Game Recaps: Saturday 7/11

Clippers fall just short
Louisville beat the Clippers 7-6 in ten innings to ensure a fourth series victory over Columbus this season.

Clippers starter Zach Jackson couldn't keep the Bats off of the board, allowing single runs in the first two innings and Wes Bankston hit a two-run homer in the third. It was Bankston's second homer of the game. A Craig Tatum blast off Jackson in the fourth made it 5-0 Louisville.

The Clippers got on the board in the fifth as Matt LaPorta and Wes Hodges singled and Andy Marte plated LaPorta with a ground rule double. Ground outs by Stephen Head and Damaso Espino drove in two more runs to make it a two-run game.

The Bats added a run in the sixth and Justin Lehr did a great job after the Marte double, retiring twelve in a row heading into the ninth. Jackson lasted through six innings, giving way to Frank Herrmann in the seventh.

Trevor Crowe extended his hitting streak to a career-best 17 games with an infield single in the ninth. After a pop out, Lehr was lifted for Pedro Viola who walked Jordan Brown and coughed up a three-run blast to LaPorta to tie the game at 6-6. Jared Burton entered for Louisville and close out the ninth. Herrmann forced extra innings by retiring the side in the bottom of the ninth.

The Clippers couldn't score in the tenth and with Herrmann still on the mound, Kevin Barker started the bottom of the tenth with a single. A sacrifice bunt and intentional walk later, Chris Valaika singled, scoring pinch-runner Luis Bolivar for a 7-6 Bats win.

Aeros falter late
Record setting nights from Matt McBride and Ryan Edell weren’t enough for the Aeros, as the bullpen blew a three-run lead with four outs to play and Erie rallied with five runs in the bottom of the eighth to claim a 6-4 victory before 3,743 fans at Jerry Uht Park Saturday night. The SeaWolves improved to 48-40 overall and won for the seventh time in nine meetings against the Aeros this season. Akron lost for the fifth time in six games and sits at 56-33.

The Aeros opened the scoring with run in the top of the first, as McBride collected the first of his four hits with a two-out double to left-center and scored on an RBI single from Beau Mills. The duo combined again in the third, as McBride and Mills socked consecutive home runs to push the Akron lead to 3-0. It marked the first back-to-back blasts since Nick Weglarz and Carlos Santana did so June 24th against Trenton.

Erie got on the board with Ryan Strieby’s solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, but Akron pushed the lead back to three runs in the top of the eighth when John Drennen scored on a throwing error by Santo de Leon.

Everything went wrong in the bottom of the frame however, as the Aeros couldn’t get the final out of the inning until it was too late. Zach Putnam retired Cale Iorg to start things, and after Alex Avila and Strieby singled Putnam came back to strike out Casper Wells for the second out. Matt Meyer then came on in relief and walked Deik Scram in a lefty-lefty matchup to load the bases, and the Aeros immediately turned to right-hander Neil Wagner out of the bullpen. He fared no better however, surrendering a two-run single to de Leon before Ron Bourquin socked a three-run homer to right field to put the SeaWolves ahead to stay.

Cody Satterwhite (3-5) got the win in relief for Erie, while Wagner (0-2) blew the save and suffered the loss. Robbie Weinhardt gave up a double and a walk in the ninth but retired Carlos Rivero on a fielder’s choice to end the game and record his first save of the season. The defeat saddled Aeros starter Edell with yet another no-decision, despite a terrific effort. The left-hander limited Erie to just a run on four hits over 5.2 innings, walking one and striking out a career-high 10. It was the first 10-strikeout performance for Akron since Scott Lewis fanned 10 August 4th of last season at Altoona.

McBride paced the offense with his first four-hit day in an Akron uniform, finishing 4-5 with three doubles, a homer, two runs scored and an RBI. He was the first Aero to have three doubles in a game this season, and his 10 total bases were a new season-high for the club. It was his first four-hit game since May 7th when he was playing for Class A Kinston. Veteran catcher Armando Camacaro recorded three hits while Mills and Jerad Head notched two each, but the Aeros still stranded 13 runners on base and went just 2-14 with runners in scoring position.

K-Tribe lose 8-4
Potomac banged out 15 hits, including four home runs, doubling up Kinston 8-4 Saturday night at Historic Grainger Stadium. Potomac scored seven of their eight runs via the long ball. The four homers where the most given up in a game by Kinston this season.

Potomac broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third inning when Dan Nelson hit a two-run home run off of Kinston starter Jonathan Holt. Chris Marrero followed with a three-run home run later in the inning.

Down 5-0 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the bottom of the K-Tribe lineup started a comeback. Adam Davis led off the inning with a single and scored on a Ryan Blair sacrifice fly. Kinston catcher Doug Pickens would single and score later in the inning on an error. The K-Tribe made the Potomac lead even smaller in the bottom of the eight inning when Ronald Rivas and Adam Davis led off with back-to-back singles. Blair would drive in Rivas with an RBI groundout and Davis would score on a wild pitch to make the score 5-4 Potomac.

The comeback hopes would be hurt when Tim Pahuta and Dan Lyons hit back-to-back solo home runs, off of K-Tribe reliever Dallas Cawiezell, leading off the top of the ninth inning. Potomac would add their final run of the game on a Michael Burgess RBI single.

Davis went a season high 3-for-4 for Kinston. Chisenhall was 1-for-4, to increase his season high hit streak to twelve games. Holt (1-4) took the loss for Kinston. Potomac starter Will Atwood (5-6) got the win for the Nationals.

Captains drop third straight

The Lake County Captains ended their eight game road trip on a sour note losing the last three games, including a 7-6 loss on Saturday to the Hickory Crawdads. The Captains went 4-4 on the road trip.

The Captains jumped out the lead in the top of the second inning when with two outs, Bo Greenwell double. Mark Thompson followed with his sixth home run of the year and it was 2-0. The Crawdads took the lead in the bottom of the second inning when Miguel Alfonzo got his first hit of the year, a grand slam home run to make it 4-2. The Captains got a run back in the top of the third when Karexon Sanchez scored from third base on a wild pitch and it was 4-3.

The Captains made it 5-4 in the top of the fifth inning when Matt Willard singled, stole second and scored when Sanchez doubled. The Dads added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against Captains reliever Anillins Martinez when Leonel De Los Santos scored on a Captains' throwing error and Leury Garcia scored on a wild pitch and it was 7-4. The Captains closed the gap in the top of the eighth inning when a John Allman sacrifice fly scored Adam Abraham and it was 7-5. The Captains added a run in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly by Chris Nash to end the scoring at 7-6.

Captains' starter T.J. House (2-8) took the loss going three innings and allowing five runs on six hits and walking one. Crawdads starter Neil Ramirez (1-2) got the win pitching five innings allowing four runs on four hits, walking five and striking out two. Matt Nevarez pitched a the ninth inning to get his eighth save of the year.

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