Game Recaps: Thursday June 18

Clippers drop finale

The Clippers finished a disappointing home stand with a 4-2 extra-innings loss to Rochester Thursday afternoon.

Columbus managed just two wins in the home stand after dropping three of four against the Red Wings.

Each team scored early, with Rochester plating a run in the first and the Clippers taking the lead on an Andy Cannizaro two-run homer in the second. Cannizaro just missed another blast home run in the seventh.

The score stood 2-1 until the eighth when pinch-hitting David Winfree drove in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to force extra innings.

Aaron Laffey pitched three rehab innings, allowing one run on five hits with one walk. He handed the ball to Zack Jackson, who struggled in his last two outings. This time Jackson was very strong for the Clippers, throwing four scoreless innings before the sac fly.

Jackson pitched into the tenth, but walked a pair of batters before leaving with two outs. Vinnie Chulk faced Winfree, who promptly doubled to the gap in left center, scoring two and ultimately winning the game.

Aeros fall in ninth

Nick Gorneault capped a three-hit night with the game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth and New Hampshire avoided a four-game sweep with a 2-1 win over Akron before 4,238 fans at Merchantsauto.com Stadium Thursday night. The Fisher Cats improved to 29-38 while the Aeros fell to 43-22.

Akron struck first, as Jose Constanza opened the contest with a double and scored on a two-bagger from Nick Weglarz to make it 1-0 just three batters into the game. The Aeros would get just one runner into scoring position over the final eight frames however, and New Hampshire tied it in the fourth when Brian Dopirak launched a solo home run to right-center. Dopirak then led off the ninth with a double, went to third on a passed ball, and scored on Gorneault’s single.

Both starters were fantastic, although neither Ryan Edell nor New Hampshire’s Marc Rzepczynski factored into the final decision. Edell worked 6.2 quality innings, allowing just a run on three hits and striking out seven while Rzepczynski surrendered a run on five hits in seven innings and punched out eight. Danny Farquhar (1-2) was the winner in relief for the Fisher Cats, while Neil Wagner (0-1) took the loss for the Aeros.

K-Tribe drop sixth straight

The Indians took the early lead after Tim Fedroff came home to score in the first inning after Cord Phelps grounded into a double play.

Lynchburg came right back, however, to notch things up at one with a Kent Sakamoto sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the first.

The K-Tribe took the lead right back in the third inning thanks to another groundout by Phelps, this time resulting in an RBI driving in Fedroff once again.

The Hillcats would claw back and snatch up the lead for good in the fourth inning with four runs on just two hits in the frame off Kinston starter Bryce Stowell (0-3). A sacrifice fly, an RBI groundout and then back-to-back RBI hits by Joel Collins and Alex Presley gave Lynchburg the 5-2 advantage, which they would not relinquish for the rest of the contest.

The K-Tribe would add a Fedroff sacrifice fly in the seventh inning to cut the lead to two, but Lynchburg’s R.J. Rodriguez secured his Carolina Leading 13^th save in the ninth inning to hold off any potential Kinston rally.

Stowell pitched his longest outing of the season for Kinston, allowing five runs on five hits, a walk, a hit batter and one strikeout in four innings, but found himself on the wrong end of some close calls going Lynchburg’s way.

Lynchburg starter Bryan Morris (2-1) went five innings, gave up two runs on three hits, four walks and three strikeouts to earn his second win of the season, and his second straight against the K-Tribe.

Kinston has now lost seven straight games and need to win the final three games of the series to avoid its worst half record since becoming a Cleveland Indians organization 23 years ago.

Captains win in another shutout victory

The Lake County Captains swept their second straight two game series and pitched their second straight shutout defeating the Delmarva Shorebirds 6-0 on Wednesday. The Captains pitching staff has not allowed a run in their last 26 innings of work. The Captains have won four in a row to tie their season high.

The start of the games was delayed one hour and fifteen minutes due to rain but when the game got started, the Captains took the lead in the top of the third inning when Chris Nash doubled and went to third on a fly out by Mark Thompson. Adam White followed with a RBI double and it was 1-0. The Captains made it 2-0 in the top of the fourth inning when Nash grounded out to the second baseman with the bases loaded and Nate Recknagel scored.

The Captains tacked on two more runs in the top of the fifth inning when Walter Diaz tripled and scored on another double by White. White scored from third base when Donnie Webb grounded out to make it 4-0. It went to 6-0 in the top of the eighth inning when Karexon Sanchez tripled home Michael Valadez and Adam White.

Captains' starter Chris Jones did not get a decision going three scoreless innings allowing two hits, walking three and striking out five. Eddie Burns (2-1) followed Jones with three scoreless relief innings to pick up his second win of the year. Shorebirds starter Rick Zagone (4-5) took the loss pitching 4.1 innings and allowing a four runs on five hits, walking two and striking out three.

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