South Bend won their winner-take-all Game 3 9-5 over Fort Wayne to advance to the Midwest League Championship Series where they'll take on Quad Cities. The rotation sets up nicely with 1st Round pick Braden Shipley expected to take the ball in Game 1 with Aaron Blair available to pitch Game 5 if needed. The first two games will be played at home with game 3, 4 and 5 at Quad Cities.
Visalia lost their Game 3 tilt against San Jose and will need to win the final 2 games to advance to the championship series. San Jose has been the best team in the California League all year and were heavily favored in this series. But the one thing working in Visalia's favor is they have their best pitcher going in Game 4 in Andrew Barbosa while San Jose counters with highly regarded prospect Clayton Blackburn.
Snake Stars
3 Stars: Socrates Brito, South Bend 4 for 5, 2 R, 1 TPL, 3 RBI
2 Stars: Brandon Drury, South Bend 2 for 5, 1 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI
1 Star: Jimmy Sherfy, South Bend 1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 K
0 Stars: Eddie McKiernan, Visalia 6 IP, 8 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 3 HR, 6 ER
High A: Visalia 2 San Jose 9. Eddie McKiernan gave up 3 home runs and 6 earned runs over 6 innings and that was way more than the offense could overcome. They did come up with 11 hits, but all 11 were singles, they only walked once, they hit into 2 double plays and they stranded 9 runners. Kevin Medrano, Gerson Montilla and David Peralta each had 2 hits. Visalia trails in the best-of-five series 2-1.
Low A: South Bend 9 Fort Wayne 5. The Silver Hawks bats got out to a 6-1 lead and held on 9-5 to advance to the Midwest League Championship Series against Quad Cities. A 5-run 5th was the real difference-maker when Brandon Drury hit a 3-run homer. Fort Wayne made it a game with 3 runs in the 6th off Aaron Blair and another in the 7th to make it 6-5. But Socrates Brito ripped a bases-loaded triple in the 8th to provide some insurance and Jimmy Sherfy struck out the side in the 9th to close it out. Blair was cruising along until the 6th when he allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and was sent to the showers in favor of Geordy Parra who limited the damage. Brito went 4 for 5 with 3 RBI and Drury went 2 for 5 with 4 RBI to drive in most of the runs.