Minor League Recap 4/16-4/17: Hillsboro Starters Succeeding, Lawler and Muntz Get Plunked

Diamondbacks affiliates won four out of eight games played over the weekend.

TOP PROSPECT PERFORMANCES

• Reno 3B Drew Ellis 2-3 with a HR, 3 BB (4/16)
• Reno CF Alek Thomas 2-9 with a double, HR, stolen base (4/16-17)
• Amarillo SP Bryce Jarvis 6.0 IP 1 H 1 R 1 BB 3 SO 1 HR (game one of doubleheader)
• Amarillo LF Dominic Canzone 2-3 with a HR, BB (game one of doubleheader)
• Hillsboro SP Deyni Olivero 5.2 IP 2H 1ER 1 BB 7 SO WP
• Hillsboro SP Luke Albright 5.0 IP 2 H 1 ER 1BB 6 SO
• Visalia SS Jordan Lawler 1-5 with a HR, 2 BB, 4 HBP, 2 SB (combined)
• Visalia C Shane Muntz 1-2 with 5 HBP, 4 BB (Combined)

Saturday April 16th

Sacramento River Cats 18 Reno Aces 8

Ryne Nelson went four innings, and allowed seven runs on six hits, a hit by pitch, and a walk, while striking out three. Nelson was hit hard, with three homeruns and two doubles allowed. Caleb Barager followed up with an inning, and had two unearned runs allowed on three hits and no walks, with a pair of strikeouts. Josh Green and Tyler Holton both pitched ²⁄₃ of an inning, and allowed four earned runs. Miguel Aguilar and Kevin Ginkel followed with a scoreless inning each. ‘Nuff said.

The game started out promisingly enough. Although Alek Thomas grounded out to lead off, Jake Hager doubled, and Drew Ellis followed that up with a home run that was absolutely crushed to right-center. Matt Davidson then made it back homers with his seventh homerun on the season. Down 4-3 in the bottom of the third, Stone Garrett tied it back up with a solo homer of his own. The Aces made it 9-5 in the bottom of the fifth, after Drew Ellis and Matt Davidson took back-to-back one out walks. Stuart Fairchild, who had doubled in the first and singled in the third, reached on a fielding error, scoring Ellis. The Aces added another run in the bottom of the 6th, after Dominic Miroglio led off with a single, and scored on a one out Alek Thomas ground-rule double to make the score 13-6. In the bottom of the eighth, the Aces plated two more runs. Jake Hager hit a two out double, followed by a walk to Drew Ellis. Matt Davidson singled, scoring Hager, and Stone Garrett followed with another single, scoring Ellis.

Amarillo Sod Poodles 7 Tulsa Drillers 1

Instead of playing a game on Sunday, Amarillo played a double header on Saturday. Bryce Jarvis had a great start, going six innings and allowing just one run on a hit, a walk, and a hit by pitch, while striking out three. The lone run allowed came in the third, when Jarvis allowed a solo home run, his only real mistake of the game. Ryan Weiss pitched a perfect seventh inning.

Down 1-0 going into the fourth, Dominic Canzone hit a solo homer to tie the game back up at 1-1. Amarillo added three more runs in the top of fifth. Juan Centeno led off with a bunt single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Drew Stankiewicz singled, scoring Centeno to make the score 2-1. Corbin Carroll flew out to left for the second out of the inning, but Dominic Fletcher kept the inning going with a single. With Dominic Canzone battings, two balks in a row would advance the runners, then force in a run to make the score 3-1, and Canzone would knock in another with a single to make the score 4-1. The Sod Poodles scored two more runs in the sixth. Jancarlos Cintron, Juan Centeno, and Dairon Cuevas hit back-to-back-to-back one out singles to score a run, Drew Stankiewicz walked to load the bases, and Corbin Carroll hit a sac fly, scoring Centeno. Dominic Canzone scored another run in the top of the seventh, after taking a leadoff walk, advancing to second on a walk, to third on a fly out, finally scoring on a ground out.

Amarillo Sod Poodles 2 Tulsa Drillers 3

In a bullpen game, Kenny Hernandez pitched two scoreless innings, with a hit and two walks allowed, with a pair of strikeouts. Justin Lewis pitched an inning, with a run allowed on two hits and a walk, with a pair of strikeouts. The run Lewis allowed came via a solo homerun. Blake Rogers pitched two innings, and allowed a run a hit, with no walks, while striking out a pair. Like Lewis, the lone run for Rogers was thanks to a solo homerun. Cam Booser pitched an inning and allowed a run on two hits, with no walks and a strikeout. Booser also allowed his run via solo homer.

Amarillo only managed to score a run in the top of the fifth. Dairon Cuevas reached on a leadoff bunt single, advancing to 2nd on a throwing error by the pitcher. Drew Stankiewicz followed up with a double, scoring Cuevas. Stankiewicz advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt, then scored on a ground out.

Everett AquaSox 2 Hillsboro Hops 3 [f/10]

Deyni Olivero went 5 ²⁄₃ innings, shutting out the AquaSox through the first five innings, with just a run allowed on two hits, a walk, and a wild pitch, while striking out 7. Andrew Saalfrank got the final out of the sixth but was only able to get one out in the seventh. Saalfrank pitched ²⁄₃ of an inning, with a run allowed on a pair of walks, while striking out one. Bobby Ay relieved Saalfrank with two on and one out. Although he wasn’t charged with any hits or runs in his inning of work, he did allow both runners to score thanks to a pair of walks and a wild pitch. Jake Rice inherited a runner from an Ay with two outs, and got out of the jam. Rice struck out two in his 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings, while walking one. Austin Pope struck out a pair of batters in a scoreless 10th inning.

The Hops jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first. Jorge Barrosa hit a one out single, stole second, then scored on an AJ Vukovich single. Vukovich advanced to second on a passed ball, then scored on a two out Adrian Del Castillo single. The Hops wouldn’t score again until the bottom of the 10th, when ghost runner Tim Tawa scored on a Jose Curpa single.

Visalia Rawhide 3 Lake Elsinore Storm 4

Yaifer Perdomo went 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, with three runs allowed on two hits and five walks, while striking out three. Perdomo allowed a solo homer in the second inning. Carlos Meza followed with 2 ²⁄₃ innings, with a run allowed on two hits and two walks, while striking out three. Lister Sosa struck out three in his two scoreless innings, with a hit and a walk allowed.

It’s worth noting the insane amount of hit by pitches in this game. Shane Muntz reached all four times, thanks to three hit by pitches and a walk. Jordan Lawler was hit by pitches twice, walked once, and stole two bases. Jean Walters was also hit by a pitch, while going 3-4 at the plate. Walters scored the first run of the game for Visalia, after hitting a one out single in the top of fourth, and scoring on a Sheng-Ping Chen double. Walters scored the second run for Visalia, after hitting a single to lead off the top of the sixth. Walters advanced to second on a fly out, and scored on a Channy Ortiz single. Lawler scored the third run of the game for the Rawhide in the ninth. Lawler led off with a walk, stole second, then scored on a Deyvison De Los Santos single.

Sunday April 17th

Sacramento River Cats 0 Reno Aces 1

After the massacre that was Saturday’s game, the Aces pitching staff rebounded with a bullpen game, shutting out the River Cats, while holding them to just three hits and five walks. Edwin Uceta opened the game with three perfect innings, and three strikeouts. Taylor Widener followed that up with 1.2 scoreless innings, with a hit and a walk allowed, while also striking out three batters. Keynan Middleton relieved Widener with two outs and got out of the jam, without allowing the inherited runner to score. Middleton pitched 1.1 innings, with one walk and two strikeouts. Mack Lemeiux allowed two hits in a scoreless seventh inning, while striking out one. Jesus Liranzo walked two and struck out two in a scoreless eighth. Mitchell Stumpo walked one and struck out one in a scoreless ninth for the save.

Reno batters were limited to just four hits, though they did take six walks. The lone run came in the bottom of the fifth, when Alex Thomas hit a solo home run. Thomas also walked and swiped his first stolen bases of the season. Stone Garret doubled, walked, and swiped his third stolen base of the year.

Everett AquaSox 1 Hillsboro Hops 13

Luke Albright had another great start. Albright pitched 5.0 innings, with just a run allowed on two hits and a walk, with six strikeouts. The lone run allowed came in the fourth inning. Kyle Backhus followed up with a scoreless inning in the sixth, striking out all three batters faced. Marcos Tineo struck out two and walked one in a scoreless seventh inning. Hugh Fisher struck out two in a perfect inning of work in the eighth. Jose Santamaria allowed a hit and struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth.

The Hops scored six runs in the second to take an early 6-0 lead. Adrian Del Castillo and Tim Tawa hit back-to-back singles to lead off, followed by a walk to Caleb Roberts to load the bases. Cam Coursey singled and made it all the way to second thanks to an errant throw, scoring Del Castillo and Tawa, while advancing Roberts to third. Not that it would matter, as the next batter Ramses Malave walked to load the bases once again. Jose Curpa would walk as well, scoring Roberts. Ryan Bliss would strike out, but not before a balk scored Coursey to make the score 4-0. Jose Barrosa reached on an error, scoring Malave and Curpa to put the Hops up 6-0.

The Hops got right back to it in the bottom of the third. Tim Tawa led off with a single, and scored on a Caleb Roberts double, making the score 7-0. Cam Coursey would follow up with the third hit a row, a single scoring Roberts to make the score 8-0.

The hops scored five more runs in the fifth, once again thanks to sloppy play by the AquaSox. Adrian Del Castillo led off with a walk and Tim Tawa singled, putting runners on first and second. Caleb Robers grounded out to move the runners over, and Cam Coursey walked to load the bases. Ramses Malave would go down swinging, but Jose Curpa was hit by a pitch to force in a run to make the score 9-1. Ryan Bliss then laced a double to right, scoring Del Castilo, Tawa, and Curpa to make the score 12-1. A wild pitch allowed Bliss to advance to third, who then scored on a Jorge Barrosa double for the final score.

Visalia Rawhide 6 Lake Elsinore Storm 7

Liam Norris went three innings and allowed three runs on a hit and four walks, while striking out four. Norris wasn’t all that bad, but the lone hit allowed was a three-run home run in the bottom of the third. Peniel Otano followed with 3 ¹⁄₃ innings, four runs allowed on five hits and a balk. All four runs were unearned thanks to errors by Oscar Santos and Jacen Roberson on the same play. Jose Alcantara followed with 1 ²⁄₃ scoreless innings, allowing a hit, a walk, and a pair of strikeouts.

The Rawhide had lot of scoring opportunities that went to waste. In the top of the first, Sheng-Ping Chen led off with a single, then Jordan Lawler was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Oscar Santos grounded into a double play, leaving just Chen at third with two outs. Shane Muntz thankfully kept the inning going with a walk, and Junior Franco doubled, scoring Chen.

Jordan Lawler made the score 2-0 in the top of the third after leading off the inning with his third homer of the year. Oscar Santos reached on a fielding error, advanced to third on a Shane Mutz single, and scored on a Junior Franco single to make the score 3-0.

The Storm would tie it up at 3-3, but a wild fourth would see the Rawhide score without a hit. Jacen Roberson walked and stole second to lead off. Juan Batista was hit by a pitch. Chen and Lawler would make two quick outs before Oscar Santos walked to load the bases. Shane Muntz was hit by a pitch to force in a run, making the score 4-3. The Rawhide were unable to score further, which is unfortunate, as the Quake tied it up and pulled ahead 6-4 in the bottom of the inning, then tacked on another run to make it 7-4 in the bottom of the fifth. In the top of the sixth, Juan Batista led off with a walk, stole second, and scored after Sheng-Ping Chen reached on a fielding error, advancing to second himself on a throwing error, to make the score 7-5. In top of the seventh, once again the Rawhide failed to really capitalize on a scoring opportunity. Jean Walters walked to lead off, J.J. D’orazio doubled, and then Jacen Roberson walked to load the bases. Juan Batista grounded into a force out, and Walters was the only runner able to score.