Minor League Recap 04/09/2022: Slade Cecconi Shines in '22 Debut for Amarillo

All four affiliates played yesterday. Despite some really solid pitching at the top three levels, only Amarillo came out of it with a win. Visalia however had some all-around rough pitching.

Top Performers:

Slade Cecconi AA Ama 4.0 IP 4 Hits 0 Runs 0BB 6 SO

Jeff Bain AA Ama 2.0 IP 3 hits 0 Runs 0 BB 5K

Deyni Olivero A+ Hil 5.2 IP 1 Hit 1 BB 1 ER 4k

Blaze Alexander AA Ama 2-3 with HR

Deyvison De Los Santos 3B A- VIS 2-5 with 2B, HR, 3 RBIs

Reno Aces 3 Las Vegas Aviators 4

Alek Thomas CF 2-4, CS, GIDP

Stone Garrett DH 3-4 with 2B

Camden Duzenack 2B 2-4 with HR

Dan Straily went four innings, and allowed three runs on three hits and three walks, while striking out four. Unsurprisingly, all three runs scored via the long ball, with two out of those three hits going for home runs. Mack Lemieux pitched a scoreless fifth inning, with a hit, a walk, and a pair of strikeouts. Keynan Middleton pitched the sixth inning, with one run allowed on two hits, no walks, and a pair of strikeouts. Edwin Uceta struck out three batters in two clean, scoreless innings, with no hits or walks allowed.

Down 3-0 going into the top of the fifth, Grayson Grenier lead off with a single, and scored on a Camden Duzenack home run. In the top of the eighth the Aces added another run after Alek Thomas singled, advanced to second on a Buddy Kennedy single, and scored on a Stone Garrett single.

Amarillo Sod Poodles 6 Midland RockHounds 4

Corbin Carroll DH 1-4 with a SB

Andy Yerzy C 2-4 with 2B

Dominic Canzone LF 1-3 with BB

Slade Cecconi had a very solid first start of the year, going four innings, with one run allowed on four hits, no walks, and six strikeouts. Cecconi's lone run (and two out of four hits) allowed came in the first inning, but Cecconi settled down into a groove after that. Jeff Bain followed with two scoreless innings, with three hits allowed on no walks, with five strikeouts, earning his first win of the season. Cam Booser had a rough outing to follow, with three runs allowed on four hits and a walk, in just 2/3 of an inning. Keegan Curtis relieved Booser in the seventh with one on and two outs, and got out of the jam ,without letting the inherited runner score. Curtis pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, with just one hit allowed. Junior Garcia struck out two in a scoreless ninth inning, earning his first save of the year.

After Cecconi allowed a run in the first inning, Blaze Alexander evened the score back up with a solo homer in the second. In the bottom of the fifth. Eduardo Diaz was hit by a pitch to lead off, and then promptly stole second. Dominic Canzone walked, putting runners on first and second for Andy Yerzy. Yerzy doubled, scoring Diaz and Canzone to put Amarillo up 3-1. A ground out by Dominic Fletcher advanced Yerzy to second, and a wild pitch put him on third. Leandro Cedeno singles, scoring Yerzy to make the score 4-1. Blaze Alexander then singled, putting runners on first and second, and forced a pitching change. Drew Stankiewicz followed up with another single. Thanks to throwing error, Stankiewicz was able to advance all the way to seconds scoring Cedeno, and advancing Alexander to third to make the score 5-1. Alexander was apparently injured on the play, so Jordan Howard pinch ran for Alexander. A wild pitch then allowed Howard to score to make the score 6-1.

Hillsboro Hops 3 Tri-City Dust Devils 6

Jorge Barrosa CF 2-3 BB SB

Ryan Bliss 0-2 BB SF RBI CS

AJ Vukovich 3B 0-4

Deyni Olivero had a very solid start that was wasted due to the bullpen blowing it. Olivero went 5 2/3 innings, with just one run allowed on a hit and a walk, while striking out four. Luis Frias relieved Olivero, and getting the final out of the sixth, but not before walking the first two batters he faced. Jake Rice pitched a scoreless seventh inning, with a hit and a walk allowed, but struck out three batters. Hugh Fisher was unable to get more than an out in the eighth inning. Fisher walked the first batter he faced, then struck out the second batter he faced. Two stolen bases followed in quick succession, then a single scored the runner, and a passed ball advanced that runner to second. A hit by pitch, and a walk later, the bases were loaded, and only then was Rice taken out of the game for Liu Fuenmayor. Fuemayor gave up a single to the first batter he faced, scoring a run, and then a wild pitch advanced the runners, allowing another run to score. Fuenmayor struck out his next batter, but gave up a single to the next batter, which allowed two more runs to score. Fuenmayor struck out the next batter to finally end the eighth inning. Fuenmayor pitched a scoreless ninth inning, though he did allow a pair of runners to reach thanks to a single and an error by Second baseman Tim Tawa.

Hillsboro got off to a promising start in the bottom of the first, with Jorge Barrosa leading off with a walk, then stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error. Ryan Bliss walked next, and then a squeeze play allowed Barrosa to score, with Bliss being thrown out trying to steal second.

The Hops added a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth of after Elian Miranda reached on a fielder's choice, Cam Coursey walked, and Jorge Barrosa singled, scoring both Miranda and Coursey.

Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 14 Visalia Rawhide 7

Jordan Lawler SS 2-5

Sheng-Ping Chen 2B 2-3 with HR, BB

Wilderd Patino CF 2-4 with a BB, 2B, SB

Yaifer Perdomo got the start, and had a very rough outing. Perdomo allowed four runs on five hits (including a solo HR). Perdomo didn't walk any batters and struck out a pair, but was only able to get two outs. Alex Valdez got the final out of the first, but followed with a rough second inning of his own, giving up four runs (three earned) on three hits, although he did walk none while striking out a pair of batters. Rael Santos pitched two scoreless innings, with no hits, though he did throw a wild pitch and walked three batters, while striking out a pair. Bryan Castillo pitched a rough inning, allowing two runs on two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch, though he also struck out two batters. Adrian Del Moral struck out an astounding six batters in his two innings of work, but allowed three runs on two hits, a walk, two wild pitches, and two hit batters. Listher Santos pitched two innings, with one run allowed on four hits and a walk, with three strikeouts. Santos’ lone run came via a solo homerun in the ninth.

The Rawhide plated five runs in the bottom of the first, with Sheng-Ping Chen hitting a two run homerun, and Deyvison “thiccccc” De Los Santos hitting a three run home run. Visalia added another run the bottom of the seventh after Wilderd Patino doubled, advanced to third on a Jordan Lawler single, and scored on a sac fly. One more run would cross the plate for Vislia in the eight after Shane Muntz walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, then scored after singles from Sheng-Ping Chen and Wilderd Patino.