Link Report for Games of Monday, April 24th

[Mass Haas]

Nashville Pre-Game Audio Chat with Reliever Mitch Stetter:

 

www.nashvillesounds.com/a...204-24.wma

[Mass Haas]

Nashville Site Update:

 

Sounds-RedHawks Game Suspended Monday

 

OKLAHOMA CITY ? Monday night?s game between the Nashville Sounds and Oklahoma RedHawks was suspended due to rain at the conclusion of the second inning with Oklahoma holding a 1-0 lead.

 

The game will be completed to its nine-inning entirety on July 23 as part of a 6:05 p.m. CT doubleheader between the clubs.

 

Prior to the arrival of the rainstorm, the home team had taken its 1-0 lead when Jason Botts homered off Sounds starter Dana Eveland.

 

Nashville outfielder Tony Gwynn led off the contest with a bunt single that would have extended his hitting streak to 11 games but the statistics will not become official until the game is completed in July.

 

The Sounds and RedHawks will complete the series on Tuesday evening with a 7:05 p.m. finale. Right-hander Dennis Sarfate (1-0, 3.38) will make the start for Nashville. Oklahoma will counter with left-hander John Hudgins (1-0, 5.79).

[Mass Haas]

West Virginia Site Game Summary:

 

NINTH INNING POWER STRUGGLES CONTINUE

For the third time during the West Virginia Power?s six game road trip, they lost a ninth inning lead as they fell to the Lexington Legends by the final score of 4-3 on Monday night at Applebee?s Park.

 

Kenny Holmberg hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning, his third of the season, to give the Power an early 1-0 advantage. Tony Festa ripped an RBI double in the top of the sixth inning to give the Power a 2-0 lead and Angel Salome brought Darren Ford in on an RBI double in the top of the eighth inning to give the Power a 3-0 lead.

 

In the bottom of the eighth the Legends scored twice. Ole Sheldon stepped in with the bases loaded and brought in a run on a fielder?s choice and Eli Iorg did the same thing two batters later to bring the Legends within a run. In the ninth inning Eric King stepped in with runners at the corners and one out. King shot a single into right center field allowing the tying run to score. Lorenzo Cain bobbled the ball in right field allowing just enough time for the winning run to score.

 

Brandon Stricklen (2-0) earned the victory, and Joe Thatcher (0-2) obtained the loss. The Power are 7-10 after the loss and the Legends improved to 12-6 with the win.

 

The Power will begin a three game series against the Greensboro Grasshoppers at Appalachian Power Park on Tuesday night. Left hander Dave Welch (0-1, 1.38) will start for the Power and the Grasshoppers will counter with right hander Dan Barone (2-0, 0.49). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM (6:05 Central).

[Mass Haas]

Lexington finally finds a way

By Mark Maloney

Lexington HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

 

Trailing West Virginia 3-0 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Lexington Legends looked like sure losers last night.

 

The Legends had runners thrown out at the plate in the second and fifth innings.

 

Then, after finally breaking through for two runs in the eighth, a botched base-running play ended the rally. Surely, this game was over.

 

Not so.

 

The Legends came back again in the ninth, taking advantage of two errors, to salvage a 4-3 victory over the Power. The win in the rubber game of a three-game series at Applebee's Park left Lexington with a one-game lead over Lake County in the SAL's Northern Division.

 

"That's why we play nine innings -- you never know what's going to happen," Legends Manager Jack Lind said. "You don't run out of time in baseball. You just run out of outs.

 

"You keep pecking away and getting guys on base, hopefully something good will happen for you."

 

Mike Thompson started the ninth-inning rally with a one-out infield single.

 

He went all the way to third when second baseman Kenny Holmberg booted Wladimir Sutil's grounder.

 

Josh Flores went in to run for Thompson. And with Eric King at the plate, Sutil took off for second.

 

King looped an opposite-field single to right, easily scoring Flores. When right fielder Lorenzo Cain bobbled the pickup of King's ball, Sutil caught sight of third-base coach Lind and kept steaming all the way home.

 

"I never saw that," Sutil said of Cain's error. "I was looking at Jack."

 

King, who had two of the Legends' 13 hits, made a loser of Joe Thatcher (0-2).

 

"The guy came in with a 1-1 count that was a hard slider, and I hit it off my leg," King said. "I was thinking, next pitch he might go back to it again, so I backed off a little bit and really just fought it. It was a good pitch and, fortunately for me, I found the right spot to have it hit."

 

West Virginia ended a road trip having surrendered 12 ninth-inning runs during the six games of the trip.

 

King, Mitch Einertson and J.R. Towles led off the Lexington eighth with singles to load the bases.

 

Fielder's-choice grounders by Ole Sheldon and Eli Iorg each scored a run.

 

The rally ended when Iorg, on first, began a half-speed move toward second base, thinking Ryan Reed was called out on a checked swing. Reed did check his swing, but Iorg was in no-man's land by the time he realized, and was easily thrown out at second base.

 

Raymar Diaz, getting a spot start in place of sore-elbowed Doug Arguello, worked five solid innings. He gave up one run, on Kenny Holmberg's second-inning homer.

 

Garrett Murdy gave up RBI hits to Tony Festa in the sixth and Angel Salome in the eighth.

 

Brandon Stricklen (2-0) got the win by tossing a perfect ninth inning.

 

Lexington's Ryan Reed took second base when the Power?s Kenny Holmberg threw to home to retire Mark Ori in the second inning last night. Holmberg?s night was mixed: He homered In the second, but booted a grounder in the ninth.

 

The Big Bangs

 

A pair of early-inning home-plate collisions failed to knock the ball away from 6-foot-1, 220-pound Power catcher Brad Willcutt. In the second, when Ryan Reed of the Legends got hung up between first and second, Mark Ori tried to score from third. Shortstop Ryan Crew pegged the ball to Wilcutt, who withstood Ori's barrel-hard tactics. In the fifth, Mike Thompson tried to score from third on Eric King's fly ball, but left fielder Michael Brantley fired a strike to Wilcutt for a double play.

 

http://www.kentucky.com/images/kentucky/kentucky/14420/207944849120.jpg

 

Another Holmberg photo? Lexington captions not very clear...

 

http://www.kentucky.com/images/kentucky/kentucky/14420/207944863540.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Brevard County Site Game Notes:

 

Mets edge out Manatees

 

Mike Pelfrey struck out a season-high eight batters in six strong innings as visiting St. Lucie edged Brevard County, 5-4, on Monday.

 

Pelfrey (2-1) allowed two runs on six hits and one walk. The right-hander kept the Manatees scoreless until the fifth inning when Carlos De La Cruz singled in Hasan Rasheed.

 

Starter Yovani Gallardo (1-2) recorded double-digit strikeouts for the second straight start. The right-hander struck out 10 and was charged with four runs -- one earned -- on five hits and one walk in five innings for the Manatees (13-5).

 

Shawn Bowman's RBI single in the fifth gave St. Lucie (11-6) a 4-0 lead. Yasmil Bucce and Jonathan Malo both had RBI singles in the second.

 

Brevard County trailed 5-2 in the ninth, but rallied for two runs on pinch-hitter Steve Sollmann's two-out double off Mets reliever Rafael Cova. But Carlos Muniz came in and retired Travis Ezi on a flyout to right field to secure his fifth save.

 

The teams conclude the three-game series at 7:00 PM (6:00 PM Central) on Tuesday. -- Eric Justic/MLB.com