Game Recaps: Wednesday 6/25

Kinston and Lake County had the day off.

Clippers beat Rochester

Columbus scored early and often earning a 9-5 win over the Rochester Red Wings.

Rochester scored first, but the Clippers got on the board in the second inning. Ground outs from Wyatt Toregas and Andy Cannizaro plated a pair of runs. With the game knotted 2-2 in the fourth, the Clippers opened up offensively, plating four runs. Andy Marte started the inning with a solo homer, Toregas doubled and scored on a Cannizaro single. Cannizaro came home on a passed ball and Niuman Romero was driven in by Jordan Brown's second hit of the game.

Drew Butera homered to start the Red Wings fourth making it 6-3, but Kenny Ray didn't allow another run. Ray threw just 89 pitches, 59 strikes to get through six innings. He didn't have an outing longer than five innings in five previous starts. A trio of relievers finished out the game for Columbus. Rich Rundles, John Meloan and Blaine Neal pitched an inning each in the win.

Columbus added single runs in the sixth, seventh and ninth innings to provide some insurance. Matt LaPorta drove in two of them, one on his tenth home run of the year.

The Clippers banged out 17 hits in the game with seven batters recording multi-hit games. Stephen Head, in his return to the lineup, went 2-for-5 with a run scored.

Akron loses lead late

Trenton evened up their series with the Aeros Wednesday night at Canal Park, as solo home runs in the eighth and ninth propelled the visitors to a 7-6 win in front of 3,792 fans. The loss was just the fourth in 18 games for the Aeros (47-23), who committed a season-high four errors but nonetheless maintained a seven-game lead in the Southern Division. The Thunder improved to 37-33 with their fifth win in six games.

Akron got on the board first in the bottom of the third inning, as Cristo Arnal was the sparkplug. His one-out infield single started the rally, and he then stole second for his fifth swipe of the season (second most on the team). He advanced to third on a groundout by rehabbing Asdrubal Cabrera, and came around to score on a single to center field by Jose Constanza to make it 1-0. Constanza then swiped second to move into scoring position for red-hot Nick Weglarz, and the Canadian made it 2-0 with the second straight two-out RBI single.

The lead would not last for very long, as Trenton struck for five runs in the fifth as a pair of fielding errors aided the Thunder batters. Edwar Gonzalez began the inning with a double down the left field line, and later came around to score on a ground out. Aeros starter Jeanmar Gomez then walked Austin Krum before permitting a pair of RBI singles to give Trenton a 3-2 lead, and a throwing error from Gomez led to the fourth run of the inning before Chris Malec capped the frame with an RBI double.

The drama would not stop there, as Akron put a run on the board in the sixth to trim the deficit to two runs and then retook the lead in the seventh. The Aeros looked to have a run when Cabrera doubled to right, but a strong relay throw from Eduardo Nunez cut down Arnal at the plate. The rally continued however, as Weglarz continued his hot hitting with a monster two-run home run to tie the game and Carlos Santana followed with a solo shot of his own, giving Akron the 6-5 lead and marking the first back-to-back blasts for the Aeros since April 30th against Harrisburg. The Akron bullpen could not hold the lead however, as Gonzalez tied the game in the eighth with a homer to left off Zach Putnam and Jorge Vazquez provided the winning margin with a home run off Vinnie Pestano in the ninth.

Thunder reliever Josh Schmidt (5-1) earned the win with a scoreless eighth inning while Pestano (2-2) took the loss, ending a streak of eight saves in as many scoreless appearances. Amaury Sanit stranded the potential tying run in scoring position for his 10th save. Gomez went 4.2 innings and allowed seven hits, five runs (three earned) and two walks while striking out two. Weglarz was the main star offensively, finishing 4-5 with three RBI and two runs scored, and his homer in the seventh marked his second in as many days. Mills and Arnal each racked up a pair of hits, although the Aeros dropped just their second game of the year when leading after seven innings (now 37-2).

Scrappers lose first game of season

Spikes pitching was the name of the game that caused the Scrappers to drop their first game of the season 2-1. Spikes starter Tyler Cox worked five strong inning and the bullpen held the Scrapper offense down the rest of the way. Spikes hitters scored two runs off of Scrappers starter Ryan Anthony and took an early lead of 2-0.That would be all the Spikes would need as the Scrappers could only muster one run tonight, the lone run came in the fourth when Kyle Bellows doubled and scored when Jason Smits single drove him home.

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