Daily Recap: 8/03

Reyes, Aubrey lead Bisons past Chiefs

Anthony Reyes worked 8 marvelous innings and Michael Aubrey launched a go-ahead HR with 2-out in the 8th inning leading the Bisons to a 2-1 win over the Syracuse Chiefs at Dunn Tire Park.

Reyes (2-0), making his 2nd start as a member of the Herd since being acquired from St Louis for RHP Luis Perdomo, allowed only a 2-out solo HR in the 2nd inning to Chiefs 3B Kevin Melillo as he cruised his way through 8 brilliant innings allowing only 1 run off 5 hits without a walk and recording 4 strikeouts. Reyes allowed only a pair of singles over his final 6 scoreless innings as he threw an impressive 74 strikes in his 104 pitches.

In spite of his strong effort, Reyes looked for most of the game like he would leave with a no-decision as the Bisons squanderd a number of great scoring opportunities. After Melillo's HR had put the Chiefs up 1-0 the Bisons responded in the bottom of the 2nd inning with a run of their own against Chiefs starter Ricky Romero. Todd Linden doubled to open the frame and Jordan Brown followed with a walk before an RBI single by 3B Morgan Ensberg tied the game at 1-1. Jason Cooper would follow with another walk to load the bases with no-one out and give the Herd a great chance to break the game open, but C Yamid Haad flied out to shallow right and SS Walter Diaz grounded into an inning ending double play to end the frame.

That at-bat would be a sign of things to come for Diaz as he again grounded into an inning ending double play in the 5th before the Bisons got their next great scoring opportunity in the 7th inning. Morgan Ensberg started the inning with a strikeout before Jason Cooper walked and Yamid Haad singled to put runners on the corners with one out in the inning to again set the stage for Diaz. Mindful of his first two at bats the Bisons tried to make things happen on the first pitch of the AB to Diaz; as Chiefs reliever Jonah Bayliss delivered the pitch to home plate Cooper broke home from 3rd base as the Bisons had the suicide squeeze play on, but Diaz missed the bunt and Cooper was out at the plate to continue the shortstops nightmare day.

In the 8th inning though the Bisons would make the missed opportunities by Diaz moot; Bayliss retired Trevor Crowe and Jorge Velandia to start the inning before the Chiefs brought on LHP Mike Gosling to set-up the lefty-lefty matchup against Aubrey. Aubrey would foil the matchup strategy launching a 1-2 pitch over the wall in RF for his 6th AAA HR of the year - his 5th in 15 games since the All-Star break - to put the Herd on top 2-1 and make a winner of Reyes.

LHP Rich Rundles came on in the 9th retiring the first 2 hitters he faced before allowing a single to left hander Russ Adams. Playing the matchups, the Bisons then brought in RHP Ed Buzachero to face righty Curtis Thigpen who grounded a 1-2 pitch to short to end the game and give Buzachero his 2nd save of the year.


Aeros fall to Senators

Kevin Dixon was rocked for 7 runs in just 4 innings of work as the Akron Aeros lost 7-5 at the hands of the Harrisburg Senators in front of 3,248 fans at Canal Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Aeros would fall behind early as the Senators got to Dixon (8-8) for 4 runs in the second inning; Ofilio Castro singled with one out and moved to 2nd on a walk to Garrett Guzman. After former Aero Javi Herrera flied out another walk to Seth Bynam loaded the bases for Mike Daniel who quickly unloaded them by sending Dixons 3-2 offering over the wall in right to give Harrisburg a 4-0 lead.

The Aeros offense would come alive momentarily in the bottom of the 3rd inning, sending 10 men to the plate and scoring 5 runs against Senators starter Zack Segovia to jump into the lead. Brandon Pinckney, Jose Constanza and Josh Rodriguez all singled to start the inning and load the bases before Bronson Sardinha stroked a 3-run double into the left field corner to pull the Aeros back to 4-3. After a Wes Hodges groundout, Stephen Head walked and hot-hitting C Wyatt Toregas tied the game with a single to left before Ryan Goleski lofted a sac fly to center for a 5-4 Akron lead.

Dixon would give that lead back and more in the top of the 4th. Former Aero Herrera lead off the inning to tie the game at 5-5 before a pair of singles and a walk with nobody out loaded the bases and ended Dixon's night. RHP JD Martin relieved and allowed 2 of his inherited runners to score on an RBI fielders choice and a sac fly to put Harrisburg ahead 7-5.

Martin (2IP, 1H, 2K), Tony Sipp (2IP, 0H, 1K) and Erik Stiller (2IP, 1H, 1K) combined to work the final 6 innings without allowing a run to give the Aeros every chance to come back in the game, but they could muster nothing against a Harrisburg bullpen that combined for 4.1 scoreless innings. Yunior Novoa (1-0) picking up the win with 2.2 scoreless innings.

The Aeros now travel to Altoona on Monday night for the start of a 8-game, 7-day, road trip. LHP Scott Lewis is scheduled to take the hill for an Aeros team that saw their Southern Division lead cut to 1.5 games over Bowie and just 4.5 games over Harrisburg with defeat Sunday.


K-Tribe blow lead(s) late, rally past Avalanche in 11 innings for 4-game sweep
Jerad Head stroked a 1-out, 2-run single in the top of the 11th inning as part of a 3-for-6, 5RBI night to lead the Kinston Indians to a 10-8 win over the Salem Avalanche and complete the Indians first 4 game sweep in Salem for 13 years.

The Indians twice blew sizeable leads, but a 15-hit offensive attack sent the K-Tribe into a big 3 game series with 2nd half division leaders Myrtle Beach trailing by just 3.5 games.

The Indians got on the board first in the 1st inning as LF Lucas Montero lead off the game with hsi first HR for the K-Tribe. They would add on 4 more in the 4th inning on an RBI double by Jared Goedert and a 3-run HR for Head to stake themselves to a 5-0 lead in support of starter Carlton Smith.

After allowing a run in the bottom of the 4th inning, Smith would give it all back in the 6th inning - with no help from his defense. A 1-out throwing error by Goedert, a walk and 4-hits highlighted the Avalanches 5-run inning to put them ahead 6-5 and ending Smiths night with 5.2IP, 8H, 6R, 3ER, 1BB, 1K.

The Avalanche lead would be short-lived as the Indians responded straight away in the top of the 7th inning. After Montero lead off the inning with a single, another new Indian C Carlos Santana launched his first K-Tribe HR of the season to put the Indians back in front 7-6 and give Santana 100RBI on the season combined between Kinston and the LA Dodgers organisation. Carlos Rivero added an RBI single later in the inning to give the Indians an 8-6 lead.

The Avalanche would rally again though, this time against Indians reliever Mike Finocchi in the bottom of the 8th as Greg Buchanan stroked a 2-out, 2-run triple to tie the game and ensure the game went into extra innings.

After both sides exchanged scoreless 9th and 10th innings the Indians would put the game to bed in the 11th inning; 3 straight one-out walks to Goedert, Rivero and Matt McBride loaded the bases and set the stage for Head to be the hero.

Neil Wagner (3-6) worked the final 3 scoreless innings for the Indians to pick up the win. Santana finished the night 2-for-5 with a HR and 2RBI and has now recorded 4 straight multi-hit games raising his average to .379 (11-for-29) as an Indian.

The K-tribe will send LHP Shawn Nottingham to the mound on Monday night to face off against LHP Tom Glavine who will be making a rehab start for the Pelicans.

Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkaptains rally late past Legends

The Lake County Captains struck out 15 times against Lexington pitching, but rallied for a 7-4 win over the Legends on Sunday night to record their 5th straight win.

Legends starter Leandro Cespedes struck out the first 7 Captains hitters of the game and had 10Ks through his first 4 innings of work until tiring in the 5th. With 2 down in the inning Richard Martinez launched a pinch hit 2-run HR scoring Roman Pena for a 3-2 Captains lead. Fernando Abad relieved for the Legends and followed Cespedes lead striking out 4 Captains of his own in 2.1 scoreless innings.

RHP Joanniel Montero (2-5), making his 3rd start for the Captains since replacing newly promoted Kelvin De La Cruz in the rotation, worked 7 excellent innings allowing only 3 runs (2 earned) off 7 hits without a walk and recording 4 strikeouts. He allowed an unearned run in the 7th inning after a passed ball by C Adam Davis to tie the game at 3-3 before the Captains rallied in the 8th inning.

Martinez, Matthew Brown and Chris Nash started the inning with 3 straight walks against Legends reliever Jay Pacella (1-4). After Adam Davis popped out and Ron Rivas struck out the Captains seemed on the verge of wasting the scoring opportunity until Adam White lined a 2-out, 2-run double to left to put the Captains on top 5-3.

The Legends would get a run back against Captains reliever Garrison Campfield in the bottom of the 8th without the benefit of a hit. Campfield walked the leadoff hitter Bryan Brown before moving him into scoring position with a wild pitch. After Craig Corrado was HBP, Legends SS Catlin Everett moved both runners over with a sac bunt before Campfield got Brian Pellegrini to pop out on the infield. Just when Campfield looked like he’d get out of the inning without any damage his 2nd wild pitch of the inning would bring home a run to cut the defecit to 5-4 before striking out Kyle Miller to strand the tying run at 3rd base.

The Captains would get some insurance in the top of the 9th on a 2-out RBI single by Matthew Brown scoring Karexon Sanchez and an RBI double by Chris Nash before RHP Kyle Landis worked around a 1-out double for his 6th save of the season.

2008 Dratees power Scrappers to win

2008 28th round pick LHP Russell Young pitched 5 strong innings and the Scrappers banged out 15 hits as they cruised to a 9-1 win over the State College Spikes on Sunday night.

Young (3-2), making his 9th pro start, allowed 1 run in his 5 innings of work off just 3 hits, he didn’t walk a batter and struck out 5.

The Scrappers jumped on the board with 4 runs in the first inning against Spikes starter Emilis Guerrero (1-5) highlighted by 2008 1st round pick, Lonnie Chisenhalls 4th home run of the season scoring 2008 3rd rounder Cord Phelps who had singled with one-out. They would score all their runs in the first 4 innings, adding one more in the 2nd inning, 3 in the 3rd inning and another in the 4th to make the score 9-1.

Chisenhall (2-for-5, 3B, HR, 2RBI), Phelps (3-for-5, 2B) and Brock Simpson (3-for-5, 3B) the top performers on offense for the Scrappers. 2008 10th rounder CF Donnie Webb finished the night 1-for-4 with 3RBI to stretch his hitting streak to a modest 4 games. Webb has hit a healthy .400 (14-for-35) over his last 11 games after a horrendous 13-for-103 (.126) stretch to start his pro career.

Another 2008 draftee, 4th rounder RHP David Roberts, worked a scoreless 8th inning with a strikeout to help preserve the lead.

In other games....
- DSL Indians & GCL Indians with a scheduled day off.

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