Daily Recap: 7/11

OF Matt LaPorta hit his first home run on Friday night as a member of the Cleveland Indians organization. A clutch one at that.....two outs in the 9th and down a run with a runner on third, and he blasted a home run way out to left.

Catcher Matt McBride made his way behind the plate for the first time today in GCL action. He caught five innings and then was relieved. He is very close to being moved to Lake County or Kinston. INF Jason Smit also played in the field today in the GCL at 2B.

Akron RHP T.J. Burton was selected on Friday to represent Canada in the Olympic Games August 8th-24th in Beijing. The Ottawa, ON native is 1-2 with Akron this season with a 4.28 ERA in 26 appearances. The 25-year-old did not allow an earned run in two innings in Olympic qualifiers in March. OF Nick Weglarz will also play for Team Canada.

LaPorta Delivers with Glove, Bat in 3-2 Win

READING, PA – Matt LaPorta socked a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth and drove in all three runs as Akron earned a 3-2 comeback win over Reading before 7,681 fans at FirstEnegery Stadium Friday night. The Aeros improved to 59-34 (a season-best 25 games over .500) while Reading fell to 38-54.

Akron had a chance to break the game open early, but Greg Golson tracked down Matt Whitney’s fly ball to deep left-center as the Aeros left the bases loaded in the top of the first. The game remained scoreless until the top of the fifth, when Josh Rodriguez led off with a triple to dead center field. Two batters later, LaPorta rolled a grounder to third to score Rodriguez and give the Aeros a 1-0 advantage.

Reading got the run back in the bottom of the frame, as Neil Sellers led off with a double to right. Brad Harman grounded out however, and then LaPorta saved a run with a magnificent catch in deep left, timing his leap perfectly and hauling in Mike Eylward’s drive before crashing into the wall. LaPorta was shaken briefly, but remained in the game. The Aeros couldn’t take advantage of the catch however, as Reading’s Jake Blalock flared a two-out RBI single down the right field line to tie the game at 1-1.

The Phillies couldn’t solve Aeros starter Ryan Edell after that, but did take a 2-1 lead once Luis Perdomo entered in the eighth. Michael Spidale reached on a fielder’s choice and stole second with one gone, and Jason Donald followed with an RBI single to right to give Reading the late advantage.

Akron was undeterred however, and the top of the ninth got off to an auspicious start when Golson slipped in center field as Brandon Pinckney’s routine fly ball turned into a leadoff double. A wild pitch moved Pinckney to third with one out, but Phillies closer Patrick Overholt struck out Bronson Sardinha looking for the second out. After taking a strike however, LaPorta crushed Overholt’s next offering way over the fence in left-center for the winning margin and his first home run as a member of the Indians organization. Jeremy Slayden did reach on an error to start the bottom of the ninth, but Perdomo struck out Sellers and then snared Harman’s liner and doubled off Slayden to preserve the win.

Perdomo (2-0) earned the win, although in a fairer world the triumph would have been Edell’s to savor. The left-hander turned in his fourth straight quality start, allowing just a run on six hits in seven sublime innings. He did not walk a man, and set a new season-high with seven strikeouts. Overholt (3-4) blew the save and took the loss, allowing the two winning runs in the ninth. Reading’s Fabio Castro was impressive, stymieing the Akron offense to the tune of one run in six innings. Whitney and Wyatt Toregas each had two hits.

Game two in this four-game series is set for 7:05 p.m. Saturday, with Akron’s Kevin Dixon (7-5, 4.28 ERA) facing Reading’s Brett Myers (0-0, 0.00 ERA). The game broadcast begins at 6:50 p.m. on SportsRadio 1350 AM and online at www.akronaeros.com.

K-Tribe Wins 8-4

Niuman Romero extended his hit streak to a team-high 16 games and Jared Goedert had four hits as the Kinston Indians got a series win, beating the Lynchburg Hillcats 8-4, in Virginia. The K-Tribe banged out 12 hits, reaching double-digit knocks for the second straight game after 14 hits in last night’s nightcap. The Indians plated a run on a two-out double by Jared Goedert in the first inning, and then Alex Castillo plated Romero on the sacrifice fly in the second. Beau Mills added a two-out double in the fifth to put the K-Tribe up 3-0.

After Lynchburg responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth, Kinston busted out with a big sixth. Goedert led off with a hit, Romero had an RBI double to drive in Goedert, and Cirilo Cumberbatch drove in two on his 22nd birthday as Kinston plated four in the frame to put the game out of reach. Beau Mills added his team-leading 14th home run to add some insurance in the ninth inning. Goedert went 4-for-5, his second four hit game of the season. Romero was 2-for-5 extending his hit streak to 16, the fourth longest in the Carolina League this season. In addition, Romero is now hitting .300 on the seasaon.

Josh Tomlin (7-4) pitched six innings, giving up two runs and striking out a season-high eight. Tony Sipp threw two scoreless innings, having not allowed a run in six innings of Carolina League action since coming back from Tommy John Surgery.

The K-Tribe returns home to Grainger Stadium on Saturday to kick off a seven game in eight day homestand. Kinston starts the day one game behind Winston-Salem for first place in the Carolina League Southern Division and takes on the Warthogs in a four game series. Game one is 7pm Saturday night with Kinston’s Carlton Smith on the mound.

PENA WALK OFF HR SENDS TOURISTS PACKING

(Eastlake, OH) – Roman Pena hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the tenth inning as the Captains defeated the SAL Southern Division first half Champion Asheville Tourists 3-2 in ten innings on Friday night. The Captains pitching staff struck out a season high fourteen batters. This was the Captains sixth walk off win and the their record in extra innings is now 6-5.

The Captains scored an unearned run off of Asheville starter Robinson Fabian in the second inning when with Michael Valadez at third and Lucas Montero at first, Montero stole second and the catcher threw to third to try to get Valadez, but his throw sailed into left field scoring Valadez and the Captains led 1-0. The Tourists tied it up at 1-1 in the top of the fourth inning against Captains starter Chris Archer when Helder Velazquez singled and two batters later Darren Holcomb doubled him home.

The Captains took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Mark Thompson singled home Lucas Montero. The lead was short lived as the Tourists got to Captains reliever Paolo Espino when Velazquez singled and scored on a double by Kevin Clark to tie it at 2-2.

Archer got a no decision going five innings and giving up one run on four hits, walking two and striking out a season high seven batters. Espino followed Archer and gave up the one run on two hits and struck out two in two innings of work. Joanniel Montero worked a scoreless eighth giving up a hit and collecting a strike out. Kyle Landis pitched the final two innings and got the in to up his record to 2-1. Edgmer Escalona took the loss to drop his record to 3-1.

The Captains will continue series with the Asheville Tourists on Saturday at 7:05 PM. The Captains will send LHP Ryan Morris (7-2, 3.18) to the mound against the Tourists RHP Bruce Billings (6-6, 4.08). All Captains games can be heard on AM 1330 WELW, WELW.COM or CAPTAINSBASEBALL.COM.

In Other Games...

- Buffalo lost 1-0. LHP David Huff threw 5 shutout innings and allowed 4 hits, 1 walk and had 5 strikeouts. RHP Jeff Stevens threw 2 shutout innings of relief allowing 2 hits, no walks and striking out 2. Again, no offense for Buffalo, this time just four hits as a team. 1B Michael Aubrey had half the hits going 2-for-4.

- Mahoning Valley lost 7-6. RHP Matthew Langwell made his professional debut, going 2 innings and allowing 5 runs on 8 hits, 1 walk and struck out 2. OF Ryan Blair went 3-for-4 with a run and a walk, 1B Brock Simpson went 4-for-5 with a 2B and RBI, OF Ramon Hernandez went 3-for-4 with an RBI, and OF Juan Valdes went 1-for-4 with a HR and 3 RBI.

- The GCL Indians lost 19-8. Matt McBride took a big step in his return from injury as he finally caught his first game. He caught five innings before being lifted from the game. This is normal as they will try to ramp up his time behind the plate. He will likely go 5 or 6 innings again in the next game before he finally goes a full nine here hopefully sometime in the next 4-5 days. Once he can go nine, and has no discomfort, he'll be moved up to Lake County or Kinston. As for the game, McBride went 3-for-3 with a 2B, HR, and RBI. OF John Allman went 2-for-3 with a HR and 3 RBI. OF Bo Greenwell went 2-for-4 with an RBI. And Jason Smit is playing some 2B now too, and went 1-for-3 with an RBI. RHP Alexander Perez ( 2 IP, 8 ER) and RHP Candido Jesus (3 IP, 9 ER) were pasted.

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