Fish Farm Report: April 16th

After a busy day where all four Marlins full season affiliates were in action, playing five games total on Saturday, only two were in action on Easter Sunday. It was a tough go-round for New Orleans and Jacksonville.

New Orleans Baby Cakes 0, Omaha Storm Chasers 7

The Baby Cakes (4-7) continued their struggle to stay consistent early in 2017, losing to Omaha 7-0 on Sunday afternoon. Saturday, the Cakes beat Omaha 4-2 and the day before combined for a no-hitter against Iowa. Sunday was a different story, as they were only able to get one hit off of three Storm Chasers pitchers. The lone hit was off the bat of Ryan Jackson, who was one for two with a walk. Jackson reached base twice, accounting for two of the three New Orleans base runners in the game.

Starting pitching for the Cakes was not ideal. Justin Nicolino got roughed up in 4.2 innings of work, giving up seven runs (three earned) on seven hits and struck out five Omaha batters. Two of the Omaha hits were home runs. One bright spot for New Orleans was relief pitching. In the remaining 3.1 innings pitched, three Cakes relievers combined to keep the Storm Chasers hitless for the remainder of the game while walking just one batter. No. 16 prospect Drew Steckenrider pitched two of those innings, striking out three batters. The Cakes will go up against Omaha again tomorrow at 12:05 PM EST in the great state of Nebraska.

Chattanooga Lookouts 1, Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 0

The offense for the Jumbo Shrimp (5-5) had trouble producing runs in their 1-0 loss to Chattanooga, even though they sprayed six hits compared to the Lookouts’ four. Cam Maron led the Jacksonville offense, collecting two hits in three at bats. Four other Shrimp collected hits, but Jacksonville left six runners on base collectively. They did get a hit with runners in scoring position, but were not able to push the run across.

The Shrimp pitching did everything they could to position themselves to win, but came up short due to lack of run support. Starter Chris Mazza went six innings, giving up only two hits and striking out six in an impressive outing. No. 23 prospect Tayron Guerrero gave up only one hit, a home run to Jonathan Rodriguez, in one inning of work and was given the loss. Tyler Higgens twirled two scoreless innings to finish off the Lookout batters, but the Shrimp couldn’t squeak out a run. The Shrimp start a series with the Pensacola Blue Wahoos on Monday in Pensacola, Florida. First pitch will be at 7:35 PM EST.