Game Recaps: Thursday 7/30

Kinston was rained out and Lake County was off on Thursday.

Clippers win in extras
The Clippers scored a run in the tenth inning to beat the Iron Pigs 5-4 Thursday night.

The Clippers opened the scoring in the first as Josh Barfield and Jordan Brown hit back-to-back doubles for a 1-0 lead. The Clippers advantage would be short-lived however as the Pigs crossed the plate three times in the first against Kenny Ray.

The Clippers rallied in the seventh against Francisco Butto, who relieved Drew Carpenter after six innings of work. Stephen Head and Wyatt Toregas lead off with singles. A fielder's choice and a strike out later, Michael Brantley walked to load the bases for Josh Barfield. Barfield came through with a two-run single to right to tie the game. Jordan Brown followed with a single of his own to drive in Brantley and give the Clippers at 4-3.

Lehigh Valley would not go quietly into the night. Andy Tracy drilled his 17th homer of the season, a solo shot off Greg Aquino for a 4-4 tie in the eighth.

In the tenth inning, Barfield got involved again. He led off by reaching on an error by third baseman Mike Cervenak. Brown bunted him to second and, after a LaPorta ground out, Wes Hodges singled to drive in the go-ahead run. Newcomer Jess Todd slammed the door to preserve the win, earning his first save.

Aeros smash 'Wolves
The Aeros concluded their home stand with a bang as they blasted the visiting Erie SeaWolves for the fourth night in a row, taking Thursday evening’s contest 13-4 in front of 2,986 fans at Canal Park. Three home runs were part of an 18-hit attack by the Akron offense, as the club garnered its first four-game sweep in over a season (dating back to July 4th-7th, 2008 at Binghamton). Starter Josh Tomlin also became the second pitcher in the Eastern League with 10 wins as Akron (65-41) maintained its six-game lead in the division while dropping the now third-place SeaWolves to 57-47.

Erie starter Thad Weber barely had a chance to break a sweat, facing just eight batters before being lifted with two out and six runs home. Jose Constanza and Jesus Merchan led off with singles and Nick Weglarz drew a walk, loading the bases for Carlos Santana. The catcher then smoked a one-hopper that took a crazy bounce and caromed over the head of second baseman Danny Worth, scoring Constanza and Merchan to make it 2-0. Beau Mills grounded into a double play, but Jerad Head and Mickey Hall followed with back-to-back run-scoring singles to make it 4-0 and Carlos Rivero put the icing on the cake by smashing a two-run homer to left field, giving Akron a quick six-run edge and forcing Weber out of the ball game.

The first four Aeros reached again in the second against reliever Jared Gayhart, with Constanza leading off with a double and scoring on Merchan’s single to right. The blowout continued with singles from Weglarz and another RBI base knock from Santana, while Hall also added to the madness with a sacrifice fly to right to make it 9-0 after two innings.

Erie picked up single runs in the third and fifth frames to cut the margin to seven runs, but Weglarz’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the fifth pushed the lead back to eight runs at 10-2. The SeaWolves got another run in the sixth but stranded a runner at third, and then managed only one run in the seventh despite having the bases loaded with just one out. Akron then cemented the game in eighth as Weglarz crushed his 15th home run of the year to right and Head blasted a two-run jack to left to provide for the final margin.

Tomlin (10-8) finally earned his 10th win after three failed attempts, two of which came against Erie, as he also delivered his team-leading 12th quality start by permitting three runs on eight hits over six innings. Weber (0-2) took the loss and only lasted 0.2 innings in the shortest outing of his career. There was a boatload of offensive stars as every Akron player collected a hit and four hitters had three-hit performances. Head and Santana each had three hits and three RBI, while the latter extended his season-best hitting streak to eight games. The Aeros went 8-for-15 with runners in scoring position overall on the night, finishing with an impressive .432 (19-44) average in that category while out-scoring Erie 34-9 in the series.

Scrappers fall to Doubledays
Thursday night the Scrappers ended their four game road trip with a 4-2 loss to the Auburn Doubledays. With the loss the Scrappers finished the road trip at 2-2 and are now 10-11 on the road this season.

Scrapper's starter Marty Popham worked the first six innings, giving up two runs on five base hits, while walking 2 and tying his career high with nine strikeouts.

Each team exchanged runs in the first seven innings and the game was tied at 2-2 going to the bottom of the eighth. In the eighth the Doubledays put up three straight extra base hits and four hits in the inning scoring two runs and taking the game 4-2.

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