Link Report for Friday 4/6 -- Walk-Offs for Manatees, Sounds

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.wvgazette.com/section...2007040645

 

Snowed out

Power game suspended, reset as part of twin bill

By Tommy R. Atkinson

Charleston Gazette Staff Writer

 

Surprisingly, West Virginia Power second baseman Kenny Holmberg has seen snowier days and colder temperatures than the wintry conditions that forced the suspension of Friday night?s game against the Lake County (Ohio) Captains.

 

Holmberg, a Dunedin, Fla., native in his second year with the Power, made several trips to Auburn, N.Y., located just outside Syracuse, this past winter. Holmberg?s father, Dennis, is the manager of Auburn, a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate in the Class A short-season New York-Penn League. Dennis Holmberg has led the Doubledays to five straight division titles.

 

?I?ve seen it before,?? said Kenny Holmberg of the white stuff. ?I actually spent this Christmas in upstate New York and they had about 7 feet.

 

?It was 7 degrees [and] it was just bad. Just to tag along with my dad, it was a good experience but I couldn?t wait to get out of there; it was so cold. I didn?t see the sun the whole time I was in Auburn.??

 

Holmberg staked the Power to a 1-0 lead Friday in the first inning with a solo home run, but the snow wouldn?t abate and the game was halted in the bottom of the third after Power third baseman Taylor Green led off with a triple.

 

West Virginia and Lake County will complete Friday?s suspended nine-inning game beginning at 4:05 PM today (3:05 Central) with Green on third and none out. The two teams will then play a seven-inning contest approximately 30 minutes after the completion of the first game at Appalachian Power Park.

 

Green lofted a fly ball to center field that would have been an easy out under most weather conditions, but Lake County?s Ramon Hernandez couldn?t find the white ball in a swirling snowstorm that intensified as the game wore on. The ball dropped about 10 feet to Hernandez?s right, allowing Green to take third.

 

The umpires finally pulled the players off the field and waited 44 minutes before suspending the game. By that time the infield and outfield grass was covered with snow. As if right on cue, the snow began on the first pitch from Power starter Mike McClendon as a crowd of about 500 attended in 34-degree weather.

 

It was a shame the weather didn?t hold off because the Power was off to a good start in their second game of the season. West Virginia edged Lake County 4-3 in Thursday?s season opener.

 

Holmberg?s blast Friday was off the advertisements on the right side of the scoreboard in center field and McClendon, who resides in Orlando, Fla., didn?t seem fazed by the cold, striking out five of the 11 batters he faced and allowing only two hits.

 

?It?s the first time I ever played in snow,?? Holmberg said. ?It was definitely an experience. It was cold. I?m sure it affected everybody. Mentally you?ve just got to prepare yourself to go play. The first inning when it was coming down I couldn?t even see. The wind was blowing to right-center a little bit and the snow was just crushing me in the face.

 

?It was tough to see the ball off the bat even if it was in the strike zone. It was just tough to get a read on the ball. Then in the third inning when that base hit dropped in for them [a short pop up behind second base that turned into a double], I looked up and I saw it and I looked down and just lost it. I can?t wait to get back in the heat.??

 

Holmberg was so concerned about losing his first homer of the season that he went to the umpires? locker room to make sure the game would be made up so the statistics from Friday?s game would count.

 

?I wanted to make sure the game got suspended,?? he said. ?It was a good way to get that first one out of the way and have it count for real. If it would have gotten taken back it would have been kind of upsetting.??

 

Holmberg said it was nice to also see that Green?s first hit in a Power uniform would also go down in the books.

 

?You take them as they come,?? Holmberg said of his teammates? triple. ?A lot of guys their first year here they want to get that first one out of the way so they can kind of relax. I?m happy for him.

 

?When they get their first hit out of the way they can settle in a little bit. Some of these guys are in awe a little bit. Once they get a few knocks out of the way and they settle down, this team is going to be fun to watch.??

 

Charleston Gazette Photographer: Chip Ellis

 

http://www.wvgazettemail.com/images/stories/Power2.jpg

[Mass Haas]

Here''s a Link Report bonus this morning -- a video news report on the weather conditions and some hardy fans:

 

wowktv.com/story.cfm?func...ryid=22337

 

Seem like awfully friendly folk there in Charleston, as we've often read...

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

www.minorleaguebaseball.c.../audio.jsp

 

Stars far from hot on frigid evening

Guerrero fills in for Money as Braves claim 5-2 victory

By SKIP VAUGHN

For The Huntsville Times, skipv@htimes.com

 

Huntsville Stars hitting coach Sandy Guerrero had an additional role to play in Friday night's game against the Mississippi Braves.

 

Guerrero was the acting manager - on his 41st birthday - because Don Money went home to New Jersey on Friday morning for personal reasons. Guerrero doesn't know when the regular manager will return. "It all depends," he said.

 

In his five years with the Stars, Guerrero has served as manager four or five times, usually for 3-5 days.

 

"Hopefully Don will be here within that time period," he said. "If not we'll just try to take care of business like he was here."

 

Guerrero, who resides in Huntsville in the offseason, assessed the strengths of this year's team.

 

"Pitching definitely, pitching and defense (are the strengths)," he said. "Hitting-wise, we're still good. But I think that the pitching and defense are above our hitting."

 

On a brisk night at Joe Davis Stadium, the Stars lost 5-2 to Mississippi before an announced crowd of 1,596. It even snowed in the bottom of the seventh. The Stars fell to 1-1 in the season opening series which continues today at 2:05 p.m. Steve Hammond (0-1) took the loss.

 

"They were luckier than us," Guerrero said. "Our pitching did well. Defensively we made one error that cost us a run. Very rough weather. I thought their pitcher did very well, too. They were moving the ball around the plate. Hitting, we got six hits. You can't really expect to win on six hits and two runs."

 

Lou Palmisano went one-for-one, scored a run and walked three times for the Stars.

 

"I think we played a pretty good game," the catcher said. "I think they just got a couple of key hits at the right time and they ended up on top."

 

The Braves (1-1) opened the scoring in the first inning against Hammond (0-1). J.C. Holt hit a leadoff single and scored on Matt Esquivel's two-out hit.

 

Hammond went five innings with four strikeouts, one walk and allowed nine hits and four runs (three earned).

 

"He threw the ball well," Stars pitching coach Rich Sauveur said. "He left a couple of pitches up, they took advantage of it. Tough weather, just cold.

 

"It was tough for both pitchers."

 

Mississippi added an unearned run in the third when Holt singled, advanced to second on a balk, went to third on a flyball and scored on an error by first baseman Steve Sollmann.

 

In the fifth, Jarrod Saltalamacchia's RBI double and Josh Burrus' run-scoring single upped the lead to 4-0.

 

The Stars scored in the bottom of the fifth when Sollmann drew a two-out, bases-loaded walk to chase Braves starter Jo-Jo Reyes.

 

Van Pope upped the Braves lead to 5-1 with his run-scoring single in the seventh.

 

With snow falling, the Stars scored in the seventh on Brendan Katin's RBI sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.

 

Charlie Morton (1-0) earned the win for Mississippi by retiring one batter in relief. Zach Schreiber got the save with a perfect ninth.

[Mass Haas]

David Weiser's

 

www.starsboxscore.com/

 

This cold, frigid air that has hit Huntsville is not all that unusual....... Cold snaps in April are to be expected and it is more unusual to see the kind of consistently warm days to last throughout the month, as it did last year........ But what was most unusual was to see SNOW -- BLOWING SNOW, coming in from the third base side in the bottom of the 7th inning....... Even as late as March, snow is most uncommon here. Needless to say, there was no signs of global warming tonight......... In fact, in the nearly 40 years I have lived here, I have never -- never -- seen snow in April. Temperatures in the upper 20s, yes...... Snow -- no!.

 

Wisely, I had made up my mind long before the game started to watch it from the press box. It's not my favorite place to watch a game. The ballpark atmosphere is lost there to me. I'd much rather experience the game from the seats on a warm day and smell the hot dogs, hear the pounding of leather, and hear the smack of wood as ball and bat collide. But there is no ballpark atmosphere when the wind chill is in the mid-20s.

 

The game time temperature was 44°. Depending on what source you go by, maybe 45°........ By the time the game ended, it had dropped to 37°......... The Friday Fireworks show, traditional on these nights for the past couple of years or so, went on, remarkably......... At 10:09 the ballgame was over....... At 10:10, there was a quick 5....4...3...2...1 introduction from Dave, the P.A. announcer......... There were less than a dozen people in the seats to watch it, and it was quickly over.

 

The bitterly cold weather took a lot of luster from a game that had little in itself tonight.........The hardest hit ball was a drive by Brendan Katin to the center field track in the 7th inning, scoring Hernan Iribarren from 3rd for the Stars' final run as the snow blew across the field....... Braves' left fielder Brandon Jones hit one nearly that far in the 3rd inning, advancing leadoff hitter J.C. Holt to 3rd, setting him up with the Braves' 2nd run of the game when Steve Sollmann failed to hold on to a hard throw from Hammond on a soft grounder near the 3rd base line.

 

The Stars were never in this game...... Steve Hammond was knocked around quite a bit. He retired the side in order in the 2nd, but he started out the game giving up a single to Holt on his second pitch, then walking Brent Lillibridge..... After a fielder's choice and a stolen base by Jones, one of five for Mississippi, Matt Esquivel put the Braves on top, 1-0, with a single hit hard to Adam Heether, who made a fine stop deep near the grass and to the line, but was unable to do anything with the ball........ After four innings, Hammond had thrown 57 pitches, 40 for strikes, but in the 5th, the first four Braves, starting with Lillibridge, reached on hits, including a double by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The fifth hit of the inning, a hard grounder to shallow left, brought home Saltalamacchia, but Lou Palmisano was able to hold onto Ron Davenport's strong throw as Esquivel barreled into him, ending the inning with the Braves ahead, 4-1....... Hammond threw 22 pitches in the 5th, only 11 for strikes.......

 

Joe Thatcher looked real good in his two innings of work. His slider was filthy and his fast ball complemented it well. Jeff Eure made the play of the game in the 6th, racing back into left field from his position over into foul territory, and then reaching over the concrete barrier separating the seats on the 1st base side to make a catch off Lillibridge to end the inning........ Marino Salas also looked good in his Stars debut, striking out four and throwing 23 of his 36 pitches for strikes.

 

There was one scoring change in this game made by official scorer Don Rizzardi after it was over. Thatcher's wild pitch in the 7th inning was taken away. It became a stolen base for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who took second. Palmisano was able to keep Thatcher's 2-2 pitch in front of him, although he had to dig it out of the dirt, too late to nail Salty.

 

As I mentioned Thursday, the unseasonable weather is only going to get more unseasonable........ Saturday's game is a 2 PM start, but the high is expected to reach only 47° --- hardly what I call comfortable. My only hope is that the winds die down, but the forecast just calls for more northwest winds at 10-15 mph........ Mike Jones will get the start, where Maine's Mark Rogers would probably feel more comfortable.

[Mass Haas]

We're loving all these early-season photo galleries -- here's the Sounds game from the Tennessean, including a nice Tim Dillard shot:

 

tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....amp;Ref=PH

[Mass Haas]

Link while active, text follows:

 

tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....328/SPORTS

 

Crabbe's first Sounds hit a winner

By BRYAN MULLEN

Tennessean Staff Writer

 

It was fitting.

 

The Nashville Sounds clawed their way back, then a guy named Crabbe was the hero.

 

Callix Crabbe hit a pinch-hit, walk-off home run in the ninth inning Friday night to give Nashville a dramatic 4-3 win over New Orleans in front of 3,012 at Greer Stadium.

 

It was Crabbe's first Triple-A at-bat. The second baseman hit only five homers last year at Double-A Huntsville.

 

"I was just trying to get on base," Crabbe said. "It was very cool."

 

So were the weather and both teams' offenses.

 

Both starting pitchers breezed through the early innings. But the Sounds got a spark in the eighth when Ryan Braun (2-for-4) drove home Chris Barnwell with a double to center to tie the score at 3-3.

 

The Sounds' Joe Dillon was responsible for the Sounds' early offense. The leftfielder drove in the Sounds first two runs on a double and a single.

 

Sounds starter Tim Dillard was stellar in his Triple-A debut. The right-hander went 6 1/3 innings and allowed only four hits and two earned runs. He needed only 31 pitches through the first three innings.

 

"He threw well, kept the ball down and mixed it up," Sounds Manager Frank Kremblas said. "That's him, a groundball pitcher. He was pretty economical with his pitches, also."

 

The Sounds (1-1) face New Orleans (1-1) tonight at 6 at Greer.

 

***

Link while active, text follows:

 

tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....328/SPORTS

 

Dillard's AAA debut ends in no-decision

By BRYAN MULLEN

Tennessean Staff Writer

 

Most will remember Friday night as the game when Nashville's Callix Crabbe hit a game-winning home run.

 

Tim Dillard will remember it for another reason.

 

The Sounds starting pitcher was superb in his Triple-A debut despite receiving a no-decision. The 23-year-old right-hander allowed only four hits and two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings of the 4-3 win over New Orleans.

 

"He's got a lot of movement on his fastball and it's not soft," Sounds Manager Frank Kremblas. "It has some firmness to it."

 

Dillard is ranked as the Brewers' 15th-best prospect by Baseball America. He played at Double-A Huntsville last year and was named to the Southern League All-Star team. He was also named the Brewers' minor league pitcher of the year in 2005 when he went 12-10 with a 2.48 ERA with Single-A Brevard County.

 

Dickey comes home: Nashville native R.A. Dickey gets the start for the Sounds today. The right-handed pitcher and former Montgomery Bell Academy standout was signed by the Brewers as a minor league free agent in January.

 

Dickey spent the majority of last season with Triple-A Oklahoma (Rangers). The 32-year-old spent his first 10 seasons with the Rangers organization before being signed by the Brewers.

 

Racing at the ballpark: NASCAR driver and White House resident Bobby Hamilton Jr., was scheduled to throw out the first pitch Friday night, but a driver's meeting for today's Pepsi 300 at the Nashville Superspeedway ran long.

 

Busch Series driver Eric McClure participated in the dizzy bat race in the fifth inning.

 

The racing theme was part of the Sounds' NASCAR Night, which also included Hamilton's McDonald's car on display.

 

Quick hits: The Sounds have 11 hits after two games and seven have gone for extra bases. Six have been doubles ... Nashville's Ryan Braun has three hits ? all doubles . . . The Sounds only had one pinch-hit home run last season. Now they have one through two games.

 

What they said: "It was good timing. It was 31 degrees and it was freezing." - Kremblas on Crabbe's home run.

[Bench Coach]

Nice to see Braun doing well. Want more defensive opportunities for him though so we can get a better idea of how he is doing.

[JohnBriggs12]

Is there a more underrated player in the entire organization than Callix Crabbe?

 

He can steal bases, covers a lot of ground defensively, and he walks more than he strikes out.

 

At just 24, I think he has a major league future somewhere at least as a utility guy. I'm guessing his arm is a little weak for short, but still I think he could play there as a backup.

[wibadgers23]

Looks like Inman has picked up where he left off last year. If he continues to pitch well, how long before we see him in Huntsville?

[pogokat]

i would think they'll handle inman in the same way they handled yo last year...half a season in brevard, half a season in huntsville..

[Mass Haas]

Is there a more underrated player in the entire organization than Callix Crabbe?

 

He can steal bases, covers a lot of ground defensively, and he walks more than he strikes out.

 

I honestly can't ever remember Callix Crabbe appearing in a game at any position but second base in 5+ years in the system. Like Hernan Iribarren, that seems to rule out "utility guy", or it may just be an acknowledgement by the Brewers that they haven't considered moving around Crabbe a bit to enhance his value.