Jacksonville, GCL Sweep Doubleheaders, Muckdogs Win

Transactions

The Baby Cakes sent CF Isaac Galloway to the GCL Marlins for a rehab assignment and placed LHP Mike Kickham on the temporarily inactive list.

Triple-A

Pacific Coast League

New Orleans Baby Cakes 4, Oklahoma City Dodgers 11

The Dodgers (71-65) clinched a winning record for the season, defeating the Baby Cakes (54-79) by an 11-4 margin in front of 5,936 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

William Cuevas (2-6, 5.46) lost, surrendering nine earned runs on 11 hits and four walks in five innings.

The Cakes were outhit 15-to-8 offensively, led by Eury Perez with a single and a double. Jake Elmore hit a two-RBI double.

Double-A

Southern League

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 1, Biloxi Shuckers 0 (11)

In the first game of the twin bill at MGM Park, the Shrimp (66-68) topped the Shuckers (67-64), 1-0 in 11 innings. The only run of the game occurred when Alex Yarbrough scored in the top of the 11th on a Quintin Torres-Costa wild pitch.

Each team finished the contest with just four hits apiece. John Norwood hit a pair of singles, Kyle Barrett hit a single, and Austin Dean hit a single, ironically pinch-hitting for Barrett.

James Needy was really solid in his start, fanning six in as many innings and surrendering four hits and three walks, but no runs. Tyler Kinley and Daniel Schlereth (1-1, 1.78) were even better, collectively striking out three but allowing no hits and just one base-on-balls over five innings.

The result of the game brought the Shuckers to the brink of elimination.

Yarbrough scores on wild pitch in 11th, Jacksonville beats Biloxi

Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 4, Biloxi Shuckers 1 (7)

The Shrimp ended the night four games up on the Mobile BayBears with five games remaining. 2,287 were present at MGM Park to witness the Shrimp (67-68) eliminate the Shuckers (67-65) from the playoff picture.

Joe Gunkel (6-9, 5.02) struck out five and allowed four hits and a walk for one earned run in 6 ¹⁄₃ innings.

The Shrimp opened up the scoring in the second inning on a Rodrigo Vigil RBI-single to right field. Vigil added an RBI-sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning to score Taylor Ard, then hit a two-RBI-single in the sixth to account for all of Jacksonville’s runs. Dustin DeMuth (9) hit a leadoff homer in the seventh off of Gunkel to prevent a Shrimp shutout. John Norwood joined Vigil with two hits to lead the Shrimp offense.

Shrimp 1 win from playoff spot after 1-0, 4-1 sweep in Biloxi

Advanced-A

Florida State League

Jupiter Hammerheads 1, Lakeland Flying Tigers 0 (16)

The Flying Tigers (61-63) defeated the Hammerheads (64-67) with a 1-0, walkoff 16-inning victory with 553 present at Joker Marchant Stadium. There were 43 combined strikeouts in the contest.

Cody Poteet started things out with six innings of two-hit ball, with five strikeouts. Lukas Schiraldi pitched a scoreless inning, Felipe Gonzalez followed by striking out the side in a perfect eighth, James Buckelew whiffed two and kept Lakeland off the board despite allowing four baserunners in two frames, Marcus Crescentini struck out four in two shutout innings, and Jorgan Cavanerio (4-3, 2.36) was saddled with the loss after surrendering a run in the bottom of the 16th to Will Maddox, who scored Jose Salas on a bunt.

The Tigers outhit the Sharks, 11-to-7. No Hammerhead collected more than one hit, and.

Maddox hits walk-off single in 16th, Lakeland beats Jupiter 1-0

Single-A

South Atlantic League

Greensboro Grasshoppers 11, Kannapolis Intimidators 13

It was mayhem with 4,183 in attendance at First National Bank Field, in a game which saw 27 combined hits and just one home run.

The Grasshoppers jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Kannapolis went on an eight run rampage in the fifth inning to get back into the swing of things.

After facing the minimum through the first four innings, it all came apart pretty fast for UK product Dustin Beggs. He ended up allowing all eight runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out four and didn’t record an out in the fifth. Michael Mertz put out the fire, allowing just an unearned run in three innings of work, and Chad Smith (3-2, 2.86) took the loss, surrendering four earned runs on four hits in just ²⁄₃ of an inning.

Opposing starter Lane Hobbs had an even worse time than Beggs. He gave up singles to Brian Miller and Aaron Knapp to start the first, then after an Eric Gutierrez RBI-groundout, watched as Trenton Hill (2) took him deep for an early 3-0 lead.

The third inning was much worse for him. Hill added a sacrifice fly, Jhonny Santos hit a two-RBI-single, Rony Cabrera hit a two-RBI-double, and Luis Pintor hit an RBI-single to put the game seemingly out of reach.

After taking the lead in the fifth, the Intimidators tied it in the seventh and added four runs in the eighth for a 13-9 lead. Gutierrez hit an RBI-double and Jarett Rindfleisch added an RBI-single in the bottom of the ninth, but it was a little too little just a little too late to make a difference.

Gonzalez leads Kannapolis to 13-11 win over Greensboro

Short-Season A

New York-Penn League

Batavia Muckdogs 5, Mahoning Valley Scrappers 1

Batavia (29-38) defeated the Scrappers (39-28) with 876 at Dwyer Stadium on Wednesday night.

Osman Gutierrez (1-0, 1.50) whiffed nine in six innings, allowing one earned run on four hits and a walk. Kenny Koplove, Colton Hock, and Bryce Howe each pitched a scoreless relief inning, Hock striking out two.

The Muckdogs spotted the Scrappers an early lead, on a Nolan Jones (4) solo homer in the first inning, but Gutierrez buckled down after that. Batavia took the lead for good in the third inning on a Terry Bennett RBI-single and a Jared Barnes RBI-double. Bennett added a two-RBI single in the seventh to make it 4-1, then Tyler Curtis hit an RBI-double in the eighth.

Offensively, the Muckdogs doubled the Scrappers, with 10 hits to five for Mahoning Valley. Barnes collected a pair of doubles, Curtis added a single to his double, and of course Bennett finished with three RBI on two singles.

Bennett leads Batavia over Mahoning Valley 5-1

Rookie

Gulf Coast League

GCL Marlins 3, GCL Mets 2 (11)

In the first game of GCL’s doubleheader, which started just prior to 10AM despite a 20 minute delay, Wei-Yin Chen surrendered two hits in one shutout inning of work, with one strikeout at Roger Dean Stadium. It’s important to remember that this game started last week, and was resumed in the eighth inning.

After Chen was lifted, Brady Puckett let in two runs (one earned) in 5 ²⁄₃ innings on seven hits and a walk. He struck out three. Miguel De Los Santos whiffed two and walked one with zero hits in 1 ¹⁄₃ innings, and Javier Garcia (3-1, 4.03) struck out six against two walks in three no-hit innings.

The Marlins (27-22) collected the win despite getting outhit by the Mets (17-32) by a nine-to-four margin. The good guys scored on a Yeral Encarnacion RBI-single in the fourth for a 1-0 lead, then let the Mets take control with a two-run seventh. Albert Guaimaro (1) equalized the score in the bottom of that same frame with his first homer of the season. Ben Fisher drove home J.D. Osborne with the walkoff game winner in the 11th inning with a double. Joe Dunand collected the other hit, a double.

GCL Marlins 4, GCL Mets 2

Brady Puckett (4-1, 2.85) earned the win in the second game of the twin bill, starting and throwing five shutout innings. He whiffed five and allowed five hits. Gavin Fritz and Josh Alberius each pitched two innings and allowed one run on two hits. Alberius earned his first save.

Rosandel Reyna crossed the plate on a throwing error on Mets pitcher Jose Moreno in the fifth for a 1-0 Marlins lead, then Joe Dunand added a sacrifice fly later in the frame. Isaac Galloway knocked in Michael Donadio in the seventh with an RBI-single, and then knocked Donadio in again in the ninth with another. The Mets avoided getting shut out on a two-out ninth-inning RBI-single by Kenneth Bautista.

Galloway, Reyna, and Donadio each finished with two hits, with Reynoso picking up the other one as the Marlins were outhit by the Mets, nine-to-seven.

Later

Noon - GCL Marlins host the GCL Astros. After their second doubleheader sweep in two days, they’re still technically alive for a postseason spot, but it’s not by much. Any Nationals win or Marlins loss will end it, and they each have four games remaining.

6:30PM - Ben Meyers (3-3, 2.10) will take the hill for the Hammerheads against the Fort Myers Miracle (74-57).

7:00PM - The Grasshoppers will send out Max Duval (3-0, 2.56) against the Intimidators.

7:05PM - Sean Guenther (1-2, 3.68) starts opposite the Williamsport Crosscutters (32-34).

7:05PM - The Jumbo Shrimp will face off against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (71-64) at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville. This is interesting because it’s the first game of a likely 10-game series. The second half winner (presumably Jacksonville) will face Pensacola in a best-of-five at the conclusion of the regular season.

8:05PM - Victor Payano (4-3, 4.03) takes the hill against Oklahoma City in the final game of their four-game set.

Birthdays

Brett Wheatley of the Muckdogs turns 24, soon-to-be-Marlin Dillon Peters turns 25, DSL participant Ezequiel Alfonzo turns 18, and Henry McAree is 24.

On This Date

In 1961:

Pete Rose of the Tampa Tarpons of the Florida State League established a long-standing league record with 30 triples for the season. After struggling with Geneva of the New York-Penn League in 1960, Rose was promoted to the FSL for 1961, where some added size and strength would help him tear up the league. In 130 games with the Tarpons, he hit .331 (160-for-484) with two home runs, 20 doubles, 77 RBIs, 105 runs scored and a slugging percentage of .508. - courtesy of MILB.COM.