The Baybears played a doubleheader today, splitting both games by a 3-2 score. Overall, they got solid starting pitching in both games, but struggled offensively. Taylor Clarke came within one out of a 7-inning start but ran out of gas. In the 2nd game, they won in extra innings.
Reno 1, Las Vegas 9: The Kyle Drabek experience was not a fun one, as he allowed 9 runs in 4 innings. Drabek allowed 10 hits and 3 walks over 4 innings with a pair of strikeouts. The Aces offensively could not do anything until the 9th inning despite getting 5 walks from Logan Verrett. Zach Borenstein recorded the only extra base hit of the game, as the Aces only picked up 6 hits overall. The bullpen was able to shut things down for 4 innings, but the bad start coupled by bad offense spelled defeat. One bright spot from the game was Mitch Haniger, who went 1 for 2 and picked up a pair of walks in the game. He's batting .423 in the early stages in Reno following a strong start in AA Mobile.
Mobile 2, Pensacola 3: Taylor Clarke took the start and pitched decently. In the first game of a 7-inning double header, Clarke was cruising through the game before hitting a speed bump in the 6th and then hitting the wall in the 7th. The Baybears scored first in the top of the 2nd when Tom Belza hit a single to plate a couple runners that reached via the walk. Clarke would allow a run in the bottom half, but that was it until the 6th inning. Clarke allowed a homer to lead off the inning, then retired 5 straight until problems started with 2 outs in the 7th. After allowing 2 singles, Jared Miller entered the game and gave up the walk-off single. Overall, Clarke allowed 3 runs in 6 2/3 innings on 8 hits with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.
Mobile 3, Pensacola 2: Game 2 was very similar to Game 1, except with a happier ending. Billy Buckner made the spot start and allowed only a single through 4 scoreless innings. The Baybears scored first again on a Stewart Ijames home run and took a 2-0 lead when Buckner walked with the bases loaded. Luis Ramirez pitched a scoreless 5th to be in line for the win before Joey Krehbiel allowed the tying runs in the 6th inning. From there, the bullpen was lights out. The Baybears took the lead in the 8th inning on a sac fly by Cody Regis following back-to-back singles by Gabby Guerrero and Kevin Cron to put runners on the corners with no outs. From there, Sherfy struck out a pair and hit a pair en route to his 8th save in AA.
Visalia 1, Lake Elsinore 4: The Rawhide struggled to score despite a parade of extra base hits. The Rawhide went 1 for 8 with RISP and stranded 9 runners in the game. On the mound Josh Taylor had a mediocre outing, allowing 4 runs on 9 hits, walking 1 and striking out 5 over 6 innings but the offense wouldn't have made it possible for even a good outing to win. The bullpen kept the Storm off the scoreboard for the rest of the game, but the offense was unable to pick up the big hit to get the game close. Victor Reyes had the only RBI in the game, which happened in the 5th inning.
Kane County 7, Clinton 6: The Cougars quickly fell behind and trailed 6-0 after the top half of the 5th. Justin Donatella has had a very bad run of starts lately, getting pounded for 6 runs on hits in 4 1/3 innings. Overall he walked 1 and struck out 4. The Cougars chipped at the lead with 2 in the 5th and 2 in the 6th before using a 3-run 9th to blow the game open. Gerard Hernandez started off the scoring in the 8th with a home run that followed a Joe Munoz HBP. With two outs, Zach Nehrir drove in Quinnton Mack for the winning run on a single. With a 7-6 lead in the 9th, Drew Muren ran into trouble in the 9th which included 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs before he was able to get the final out following the intentional walk to load the bases.