Game Recaps: Thursday 4/9

Aeros Advantageous in 2-1 Win

AKRON, OH – A night after using nine walks to secure a victory the Aeros took advantage of seven free passes from Bowie pitching to claim a 2-1 triumph over the Baysox before 1,208 fans at Canal Park Thursday evening. Akron improved to 2-0 on the young Eastern League season while Bowie remained winless at 0-2.

Akron’s Frank Herrmann and Bowie’s Jake Arrieta treated the fans to an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel in the early going, with the teams combining for just four singles through the first three innings. The Aeros had the best chance to score in the first third of the game after loading the bases with one out in the first, but Arrieta recovered to strike out Nick Weglarz and Jared Goedert to end the threat, and Akron wouldn’t get another hit until the fifth.

By that point however, Bowie had the lead and Arrieta was out of the game. The Baysox tallied their lone run in the fourth when Dave Krynzel willed a solo homer just over the fence in centerfield, but following the bottom half of the inning, Arrieta reached his pitch limit and departed despite recording eight strikeouts in those four innings.

The Aeros rallied to tie the game in the fifth, doing all their damage with two outs against reliever Bobby Livingston. Jose Constanza beat out an infield hit with two strikes to keep the inning alive, and Livingston did himself no favors by walking Carlos Rivero on five pitches to push Constanza into scoring position. Beau Mills then made Livingston pay by rolling a single over second base and into center to score Constanza and tie the game at 1-1.

Akron manufactured a run in textbook fashion in the bottom of the sixth, as new Sox reliever Jim Hoey walked both Weglarz and Goedert to start the inning. Niuman Romero then provided the key at-bat by putting down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance both runners, and John Drennen followed with a sac fly to left to score Weglarz with what proved to be the winning margin.

Herrmann (1-0) turned in a quality start en route to the victory, holding Bowie to just a run on five hits over six sterling innings. He walked one and struck out one. Arrieta was dominant over his four frames but didn’t factor into the decision, blanking the Aeros on just one hit while walking two and striking out eight. Hoey suffered the defeat and fell to 0-1. Southpaw Ryan Edell showed no trouble in adjusting from his starting role for the Aeros last year to a relief role this season, allowing just a walk and a single over two shutout innings. Vinnie Pestano entered in the ninth and struck out a pair for his first save of the year. Mills went 2-3 with an RBI to lead the offense, although Akron won despite collecting just three hits.

Game three in this four-game series is set for 7:05 p.m. Friday, with Josh Tomlin (9-5, 2.98 ERA for Kinston and 1-0, 3.86 ERA for Buffalo in 2008) getting the start for Akron and lefty Troy Patton (6-6, 2.99 ERA for Corpus Christi, 4-2, 4.59 ERA for Round Rock and 0-2, 3.55 ERA for Houston) going for Bowie.

K-Tribe Wins Season Opener 5-2 over the Winston-Salem Dash

K-Tribe starting pitcher Kelvin De La Cruz struck out a career high ten batters, as Kinston won their season opener over the Winston-Salem Dash 5-2 at Historic Grainger Stadium. De La Cruz went six innings giving up just two hits and two earned runs. The pitching performance was capped off by the professional debut of Taiwan’s Chen-Chang Lee who threw two scoreless innings. Josh Judy pitched a scoreless ninth inning to get his first save of the season.

Things started great for the K-Tribe as Tim Fedroff led off the bottom of the first with a home run in his first Carolina League at bat. Kinston would tie the score at two in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single from Roman Pena. The score would stay tied until the sixth inning when Kinston loaded the bases and scored on two wild pitches by Winston-Salem reliever Henry Mabee. The K-Tribe would add an insurance run with an RBI single by Matt Brown in the seventh inning. Brown went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI in his Carolina League debut.

The K-Tribe will take on Winston-Salem for game two of their four game series Friday night at 7pm in Historic Grainger Stadium. Jeanmar Gomez will take the mound for the K-Tribe.

CAPTAINS WIN SEASON OPENER

(Eastlake, OH) – The Captains opened the season in fine fashion as Mark Thompson singled home Adam White in the bottom of the tenth inning to give the Captains a 1-0 victory over the Hagerstown Suns on Thursday night.

Joey Mahalic got the start and did not allow a run in six innings of work. Mahalic allowed only two hits while striking out five and did not factor in the decision. Mike McGuire followed Mahalic and tossed two scoreless innings, striking out two. Kyle Landis picked up the win pitching the final two innings of relief and also struck out two.

White had two hits in the game and Adam Abraham collected two hits in his Captains debut.

Game two of the four game series is Friday at 6:30PM with LHP T.J. House on the mound for the Captains and LHP Jack McGeary for the Suns.

Other Games

The Columbus Clippers got off to a winning start smashing their way to a 12-4 win over Louisville. The Clippers smashed out four home runs and and 14 hits in the game, and were led offensively by outfielders Michael Brantley (3-5, 2 RBI) and Matt Laporta (3-5, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI). Other contributors were second baseman Luis Valbuena (2-5, HR, 2 RBI), designated hitter Jordan Brown (2-5, HR, 3 RBI), and first baseman Michael Aubrey (2-4, HR, 3 RBI).

On the pitching front, lefty David Huff was not his usual sharp self, but he did manager to go five innings and allowed four runs on five hits, three walks and had five strikeouts. For the first time in his career, Huff allowed two home runs in a game. Righy Vinnie Chulk pitched two shutout-hitless innings of relief walking two and striking out two, and lefty Tony Sipp closed the 9th inning out not allowing a run or hit and allowed two walks while striking out three.

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