Link Report Sat. 5/27 - Iribarren Allegedly With Corked Bat

[Mass Haas]

http://www.brewerfan.net/images/store/dailylinkreport.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Saturday's Daily Menu:

 

All times Central; pitchers subject to change --

 

Nashville: RHP Jared Fernandez at Iowa (Cubs), 6:40 PM pre-game, 7:00 gametime

 

Audio link:

www.nashvillesounds.com/listenlive/

 

Huntsville: LHP Jeff Housman at home vs. Jacksonville (Dodgers), 1:50 PM pre-game, 2:05 gametime

 

Audio link:

www.espn1450.com/

 

Brevard County: RHP Mark Rogers at home vs. Daytona (Cubs), 6:00 PM

 

Audio link (opponent's):

voiceoftherepublic.com/live.asx

 

West Virginia: RHP Matt Kretzschmar at home vs. Lakewood (Phillies), 5:55 PM pre-game, 6:05 gametime

 

Audio link:

www.sportsjuice.com/provi...e=wvpower.

[Mass Haas]

Follow Saturday's action as it happens:

Here's what you do, right click on each of the links below and choose "Open in New Window". Activate the Nashville Gameday. For the other links, choose "Log". While you're listening to your minor league game of choice (or watching/listening to the big league Crew when they are playing), simply refresh your game log browsers every so often. It's sweet!

 

Nashville:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_iowaaa_1

 

Huntsville:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1

 

Brevard County:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_breafa_1

 

West Virginia:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

[Mass Haas]

This link will be included in each daily report when the Nashville Sounds and/or Huntsville Stars are scheduled to play. Normally it is updated an hour or two prior to gametime:

 

Nashville Media Notes (Adobe .pdf format):

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/pdf/notes.pdf

 

Following Nashville's lead, Huntsville now makes its media notes available as well, nice:

 

www.huntsvillestars.com/i...eNotes.pdf

[Mass Haas]

Standings through Friday's action:

 Pacific Coast League (AAA) - American North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [b]Nashville 27 21 .563 - 16-8 11-13 L1[/b] Iowa 20 26 .435 6.0 10-12 10-14 W1 Omaha 19 28 .404 7.5 12-11 7-17 W1 Memphis 15 31 .326 11.0 11-13 4-18 L1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southern League (AA) - North Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chattanooga 32 17 .653 - 19-6 13-11 L1 West Tenn 28 21 .571 4.0 12-12 16-9 L1 Carolina 24 25 .490 8.0 15-10 9-15 W1 Tennessee 22 27 .449 10.0 13-11 9-16 W1 [b]Huntsville 20 28 .417 11.5 9-14 11-14 L8[/b] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Florida State League (A+) - East Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- St. Lucie 26 21 .553 - 12-13 14-8 W1 Daytona 25 23 .521 1.5 15-10 10-13 W1 [b]Brevard County 24 23 .511 2.0 10-10 14-13 L3[/b] Palm Beach 23 24 .489 3.0 10-12 13-12 L1 Jupiter 20 27 .426 6.0 10-15 10-12 W2 Vero Beach 19 29 .396 7.5 11-14 8-15 W2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- South Atlantic League (A) - Northern Division Standings ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Team W L PCT GB HOME ROAD STREAK ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delmarva 29 17 .630 - 16-9 13-8 W8 Lexington 29 18 .617 0.5 17-8 12-10 W3 Greensboro 26 21 .553 3.5 18-7 8-14 L1 Lakewood 25 22 .532 4.5 14-9 11-13 W3 [b]West Virginia 24 22 .522 5.0 13-10 11-12 L1[/b] Lake County 22 26 .458 8.0 12-13 10-13 L3 Hickory 18 27 .400 10.5 8-11 10-16 L1 Hagerstown 18 29 .383 11.5 9-11 9-18 L4

[Mass Haas]

West Virginia Power notebook

By Mike Whiteford

Charleston Gazette Staff writer

 

Bats heating up

 

Helped by some solid offensive numbers in May, the Power has moved into second place in hitting in the 16-team South Atlantic League.

 

Through Thursday?s games, the Power was hitting .293 in May ? following a .254 mark in April ? and is hitting .273 overall. It trails only Lexington at .281.

 

Last year, the Power batted .251 for the season, and the Alley Cats hit just .256 in 2004, the final season of Watt Powell Park.

 

Appalachian Power Park?s hitter-friendly conditions explain part of the increase, but a better explanation is the team?s current balance. Three hitters, Angel Salome, Lorenzo Cain and Mat Gamel, are hitting over .300, and seven others, Kenny Holmberg, Tony Festa, Darren Ford, Brad Willcutt, Mike Bell, Ryan Crew and Ned Yost, are hitting between .293 and .248.

 

With its fast-rising average of .273, as well as 32 home runs in 45 games, the Power may finish as one of the best-hitting Class A Charleston teams ever.

 

Watt Powell served as the city?s South Atlantic League home from 1987 through 2004 and was famous as a pitcher?s park. And because of its choppy and uneven playing surface, the suspicion arose that major-league organizations were reluctant to assign their best position-player prospects to Charleston. (One exception was Alex Rios, Toronto?s first-round draft pick in 1999, who played for the 2001 Alley Cats and is now hitting .357 with 35 RBIs with the Blue Jays.)

 

Appalachian Power Park has been especially good to the Power. The team is hitting .311 with 20 home runs in 23 home games and only .235 and 12 homers in 22 road games.

 

?Wear and tear?

 

In several places, the grass has thinned out on the Appalachian Power Park playing surface. The bare spots are partly attributable to 59 games, including those played by the University of Charleston and Marshall.

 

But part of the problem, said Milovich, is poor irrigation and sod trouble, things that can be corrected.

 

?It?s showing a lot of wear and tear,?? the general manager admitted. ?We?ve had some issues with irrigation. We?re trying to adjust some irrigation heads because we?re not getting adequate field coverage with the water. And there were some areas that we resodded late last year, and they didn?t take as well as they should have. So we?ve resodded those areas. I think the number of games is a factor, but there are other factors.??

 

Briefly

 

The Power will open a four-game homestand against Lakewood beginning Saturday night. Sunday?s game will be an afternoon contest, and Monday?s and Tuesday?s games at 7:05 PM (6:05 Central). Starting in June, all Sunday games will begin at 5:05 PM (4:05 Central) to avoid the afternoon heat.

 

Saturday night, the Power is expected to face one of the league?s best pitchers, left-hander Matt Maloney, who ranks third in the SAL with a 2.01 ERA and has allowed just 35 hits in 53 2/3 innings. He?s also struck out 67. The Power is also scheduled to face BlueClaw right-hander Carlos Carasco, who has similar numbers ? 2.05 ERA, 40 hits in 57 innings and 64 strikeouts. ...

 

Despite more rain than last year, Power attendance average is slightly ahead of last year?s. Through 23 home games, the team is averaging 3,574 to rank seventh in the league, after averaging 3,532 last year. This year?s number is encouraging, considering the weather, said Milovich. ?Seventeen of our 23 games have been weather affected, and I think we?ve had three rainouts,?? he said. ?Whereas last year, I think we had only one rainout and four or five games with poor weather. We?re about even with what we were last year. I think we?d be well ahead of last year if the weather had been better.??

[Mass Haas]

Final: Jacksonville (Dodgers) 1, Huntsville 0

 

Huntsville Site Game Summary:

Link, text follows --

 

www.huntsvillestars.com/n...newsId=852

 

Stars Shut Down in Loss to Suns

 

Spike Lundberg, Casey Hoorelbeke and Mark Alexander combined on a three-hit shutout to pitch Jacksonville past Huntsville 1-0 Saturday afternoon to complete a five-game series sweep at Joe Davis Stadium. The Suns won their sixth in a row to improve to 31-19 and maintained their lead in the Southern League South Division over Montgomery, which plays later tonight at Mobile, while the Stars suffered a franchise-record tying ninth straight defeat and fell to 20-29 on the season. Huntsville has lost its last eight games at home and has been limited to 14 runs in those defeats, including two shutouts.

 

Tony Abreu singled to left field to open the second inning, stole second base and scored on a one-out single by catcher A.J. Ellis. Stars? starter Jeff Housman allowed only four other runners to reach second base and one runner to advance as far as third base, Lundberg in the seventh inning, over the rest of his outing. The Stars? southpaw went seven innings for a second time this season, allowing seven hits, walking a pair and fanning five. He suffered the hard-luck loss to fall to 1-2.

 

Lundberg allowed a leadoff single to Steve Moss in the first inning and then retired 14 of the next 15 before Guilder Rodriguez led off the sixth inning with a single. Housman dropped down a bunt that Lundberg fielded and threw to second base to try to cut down Rodgriguez but the throw pulled shortstop Chin-Lung Hu off the bag, putting runners at first and second base and nobody out. Moss advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt and Drew Anderson was walked intentionally to load the bases. Ron Acuna struck out for the second out, and for the second time in the series with the sacks full, and Adam Heether grounded out to end the threat.

 

Lundberg matched his season-high with seven innings of shutout work during which he allowed three singles, walked two and fanned three. Casey Hoorelbeke issued back-to-back two-out walks to Moss and Anderson in the eighth but Acuna went down swinging. Alexander retired the side in order to record his third save of the series and tenth of the year. Jacksonville registered a save in all five games in the set and became the first team to sweep a five-game series in the new Southern League schedule format.

 

The Stars also lost nine games in a row in 1988, 1995 and 1996 and are one game shy of matching the franchise record for most consecutive home losses, established in 1988. The Stars were shutout for the seventh time this season and for the sixth time at home.

 

The Stars begin a five-game series with West Tenn on Sunday evening, as right-hander Corey Thurman gets the starting assignment against Diamond Jaxx southpaw J.R. Mathes. Coverage of the game begins at 5:50 p.m. central time and can be heard locally on ESPN Radio 1450 AM and via the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com.

 

Huntsville Box Score:

Apparently there is no depth this "offense" can reach -- you know these guys must be pressing big time, especially with runners in scoring position...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1

 

Huntsville Game Log:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1

[molitor fan]

Anyone else amused that the Jacksonville SS is named Hu?

 

Abbott and Costello would have loved that name....but he should be a first baseman...

[PeaveyFury]

If you're a Mark Rogers fan, you probably don't want to look at the Brevard County box score tonight....

[SheetsCyYoung04]

If you're a Mark Rogers fan, you probably don't want to look at the Brevard County box score tonight....

 

All I see is 3.1 IP 4 Ks. And that is impressive. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Mass Haas]

Final: Brevard County 10, Daytona (Cubs) 9, 12 innings

'Tees overcome an 8-1 5th-inning deficit; rarely-used pinch-hitter Carlos de la Cruz wins it with a walk-off one-out single...

 

Brevard County Box Score:

Ten Manatee base hits from the 5-through-9 spots in the order -- Ryan Braun and Freddy Parejo each reaches base four times; 8 2/3 innings of one-run relief pick up an ineffective Mark Rogers; the Hurricane ejected by the home plate umpire in the 7th...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_breafa_1

 

Brevard County Game Log:

There's a lot to digest here, but you can do it...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_breafa_1

[Mass Haas]

Final: Iowa (Cubs) 3, Nashville 2

 

Nashville Site Game Summary:

Link for Vinny Rottino photo, text follows --

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/n...ewsId=1972

 

Cubs Homer Their Way Past Sounds, 3-2

 

DES MOINES ? Iowa outfielder Michael Restovich belted a pair of homers to lead the Cubs to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Sounds on Saturday evening at Principal Park.

 

Nashville (27-22) left 11 men on base in the contest in taking its second straight loss. The Sounds fell to 1-9 in one-run decisions on the road.

 

Sounds starter Justin Lehr put the visitors on the board in the top of the second, helping his own cause with an RBI double that scored Chris Barnwell for a 1-0 lead.

 

Iowa struck right back in the bottom of the frame as Restovich and Micah Hoffpauir belted back-to-back solo homers, their fifth and fourth longballs of the year respectively.

 

Restovich, who finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored, upped the Cubs? lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth when he slugged his second homer of the evening, a leadoff solo shot off Lehr.

 

Nashville pulled within a run in the fifth when third baseman Vinny Rottino, who paced the club with a 2-for-4 night, ripped a one-out solo homer to left off Iowa starter Les Walrond.

 

AUDIO: Vinny Rottino Solo HR --

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/a...205-27.wma

 

Walrond (5-1) picked up the victory after holding the Sounds to two runs on five hits over five innings. He struck out nine and walked six batters during his outing. Kerry Ligtenberg worked a scoreless ninth inning to notch his first save of the year.

 

Lehr (0-1) took a loss in his first Triple-A outing of the season after giving up three runs, all on homers, in his five frames.

 

Jermaine Clark picked up his Pacific Coast League-leading 16th stolen base for Nashville in the loss.

 

The teams meet again for a 1:05 p.m. matinee on Sunday afternoon. Nashville sends knuckleballer Jared Fernandez (1-1, 2.03) to the hill to face an undetermined Iowa starter.

 

Nashville Box Score:

Dave Krynzel on base all five plate appearances -- nice, but Brent Abernathy and Nelson Cruz never picked him up; Mark Johnson is no Mike Rivera...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_iowaaa_1

 

Nashville Game Log:

Check out the top of the first -- yikes! Tough luck double-play lineout for Tony Gwynn in the 8th...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_iowaaa_1

[BillScottCanRake]

Reporting from Des Moines...

 

We sat next to the Sounds bullpen down the RF line. We spent a lot of the night chatting with Alec Zumwalt and had a blast.

 

Nice night for Dave Krynzel- he was very patient and worked the count well. His double was hit well to left-center, and his single in the ninth was about 5 feet from being a game tying homer. It was hit so hard that Krynzel had no chance for anything but a single. He also had a stolen base and a nice running catch in CF. He looks like he is playing a little deeper in CF than I remember him playing in Huntsville.

 

Nelson Cruz had a tougher night. Last night he hit everything hard, but tonight it was a struggle for him to make contact. But he's got a cannon for an arm, and he looks like he has wayyyy to much fun out there (turning summersaults while shagging balls during BP, getting into a catchers stance while warming up defensively). Between his tools and his demenor, he might be my favorite offensive prospect in the ogranization.

 

With regard to pitching and defense... Justin Lehr did alright. He was working in the high 80s most of the night, touching 90 on occasion. The stadium gun might be slow, tho, as I never saw Sarfate hit more than 94 last night. The three homeruns he gave up were no-doubters. Mike Meyers and Alan Simpson booth looked sharp and kept the Sounds in the game in spite of the rather sporadic offense.

 

The defense was pretty solid, other than Jermaine Clark three-hoping a throw to Abernathy to record a 4-4-4-3 ground out. I think the guys in the bullpen were as disapointed as we were that they didn't show the replay, because we have no idea why the throw was soooo bad.

 

Jeanette also managed to snare a liner (I think off the bat of Rivera) during BP. It was an impressive enough catch that both Alec Zumwalt and Dennis Sarfate commented on it.

 

One more game tomorrow, with Fernandez going for the Sounds. Hopefully they can take one game while we are in town.

[hsvstarsfan]

STARS TIE FRANCHISE RECORD

OK, I know it's a Memorial Day weekend, but with Saturday being one of the "prime real estate" days of the week, especially in this town at this ballpark, wouldn't it make more sense to schedule Saturday games at night? Just a thought, but I'm told the reason was that Jacksonville has a bus trip to make to Montgomery -- about 4-5 hours.

The Stars giveaway posters were more of the promotional type, and didn't identify any of the players on it, and I thought it was more generic than anything. But I'm sure that among the 1,200+ at the park, there was a Little League team, who I'm sure enjoyed themselves and the posters....... Anyone else there had to be laughing to keep from crying....... The bad luck even extended to a member of the office staff when a fan was picked out to answer the day's trivia question between one of the late innings (which had to do with car care and not baseball) and the mike's battery failed........ In direct contrast to Friday's game, the crowd was unresponsive, except to make one or two loud sarcastic comments from the upper deck about manager Don Money and hitting coach Sandy Guerrero ("What we need is a new manager -- and a new hitting coach" and "You stink!")....... This losing streak, tying a franchise record that was set in 1987 and matched in 1995 and 1996, is affecting the fans, who are either staying away, leaving early, or too disgusted to pop off, the writers and broadcasters, who struggle to find anything positive to relate, the staff, whose creative energies look tired, and the manager, the players, everyone....... When Jeff Eure whiffed to end the game, more out of frustration than actually trying to make contact, he kicked a helmet into the crowd, then slammed his bat on the floor of the dugout, nearly breaking it in two, all the while swearing like a longshoreman.

The numbers: The Stars have lost 9 straight and 15 of 18 games since May 8. Click on the standings link for a breakdown. They are simply too dismal to be enumerated again here.......

www.starsboxscore.com/standing.htm

Only Drew Anderson, who went 0-for-2 today, has hit consistenly well, but he's driven in only 3 runs since the 3-15 streak started........ Steve Moss has hit .320 with 3 doubles and 6 walks, including a pair of walks today, and Lou Palmisano is hitting .283 for May, but the rest of the team has been cold...... After a 6-game hit streak, Ron Acuna is 3-for-21....... So is J.C. Boscan for the month of May....... Ozzie Chavez went 1-for-15 in this homestand vs. Jacksonville....... After hitting .284 in April, Callix Crabbe is hitting .138........Jeff Eure is hitting .193 this month. He hit .206 in April........ Adam Heether has looked real good in the field, but is hitting only .211 in May with just 4 extra-base hits, 3 of them doubles....... Greg Sain has struck out 28 times in 56 at-bats. That's 50%.

The Stars left "only" 6 on base, but four were left in scoring position with 2 out. Adam Heether, who has left a team-leading 26 runners in scoring position with two out, was responsible for two of them in the 6th inning. Guilder Rodriguez lined a single to center to lead off the inning, followed by a throwing error by starter Spike Lundberg to put Jeff Housman on. Steve Moss moved them over on a neatly executed 5-4 sacrifice, and then after a ball to Drew Anderson, the intentional walk was called........ Whether this was planned or not, I don't know, but before the 3rd pitch to Anderson, Lundberg wheeled around and almost caught Housman. Lundberg finished the intentional walk....... But with one out, Acuna struck out on a 90 mph fastball and Heether grounded out on an easy play to 2nd baseman Tony Abreu...... Two innings later, after 2-out walks to Moss and Anderson, Acuna struck out for the 3rd time in the game after fouling off three pitches, each on higher up on the screen behind home plate than before......... The Suns scored their only run in the 2nd inning on a single to left by A.J. Ellis after Abreu's leadoff single and stolen base on Anthony Raglani's strikeout...... After that, Housman scatterred three hits and a pair of walks before Gerrit Simpson retired the side in the 8th and finished the game on one hit....... The Stars scored just one run in four games of this 9-game losing streak, never more than 4 runs in any game, and 18 runs, an average of 2 per game....... Mark Alexander picked up three saves in this series for Jacksonville.

The Suns outperformed the Stars, .290 - .213 and outscored them, 25-11. They were the first team in the Southern League this year to sweep all five games of a series....... The Stars will play them again --- at Jacksonville on the next road trip, June 7-11......... Matt Kemp, who was slated to start this game at center field, was an early scratch and replaced by Wilkin Ruan. Kemp was told to get a ticket to Washington, where he was to join the Dodgers. Kemp did not play in Saturday's 3-1 victory over the Nationals.

While Jacksonville is in Montgomery for a crucial series (check out the standings), the Diamond Jaxx come in Sunday at 6 pm....... The Diamond Jaxx have three of the four ERA leaders in the league. Tomorrow's starter, J.R. Mathes, is not one of them, but he did hold the Mudcats to just one hit over six innings in his last start, which was Tuesday. If the Stars don't get to him early, they may not get to him at all. From the 3rd to the 5th inning, he's held batters to a .167 average...... Corey Thurman, who last pitched for the Stars on May 9, has had two runs or less of run support in 6 of his 7 starts.

Tampa Bay 2nd baseman Jorge Cantu is expected to start a rehab assignment with the Montgomery Biscuits on Monday. Cantu played for the old Orlando Rays from 2001-03.

Mark Rogers, the Brewers' #1 draft pick two years ago, is 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA in 10 appearances for Brevard County (Fla. St.), the next step down on the Brewers' chain. Tonight against Daytona, he gave up 8 runs (6 earned) on 8 hits and a pair of walks in 3 1/3 innings, but Brevard won in the 10th on a game-winning single by Carlos de la Cruz........ Nashville lost to Iowa in Des Moines, 3-2 and West Virginia lost to Lakewood in a Sally League game, 7-4, so everyone in the Brewers' food chain lost today, except the big club itself and the Manatees. The Brewers beat the Phillies, 9-6 with former Stars shortstop Bill Hall driving in 4 runs.

Saul Rivera made his major league debut, Friday night for the Washington Nationals. Rivera becomes the 158th former Huntsville Star to make it to the majors....... He was 2-1 with a fine 1.62 ERA for the Stars in 26 games in 2004 after being acquired on June 19th in a trade that sent Jason Childers and Jason Belcher to the Expos.

[Mass Haas]

Final: Lakewood (Phillies) 7, West Virginia 4

 

West Virginia Site Game Summary:

 

Blueclaws use four-run third to beat Power

 

The Lakewood BlueClaws scored all four of their runs in the third inning of Saturday night?s game against the Power with two outs, and eventually took a 5-0 lead en route to a 7-4 victory at Appalachian Power Park.

 

Greg Golson doubled into center field with two outs in the fourth, Darren Ford bobbled the ball in center allowing Fidel Hernandez to score the first run of the inning. Sean Gamble followed with a two-run homer and Avelino Aprilla followed with his first homer of the season to complete the four-run frame. Hernandez drove in the fifth run of the game on a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth inning.

 

Angel Salome ripped a solo shot to begin the fourth inning, his sixth of the year to put the Power on the board. Mat Gamel scored later in the fourth on Matt Maloney?s throwing error. In the fifth John Urick drove in a run on an RBI double to give Lakewood a 6-2 lead.

 

Doug Morales drove in John Urick on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh inning to give Lakewood a 7-2 lead. Michael Brantley singled into left field scoring Ned Yost to bring the Power within four and Yost contributed in the bottom of the eighth inning on an RBI single to bring the Power within three.

 

Maloney (5-4) earned the win, Brett Harker earned the save (6) and Matt Kretzschmar (0-2) obtained the loss. The Power are 24-23 after the loss and the BlueClaws improved to 26-22 with the win.

 

The Power will continue the four game series against Lakewood Sunday afternoon. Lakewood will start right hander Carlos Carrasco (3-3, 2.05) and the Power will counter with left hander Steve Garrison (0-0, 0.00). The first pitch is scheduled for 2:05 PM (1:05 Central).

 

West Virginia Box Score:

Young Michael Brantley settling in; the outfielders are making their share of Power errors as well...

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

 

West Virginia Game Log:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.wvgazette.com/section...2006052736

 

Power tumbles to BlueClaws, 7-4

By Tommy R. Atkinson

Charleston Gazette Staff writer

 

West Virginia?s Michael Brantley broke out of his slump in a big way Saturday night while the Power continued its slide.

 

Brantley went 3-for-4 and drove in a run but the Power fell behind early and couldn?t recover in a 7-4 loss to the Lakewood (N.J.) BlueClaws in a South Atlantic League Northern Division matchup. A paid crowd of 4,314 attended at Appalachian Power Park.

 

Brantley, a 19-year-old left fielder, entered Saturday?s play with one hit in his last 11 at-bats for a .091 batting average. He quickly got on track against Lakewood, laying down a near-perfect bunt in the third inning that the third baseman let roll down the line all the way to the bag for a single. Brantley then followed that up with another infield single in the fifth on a shot deep in the hole near second base.

 

Brantley came through in the seventh with a run-scoring single to left field that helped the Power slice its deficit to 7-3. The only time Lakewood retired him was in the ninth on a hard shot that almost went over the center fielder?s head.

 

?I?m just trying to battle and work hard,?? said Brantley, who is only a few weeks removed from the disabled list for inflammation in his right throwing shoulder.

 

?He?s improving in all the areas,?? said Power manager Mike Guerrero. ?I think he?s going to be a pretty good hitter. The ball he hit to center field in the last inning was a really nice swing.??

 

Brantley, a seventh-round selection by the Milwaukee Brewers in last June?s amateur draft out of Fort Pierce (Fla.) High School, has a luxury most minor leaguers would cherish. Brantley?s father Mitch played in the major leagues for five years and is currently a hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.

 

?I talk to him every night over the phone,?? said Michael Brantley. ?[He just tells me] to break down my swing and see what I need to change. It?s a big lift to have.??

 

Lakewood plated four runs in the third to grab a 4-0 lead it never relinquished.

 

The BlueClaws scored their first run on the first of three Power errors before Sean Gamble smacked a two-out two-run home run on the first pitch down the right field line for a 3-0 advantage.

 

After Power pitching coach John Curtis conferred with starter Matt Kretzschmar (0-2), Avelino Asprilla followed with a solo shot on the first offering he saw, depositing the pitch between the U.S. and West Virginia state flags in left for a 4-0 edge.

 

Lakewood built the lead to 5-0 in the fourth before West Virginia put two runs on the board in the bottom half on Angel Salome?s leadoff solo homer to left that hit off the taller Kyle Furniture building and another came home on an error. The Power scored twice more, but also surrendered a pair to offset any gains.

 

?We keep battling,?? Guerrero said. ?That?s the good thing about this team ? don?t count us out.??

 

Power points

 

Salome, who is hitting .342 in his last 10 games, finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI . . . Will Inman, a right-handed starter who was the Milwaukee Brewers? third-round selection in last June?s amateur draft, was placed on the disabled list prior to Saturday night?s game against Lakewood. Left-hander Steve Garrison will take Inman?s spot on the roster. Inman, who owned a 3-1 record with a 1.80 earned run average, was placed on the DL because of soreness in his pitching shoulder . . . West Virginia will play host to Lakewood today in the second game of the four-game series.

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County Site Game Summary:

 

Manatees outlast Cubs

 

Carlos De La Cruz's RBI single in the 12th inning lifted Brevard County over visiting Daytona, 10-9, on Saturday.

 

De La Cruz was pinch-hitting for shortstop Scott McKnight, who had replaced Steven Sollmann in the seventh. Sollmann took over at second base for Hernan Iribarren, who was ejected in the sixth for allegedly using a corked bat.

 

The Manatees (25-23) battled back from a 9-3 deficit, plating the tying run in the eighth when reliever Jon Hunton hit Ryan Bruan with a pitch with the bases loaded.

 

Carlos Corporan and C.J. Medlin (pictured below)both had two hits and combined for five RBIs for the Manatees. Freddy Parejo drove in two runs and collected three of Brevard County's 13 hits.

 

Sam Fuld, Jemel Spearman, Jeff Culpepper, Daniel Gonzalez and Olin Wick each plated a run for the Cubs (25-24). Jake Fox, who slugged a leadoff homer in the third, and Matt Craig recorded two RBIs apiece.

 

Reliever Dave Johnson (5-3) allowed one hit and a walk with two strikeouts over two frames for the win.

 

Reliever Jerry Blevins (0-1) retired just one of the four batters he faced and was saddled with the loss. -- Marissa Rega/MLB.com

 

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2006/05/27/CUNWHlJA.jpg

 

***

Manatees Cruz to 12th Inning Victory

by Jenny Rennie

 

In front of 3,513 fans at Space Coast Stadium, the Brevard County Manatees battled back to pull out a 10-9 victory over the Daytona Cubs. Five Manatees pitchers and six Daytona Cubs tossed twelve innings. At the end of the fourth inning, the Manatees were down 7-1 before striking back with two runs in the fifth, a three-run sixth inning and added two in the seventh before tying the score in the eighth inning. After three scoreless innings from both teams, pinch hitter Carlos De La Cruz hit a shot to right field to score the winning run for the Manatees.

 

Freddy Parejo went 3-4 on the night with two RBI and C.J. Medlin knocked in three runs with a double to left field. Six Manatees had multiple hits for the night. On the mound, Bo Hall threw 4.2 innings of relief allowing only two hits and one run. The Manatees pitchers combined for ten strikeouts while the Cubs staff rang up twelve. Dave Johnson (5-3) earned the win for Brevard County while Jerry Blevins (0-1) gave up the loss for Daytona.

 

The Manatees continue their series against the Cubs with a 4:00 PM matinee (3:00 Central) on Sunday afternoon.

[Mass Haas]

Will Inman's shoulder hurts, the Hurricane (allegedly) corks his bat, the Stars are playing like anything but Stars at a franchise-record pace for futility -- what the heck is going on around here?

 

Sheesh...

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.al.com/sports/huntsvi...amp;coll=1

 

Stymied Stars still hoping someone will save them

Suns complete sweep at Joe Davis with 1-0 win

By MARK McCARTER

Huntsville Times Sports Staff

markcolumn@aol.com

 

Fifteen minutes after the Stars' record-tying ninth-straight loss, Don Money's cell phone bleated in the adjacent room, with "The 1812 Overture" as its ring tone. It's music more closely associated with a certain silver-bullet-leaving, black-mask-wearing Western hero.

 

"We need the Lone Ranger,'' pitching coach Rich Sauveur proclaimed, handing Money the phone.

 

Not a bad idea, since for the fifth consecutive day the Huntsville Stars were unable to head the Jacksonville Suns off at the pass. This time, on a searing Saturday afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 1,285, Jacksonville notched a 1-0 victory. It was the seventh time Huntsville has been shut out in 49 games.

 

The Stars bid farewell to Jacksonville and now bring in West Tenn, the Cubs' Double-A farm, against whom they are 2-3 this year. Game time today is 6:05.

 

The loss marked the first series sweep in the Southern League since its five-game series system was established this season. It also matched droughts that previous Huntsville teams had endured in 1987, 1995 and 1996.

 

"We're finding new ways to lose every day,'' bemoaned Money, the Stars' manager.

 

This time, they lost because they had only three hits and because the Suns pushed across a run in the second when Tony Abreu singled, stole second and then scored on A.J. Ellis' single. When left fielder Drew Anderson bobbled the hit, it erased any potential bang-bang play at the plate.

 

Spike Lundberg pitched seven innings of three-hit ball for the Suns, then relievers Casey Hoorelbeke and Mark Alexander sewed up the shutout. Huntsville scored just 11 runs in the series, and Jacksonville pitching deserves much credit. Still, said Money, "we're making all of them look like Cy Young.''

 

Feeling somewhat like a lone stranger was Huntsville starter Jeff Housman, who, Money said, "pitched well enough to win" but got no offensive support. Making his second start since a three-week disabled list stint, he scattered seven hits in seven innings, striking out five.

 

Both Money and Sauveur believed Housman wasn't as sharp as normal, a diagnosis with which the pitcher agreed.

 

Housman praised catching kemosabe Lou Palmisano for his pitch selection, saying, "Lou got me through the day. I didn't have very good stuff. I had decent command but I didn't have a very good fastball or a very good slider. Lou mixed it up good back there.''

 

Both Sauveur and Housman were asked about any extra pressure on the starting pitchers, knowing they have little room for error with a struggling offense behind them.

 

"They can't go out there with that mind-set,'' Sauveur said. "They've got to pitch their own game.''

 

For his part, Housman even tried a bit of a pep talk to his teammates on Friday.

 

"I told the guys it doesn't matter if we lose nine in a row. Years from now you're not going to remember that. Go out there and have fun, and see what happens.''

 

Not exactly like leaving a silver bullet behind, but maybe the message will take hold.

[PeaveyFury]

Bad, bad stuff about the Hurricaine... hopefully the rumor gets squashed, but I doubt that very much.

[Team Canada]

Sigh. That's just stupid.

[WestCoastBrewer]

We have to ask where is our player development taking this organization no help for Huntsville? All our levels have the capacity to help up above. No moves, this is a joke!

[TheCrew07]

What's best for a certain players and what's best for the Stars, do not this year, seem to be on the same path. I see no reason to move up people up to bolster the Stars. The minor leagues are about developing players, and while I feel for our friends in Huntsville watching these games, it's time for certain players on the Stars roster to setup and prove they belong.

[DHonks]

maybe he just needs a boost until June 1st....by the way, a Tropical storm in the Eastern Pacific...maybe that's just what he needs to hear

[PeaveyFury]

Just remember that Huntsville has the nice ability to hit the reset button mid-season and try this whole thing over again.