Game Recaps: Tuesday 5/12

Clippers down Lehigh Valley

The Clippers lifted the lid on a four game series with a 8-4 victory Tuesday night over Lehigh Valley. Andy Marte led the offensive charge with two hits and three RBIs. David Huff pitched six innings, allowing four runs on nine hits for the victory.

The Clippers scored in the second inning when Chris Gimenez led off with a single, and scored on a Jordan Brown double. Andy Marte lined a single to score Brown. Michael Aubrey led off the third with a single and scored on a two out double by Graffanino. Marte would collect his second RBI with another single to bring home Graffanino.

The Iron Pigs bunched all their runs in the fourth inning. John Mayberry started the rally with a double off the wall in left field, Lou Marson hit a two-out double and scored on a single by Jason Ellison. Rich Thompson hit the third double of the inning, scoring J.J. Furmaniak. Jason Donald drove home the last run of the inning, but Thompson was thrown out at the plate by Trevor Crowe to end the inning.

Huff would face the minimum of six batters over the next two innings before finish with six strikeouts and two walks. The Clippers bullpen pitched three scoreless innings, striking out four, to preserve the victory.

Gimenez and Brown would start another rally in the fifth to reclaim the lead. The Clippers picked up two early hits and Graffanino followed with a single and Marte hit a sacrifice fly to right to give Columbus a 6-4 advantage. Brantley hit a line drive solo home run in the sixth to complete the scoring.

The Clippers and Iron Pigs will continue the series Wednesday at 6:35pm. RHP Tomo Ohka (2-2, 3.03) will take the mound for the Clippers against RHP Drew Carpenter (1-0, 4.72).

Bothersome Baysox Beat Aeros 7-4

The Bowie Baysox defeated the Aeros for the second night in a row, claiming a 7-4 final in front of 5,513 fans at Canal Park Tuesday night. The Baysox accumulated 15 hits, including four doubles, and improved to 13-16 while Akron dropped to 22-7. The 15 hits were the second most allowed by the Aeros this year and the loss marked the first time the club has dropped consecutive games in 2009.

Akron struck first in the bottom of the third inning when Jerad Head led off with a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Baysox starter Bobby Livingston. Jose Constanza then found the left-centerfield gap for an RBI double that staked the Aeros to a 1-0 lead, but the Baysox responded off newly minted Aeros reliever Hector Rondon in the next half inning. A lazy fly ball by Ambiorix Concepcion landed in shallow center for a hustling double, and Jonathan Tucker drove him in two batters later with a two-out single, tying the game at 1-1.

The Aeros returned the favor in the fourth, as back-to-back base hits by Nick Weglarz and Matt McBride started a rally. Armando Camacaro followed with a sacrifice fly to right-center field, scoring Weglarz and giving the Aeros the lead again before the Baysox continued the early tit-for-tat. A Brandon Snyder sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth retied the game at 2-2, and Concepcion followed with his second double of the game down the left field line. Miguel Abreu then hit a grounder off Rondon’s leg, and while first baseman Beau Mills did well to track the ball down on the infield, his throw was behind Rondon at first as Concepcion scored on the error to make it 3-2.

Baysox reliever Freddy Deza stranded runners at second and third to end the sixth, and Bowie broke the game wide open with a massive outburst in the seventh. Snyder led off with a single and moved to second base on a wild pitch by Aeros reliever Zach Putnam, and Concepcion picked up another clutch base hit to make it 4-2. Tucker and Adam Donahie then upped the advantage to four runs with consecutive RBI hits later in the inning. Jared Goedert delivered Akron’s first home run in seven games with a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth to cut the deficit to 6-3, and the teams traded sacrifice flies in the ninth to account for the final margin.

Livingston (3-1) picked up the win for Bowie, pitching 5.1 innings while allowing six hits and two runs. Rondon (5-1) took the loss for the Aeros, surrendering six hits and three runs (two earned) in two innings of work out of the bullpen. Ryan Edell, received earlier in the day from Class AAA Columbus, made his first start of the year and delivered three shutout innings while striking out four, walking one and giving up three hits. Constanza had another solid outing for Akron offensively, going 2-4 with a walk and an RBI for his team-leading 11th multi-hit game of the season. Head also went 2-4 and scored a run.

This three-game series and six-game home stand comes to an end Wednesday morning on the third Education Day of the year at 10:35 a.m. Akron’s Josh Tomlin (3-1, 4.44 ERA) gets the nod against lefty Troy Patton (3-0, 0.95 ERA) of the Baysox.

Blue Rocks Beat Kinston 6-3

Kinston took an early 3-0 lead, but Wilmington scored six unanswered runs to take down the Tribe 6-3 Tuesday night in Delaware.

Kinston took advantage of Wilmington mistakes early as Adam Davis scored on a passed ball in the top of the third to give the K-Tribe a 1-0 lead. Kinston would go up 2-0 when Roman Pena scored on an error by Wilmington third baseman Mike Moustakas in the fourth inning. In the third inning, Lonnie Chisenhall (1-for-4, run) led off with a triple and scored on a John Allman sacrifice fly to put Kinston up 3-0.

After a great first four innings, Wilmington would get to Kinston starter Russell Young with three straight hits in the fifth. Wilmington would tie the score at three with a two-out, two RBI single by Derrick Robinson. Things would get messy in the sixth inning after Moustakas led off the inning with a double, but was still at second with two outs. An infield single off the bat of Wilmington’s Paolo Orlando was misplayed at first base, allowing Moustakas to score on the error and giving Wilmington a 4-3 led. Three more hits and another error in the inning would keep Kinston down for good. Young (0-2) was charged with six runs on eight hits. Young struck out a season high five batters. Chen-Chang Lee and Garrison Campfield combined for 1 2/3 innings of scoreless work from the Kinston pen.

Kinston returns to Wilmington for game two of the three game series Wednesday night at 6:35 pm. Eric Berger will get the starting nod for the K-Tribe.

Captains Sweep Intimidators

Delvi Cid tripled home Mark Thompson with the go ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning and Donnie Webb followed with a triple of his own leading the Lake County Captains to a 7-4 win and four game series sweep over the Kannapolis Intimidators on Tuesday.

The Captains scored in the first inning for the third time in the series when Nate Recknagel hit a three run home run to give the Captains an early 3-0 lead. The Captains made it 4-0 in the bottom of the second inning when Cid drove in Adam Abraham from third base when his ground ball was bobbled and all runners were safe.

The Intimidators got a run in the top of the third inning when Drew Garcia drove home Joe Persichina with a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1. The Intimidators tied it up at 4-4 in the top of the eighth inning scoring three times on a two run double by Garcia and a sacrifice fly by Jorge Castillo. The three runs in the eighth inning were the first earned runs that the Captains pitching staff had given up in the last twenty five innings of work.

Captains starter Joey Mahalic did not get a decision despite going six innings and allowing one unearned run on three hits, walking one and striking out three. Despite giving up three runs in two innings, Santo Frias (2-0) got the win. Matt Langwell pitched a scoreless ninth inning, striking out two to notch his second save of the year.

Intimidators starter Greg Infante did not get a decision either allowing four runs in six innings of work giving up six hits and striking out three. Charlis Burdie (1-2) gave up the three runs in the eighth inning and took the loss.

The Captains start an eight game road trip on Thursday at 7:00 PM at Hickory. LHP T.J. House (1-3,3.64) gets the start for the Captains.

Posted in: