosario, Lowe and Carlos Martinez.

They face the Ghosts in the third game of the four-game series in Casper today at 7:05 PM (8:05 Central).

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

Power loses to Rome, 11-7

by Jacob Messer

Charleston Daily Mail sportswriter

 

The West Virginia Power couldn't strike as often as Mother Nature or the Rome Braves.

 

As a result, West Virginia lost 11-7 on Sunday evening in the first of its four-game South Atlantic League series against visiting Rome.

 

The low Class A clubs played the last five innings under a pitch-black Charleston sky in which lightning repeatedly struck, but apparently not close enough for umpires Mario Seneca and Ben Roberson to send the teams to the Appalachian Power Park clubhouses early.

 

"It's in the umpires' hands," West Virginia Manager Jeff Isom said after the game, which ended three hours and 43 minutes after it started. "That's all I'm going to comment on that.

 

"I know it was all around us, but I guess they thought it wasn't jeopardizing anybody and it was far enough away that it wasn't going to affect any play."

 

Power players said they weren't concerned.

 

"The lightning was going on all around us, but I didn't see anything within a mile or two," right fielder Logan Schafer said. "So, I really wasn't too surprised that they didn't call it.

 

"It's not anything that you think about when you're out there playing the game. You worry about the game and the task at hand. We had some work to do. We needed to get some outs, and we needed to put some hits together and push some runs across."

 

The Power didn't do enough on offense or defense to knock off the Braves, who scored 10 runs in the first three innings to build an insurmountable lead.

 

West Virginia starter Evan Frederickson (0-1) allowed eight runs (five earned) on seven hits and three walks in two innings. Reliever Jose Garcia surrendered three runs (all earned) on five hits and one walk in three innings.

 

"It was a big uphill battle after that," Isom said, "but I thought our guys responded well with the bats. We gave ourselves opportunities. Unfortunately, it was too big of a hole to climb out of.

 

"Our style of baseball is to be aggressive on the bases, but when you get down by so much, you can't afford to have any baserunning mistakes or get anybody thrown out. So, it kind of put a damper on our style of baseball.

 

"We still got 13 hits and seven runs. We threatened in a couple of innings and were just one hit away from getting a couple more runs here and there. It could have been a lot closer than four runs. After giving up 10 runs in the first three innings, if you were to say they were only going to score 11 runs, I would have been pretty pleased."

 

Catcher Anderson De La Rosa (3-for-5) knocked in three runs and scored two more for the Power. Schafer (2-for-5) scored a pair of runs and added an RBI.

 

Second baseman Zelous Wheeler hit a solo shot -- his ninth home run this season -- in the ninth inning to set the final score. Third baseman Matt Cline (2-for-3) and center fielder Caleb Gindl (2-for-4) also had multiple hits for West Virginia.

 

The teams will continue their series at 7:05 tonight (6:05 Central). The Power (53-46 overall and 21-9 in the second half) will start right-hander Evan Anundsen (9-4, 3.54). The Braves (37-62, 15-15) will throw left-hander Edgar Osuna (4-4, 3.45).

 

West Virginia has lost two in a row and four of its last seven.

 

"I wouldn't even call this a slide," Schafer said. "It's all about winning series. We won the last series. This game was the first game of this series. We can come back and win the next three and we'll be sitting pretty. It's not a big deal."

[battlekow]

Mike Marseco got a mention in BA's Daily Dish. He might be one to keep an eye on, as I've heard he plays great defense.

[battlekow]

Jonathan Lucroy was BA's FSL Prospect of the Day:

It was a slow day in the FSL, but Brevard County (Brewers) catcher Jonathan Lucroy was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, raising his line to .321/.372/.491.