Game Recaps: Saturday 8/1

Braves blast Clippers
The Gwinnett Braves scored ten times in two innings in a 15-4 rout of the Clippers at Huntington Park.

The Braves exploded for seven runs in the first against Clippers starter Zach Jackson, sending eleven batters to the plate. Gwinnett had three doubles, a triple, three singles and a three-run homer by Alvin Colina. Leadoff hitter Reid Gorecki had two of those hits in the innings.

The rout continued in the second after Chris Burke hit his second double of the game and Brandon Jones doubled, scoring Burke. Colina hit his second bomb of the game, a two-run smash over the left field bleachers to put the Braves up 10-0. Michael Tejera replaced Jackson and recorded the final two outs of the inning.

The Braves added three more in the fifth, highlighted by Burke's fourth hit of the game to make it 13-0.

Rich Rundles replaced Tejera in the seventh and the Braves added two more to go ahead 15-0.

The Clippers broke up the shutout in the eighth after Niuman Romero walked and Michael Brantley doubled. Jordan Brown singled home both runners.

Raphael Perez pitched a scoreless ninth for the Clippers.

Damaso Espino hit a two-run homerun over the left field wall in the ninth to wrap-up the scoring.

Aeros win sixth straight
It was a familiar scene at NYSEG Stadium, as Akron continued its recent hot streak with an 8-4 victory against the Binghamton Mets with 2,814 fans in attendance. Carlos Rivero slugged his third home run in as many nights with a grand slam in the third inning while Beau Mills had a season-high four hits to lead the Aeros to their sixth straight victory, one shy of their season-high. In the past six games, the Aeros (67-41) are out-scoring their opponents 58-16 as they maintained their six-game lead in the Southern Division. The Mets fell to 40-65 with their sixth loss in eight games.

Akron got off to a quick start in the first inning against Binghamton starter Dylan Owen. Leadoff man Jose Constanza began the game with a hit for the third straight night, doubling to left field while Carlos Santana extended the inning three batters later with a two-out walk. That gave Mills an opportunity, and he took advantage by lacing a double to right field to plate both runners and give the Aeros a quick 2-0 advantage.

The Aeros then put the game out of reach in the top of the third as Santana and Mills began things with leadoff singles, with Mills taking second on his base hit as the throw to third was late trying to nail Santana. A groundout kept the runners at their stations, and the Mets then elected to intentionally walk the left-handed bat of John Drennen to load the bases and play for either a double play or a force at home with Rivero in a righty-righty matchup with Owen. Rivero provided Binghamton with neither of their preferred choices however, instead blasting a 2-1 offering from Owen into the left field bleachers for a grand slam and an insurmountable 6-0 lead.
Akron struck yet again in the top of the fifth as Constanza lined a two-out RBI single to center to score Drennen, and the Aeros capped the scoring in the sixth as Drennen greeted Binghamton reliever (and former Aero) Jim Ed Warden with an RBI base hit to plate Nick Weglarz to make it 8-0. The Mets mounted a modest rally in the eighth with four runs, but Neil Wagner came out of the bullpen and struck out Mark Kiger and D.J. Wabick to douse the fire to end the inning before working a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth.

Starter Ryan Edell (4-1) earned win in back-to-back starts for the first time this season, blanking the B-Mets for six innings while allowing just five hits. He struck out four and did not issue a walk while lowering his ERA to 2.32. Owen (3-7) lasted just three innings and gave up six runs on six hits, and Wagner closed things out with 1.2 perfect innings for his first save since July 4th, 2008 with Class A Kinston.

Rivero’s grand slam marked his fifth homer of the season, and he is now the third Aero to homer in three straight games this year joining Weglarz and Santana. Rivero will have a chance to tie the franchise record of homers in four straight games Sunday evening, as Santana this season and Kevin Kouzmanoff in 2006 are the only Aeros to ever accomplish the feat. Mills went 4-5 for his first four-hit game of the year while Santana finished 1-3 to extend his hitting streak to 10 games, the longest on the team this season.

K-Tribe blanks Myrtle Beach
The K-Tribe pieced together a fantastic pitching performance from the bullpen, shutting out Myrtle Beach 7-0 Saturday night in South Carolina. It is Kinston’s seventh shutout of the season.

K-Tribe starting pitcher Alexander Perez was taken out of game due to injury after facing and striking out the first batter in the bottom of the first inning. Bryce Stowell was then called into duty, picking up the win with 3 2/3 innings of work. Stowell (2-5) gave up just two hits, walking one and striking out two. Jonathan Holt pitched two scoreless innings, giving up just one hit. Chen-Chang Lee kept the shutout going, pitching two hitless innings and striking out four. Kyle Landis finished the game with a scoreless ninth inning. The Pelicans managed just four hits on the night.

The K-Tribe got rolling in the top of the first inning when Lucas Montero led off with a single. After Tim Fedroff reached base thanks to an error, Lonnie Chisenhall loaded the bases with an infield single. Doug Pickens drove in Montero with an infield single of his own, putting Kinston up 1-0. Cord Phelps put Kinston up 2-0 with an RBI single, scoring Fedroff. Chisenhall (1-for-5) scored the final run of the inning after Ronald Rivas grounded into a double play.

Kinston would take a 4-0 lead in the second inning after Richard Martinez singled and Tim Fedroff drove him home with a double. The Indians added another run in the third inning, with an RBI single from Roman Pena scoring Pickens. Fedroff would finish the scoring in the top of the ninth, driving in two runs with a two-out single. Fedroff had a big night for Kinston, going 3-for-5 while driving in a season high three runs. Every K-Triber in the lineup reached base safely, as Kinston pounded out 12 hits.

Tice is nice in Captains win
Jeremie Tice had four hits and two RBI's to lead the Lake County Captains to a 5-3 win over the Kannapolis Intimidators on Saturday. The Captains pick up a game in the standings and are 2.5 games behind Kannapolis in the Northern Division.

The Intimidators scored the first run of the game for the second night in a row when Kenny Williams led off the game with a double and then scored on a single by Brandon Short and it was 1-0. The Captains came right back to take the lead in the bottom of the first inning when Jeremie Tice singed home Delvi Cid and Nate Recknagel hit a sacrifice fly and the Captains lead 2-1.

The Captains tacked on three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning when Tice knocked in Cid again, Donnie Webb stole home on a double steal and Tice scored from second base when the second baseman dropped a throw from the shortstop that would have ended the inning. The Intimidators scored twice off of Captains reliever Kaimi Mead when Eduardo Escobar hit a two run home run in the top seventh inning to cut the lead to 5-3.

Captains' starter Chris Jones (5-2) got the win going five innings and allowing three runs on three hits, walking six and striking out three. Mead gave up the two runs in two innings of work. Brian Grening followed Mead and struck out the side in the top of the eighth inning. Steve Smith pitched a scoreless ninth inning to pickup his eighteenth save. Intimidators' starter Nevin Griffith (1-3) took the loss pitching 4.1 innings allowing four runs, three earned on six hits, walking two and striking out one.

Scrappers down Muckdogs
On Saturday night the Mahoning Valley Scrappers improved to five and one against the Batavia Muckdogs and 26-17 overall on the season. After the 2-0 victory over Batavia, the Scrappers will now play host to the Auburn Doubledays for the next two nights.

All the scoring the Scrappers needed came in the second inning when Casey Frawley delivered a single that scored Greg Folgia. Mahoning Valley added an insurance run in the eight inning when Kyle Smith singled home Frawley.

Scrappers starter Clayton Cook worked the first six innings and gave up no runs on just three base hits and one walk. Cook has now worked 18 scoreless innings on the season against the Muckdogs. Antwonie Hubbard pitched two scoreless innings, then Tyler Sturdevant worked the ninth inning to record his second save of the season.

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