A+: Visalia 2 @ Lancaster 10. The Rawhide lost their winner-take-all game five finale against Lancaster last night 10-2 to bring an end to the minor league season. Visalia faced the unenviable task of trying to win their biggest game of the season without any of their regular starting pitchers available. Regular starter Andrew Barbosa was injured in his last playoff start so the team turned to regular South Bend starter Blake Perry to try and fill the void.
It was a lot to ask of Perry and predictably it didn't go well. Perry couldn't get out of the 4th inning before allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits and 3 walks. The regular Visalia bullpen wasn't any better. Game one starter Blayne Weller tried to fill in on short rest and he allowed another run. Daniel Gibson faced 3 batters and didn't record an out and Kyle Schepel let in another. The offense tried to rally with 11 hits and a couple of walks, but they were 1 for 14 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base.
And so another season comes to an end and this is the final MiLB Round-Up for 2014. It was a great season as the organization's top five affiliates all made the playoffs with Hillsboro winning a title and Reno and Visalia going all the way to the final game for their league titles.
It was an honor and a pleasure reporting on the minors this season and thanks to Jim for taking on the coverage on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We'll have some follow-up in the not-too-distant future with some season ending prospect lists and the usual prospect reviews over the course of the off-season. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you all down the road.