Fish Farm Report: April 29th

Triple-A

Pacific Coast League

New Orleans Baby Cakes 2, Nashville Sounds 10

The Nashville Sounds (9-11) destroyed the New Orleans Baby Cakes (8-15) by a 10-2 final in front of 10,672 at First Tennessee Park on Saturday. It was their fourth straight loss.

After impressing in his last start, Vance Worley took the loss by allowing six earned runs on nine hits in just four innings. Worley got 45-of-75 pitches into the strikezone and posted a GameScore of 22. Nick Wittgren was the only New Orleans’ pitcher that had a good night, striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Matt Juengel went three-for-three from the plate, raising his average to .254, and Steve Lombardazzi hit safely twice for the second game in a row. No other Cake had multiple hits for this game.

Scott Copeland (2-2, 5.89) will pitch for the Cakes tomorrow at 3:05.

Double-A

Southern League

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 4, Mobile Baybears 2

The Shrimp (9-14) beat the Bears (11-12) for the second time in a row, with 7,912 on hand at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Omar Bencomo was on point for the fifth time in five starts this season, running his record to 4-0 and watching his ERA actually rise to 1.27 after giving up just one run in five innings. He whiffed six and allowed a walk and six hits, getting 53-of-77 pitches over the plate and finishing with a 59 GameScore. Opposing starter Grayson Long finished with a 36 GameScore, and also gave up six hits over five innings. Long allowed three earned runs ans only struck out two while allowing two Shrimp round-trippers.

The Bears got onto the board first in the second inning, scoring a run on a Forrestt Allday RBI-single. Jacksonville tied it in the bottom of the third on a Jeremias Pineda RBI-single.

John Norwood broke the game open to start the fourth with a line drive solo shot to left field. It was his third long ball of the campaign. Taylor Ard followed shortly thereafter with a home run of his own, also his third of the season. The two run shot set the score at 4-1, where it would remain for most of the rest of the game. Mobile scored on a Zach Houchins sacrifice fly in the ninth inning.

Hunter Adkins pitched three scoreless innings in relief, whiffing three batters, then Tyler Kinley earned his second save of the season, allowing a run on two hits in his frame of work.

Pineda finished with two singles, as did #3 prospect Brian Anderson, who is now hitting .253. David Vidal continued his hot start, raising his average to .330 on a two-for-four afternoon.

Leading the five-game series, two-games-to-one, the Shrimp will try to clinch it at home tomorrow against the Baybears, with the first pitch scheduled for 3:05. Joe Gunkel, recently claimed by the Marlins after getting waived by the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, will get his first start in Miami’s. Gunkel is a 25-year-old right-hander from Boynton Beach, and an 18th round pick of the Boston Red Sox in 2013.

Advanced-A

Florida State League

Jupiter Hammerheads 2, Palm Beach Cardinals 4

Jupiter (11-12) lost their fourth game in six late Saturday afternoon at Roger Dean Stadium, allowing the Palm Beach Cardinals (12-10) to claim a 4-2 victory in front of 937 die hard fans at Roger Dean Stadium. Making the attendance total slightly more embarrassing is the fact that both of these teams call Roger Dean home.

Scott Squier took the loss, despite watching his ERA drop by nearly two runs. He gave up two earned on five hits and a walk over six frames. He finished with a 57 GameScore, running 57-of-90 pitches into the strikezone.

The Cardinals scored their first run of the day on an Angel Reyes fielding error in the second, then added another on a Luke Dystra RBI-groundout later in the frame. They added a third run in the fourth inning on an Edmundo Sosa double-play ball.

Jupiter scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth, on a Reyes RBI-triple and a Dexter Kjerstad sacrifice fly. The Cardinals got one of those back on a Megneuris Sierra RBI-groudout in the next half inning.

The Hammerheads only collected five hits all day, with Reyes hitting a single with his triple. He was the only Jupiter player to finish with more than one hit, and is now at .318 for the year.

The rubber game of this three game matchup will kick off at 1 PM tomorrow, with Ben Holmes (0-1, 4.02) starting opposite Palm Beach’s Connor Jones (1-0, 1.64).

Single-A

South Atlantic League

Greensboro Grasshoppers 7, Asheville Tourists 4

Greensboro (11-12) won their second game in a row over the Asheville Tourists (11-13) in front of 3,329 at McCormick Field on Saturday afternoon by a 7-4 final count.

L.J. Brewster ran his record to 2-2, dropping his ERA to 3.68 by allowing two earned runs on a walk and eight hits over six frames, striking out three Tourists. He got 55-of-77 strikes over the plate and finished with a 55 GameScore.

Colby Lusignan got things started with a two-run double in the top of the first inning. Eric Gutierrez added a run on a sacrifice fly.

Luis Pintor doubled home Jarett Rindfleisch to make it 4-0 in the fourth inning. Gutierrez added another sac fly in the fifth, and Justin Twine singled home Lusignan to run the score to 6-0 in the fifth. Asheville finally got on the board in the bottom half of the inning on a Joel Diaz RBI-double.

Lusignan hit an RBI-single to score Aaron Knapp with an insurance run in the sixth inning to make it 7-1. Asheville got it back in the bottom part of the frame on a Colton Welker RBI-double. The Tourists decided to make it interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning. Tyler Nevin scored on a Jacob Bosiokovic ground out, then Diaz scored on a Manuel Melendez single to center field. That was all she wrote, however, because Chad Smith whiffed Jose Gomez to end the game one batter later.

Marcus Crescentini threw two hitless innings, striking out two in relief. Lusignan finished the day with a five-for-five performance, raising his batting average by 49 points to .299. Gutierrez had two doubles with a single, and Knapp had a single and a double.

Dustin Beggs (1-2, 1.71) will take the hill tomorrow at 2:05 opposite Alejandro Requena. Requena has started four games but does not have a win-loss record, although he has allowed just one earned run over his first 26.1 innings for a 0.34 ERA.

Prospect Watch

#3 Brian Anderson went 2-for-4 to raise his average to .253 for the Shrimp.

#8 Stone Garrett went 1-for-3 with a walk, a run, and two whiffs for the Hammerheads.

#10 James Nelson went 0-for-3 with two walks and two runs for Greensboro.

#12 J.T. Riddle went 0-for-5 with a whiff and a run scored for the Cakes.

#26 Justin Twine had one hit in five visits to the plate, knocking one in and raising his average to .111 in his first game back from the DL.

#27 John Norwood struck out three times and hit a solo homer for the Shrimp.

#28 Tomas Telis went 1-for-3 and raised his average to .274 for New Orleans.

Transactions

The Baby Cakes assigned LHP Raudel Lazo to the Batavia Muckdogs and activated RHP Javy Guerra from the inactive list.

Aside from gaining RHP Joe Gunkel, the Shrimp place RHP Tayron Guerrero on the seven-day DL.

The Grasshoppers recieved first baseman Eric Gutierrez from the Muckdogs and placed infielder Branden Berry on the seven-day DL.