Farm Report: Caleb Hamilton and Travis Blankenhorn homer in Kernels’ eleven-run victory

Triple-A: Rochester Red Wings 2, Norfolk Tides 1

The Red Wings scored two runs in the seventh inning to come from behind and take the lead, and eventually the win. 2B Tommy Field and C John Ryan Murphy hit back-to-back single to lead off the inning before Field scored on a sac fly by LF J.B. Shuck. CF Zack Granite then tripled to score Murphy and give then Wings the lead.

Teh game was also the newly DFAed Twin SP Adam Wilk’s first start for the Red Wings, and he did alright, giving up just the one run on a solo-shot by Norfolk 1B David Washington. Wilk only lasted four innings though.

The bullpen finished out the game on the mound in strong fashion. RP Ryan Eades pitched three scoreless innings, giving up only one hit and one walk while striking out four. The newly demoted RP Ryan Pressly pitched two scoreless innings for the save.

On a more troubling note were the Red Wings batters who struggled yesterday. 3B Matt Hague, RF Niko Goodrum, DH ByungHo Park, and SS Engelb Vielma all went 0-for-four. Park struck out three times too.

[Box Score]

Double-A: Chattanooga Lookouts 6, Jackson Generals 5

The Lookouts walked this one off, coming from behind to score two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning. CF LaMonte Wade and LF Travis Harrison led off the inning with back-to-back doubles to tie the game, and 3B Ryan Walker hit another double to drive in Harrison for the game winner.

1B Dan Gamache also hit a double earlier in the game. The four doubles were the Lookouts only extra-base hits. Good thing three of them came when it really mattered!

Also good thing the Lookouts pulled off the win, as they nearly gave it up due to bad fielding. Back-to-back errors by Gamache and SS Nick Gordon led to three unearned runs for SP Fernando Romero, who only earned two of the five runs given up in his seven inning outing. Romero gave up eight hits and zero walks while also striking out eight.

RP Mason Melotakis pitched a perfect top of the ninth for the Lookouts, and thus “earned” the win. He’s sporting a 2.57 ERA now these days.

[Box Score]

High-A: Palm Beach Cardinals 5, Ft. Myers Miracle 0

It wasn’t the greatest start yesterday for Miracle SP Lachlan Wells, who gave up a three-run home run to LF Randy Arozarena in the bottom of the first inning. To his credit, Wells was able to Radke himself out and pitch another four innings, giving up two more runs (though only one of them was earned). Overall he gave up five hits and two walks over five innings.

The real problem here, though, was obviously the complete lack of offense. The Miracle lineup only managed three hits in the entire game, and drew zero walks. RF Tanner English and DH Trey Vavra both manged doubles, while 1B Zander Wiel had a single. And that was it.

[Box Score]

Low-A: Cedar Rapids Kernels 11, Burlington Bees 6

The Kernels did not quite have the missing-offense problem the Miracle had yesterday! 1B Caleb Hamilton and 3B Travis Blankenhorn both hit two-run homers yesterday as the Kernels stung the Bees bad, scoring eleven runs overall. A two-run triple by Brandon Lopez and RBI double by SS Jermaine Palacios in the top of the second inning were also pretty cool.

SP Eduardo Del Rosario struggled a bit in his start, but it doesn’t matter so much when your lineup scores eleven runs. He gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks over five innings pitched.

RP Ryan Mason was strong for the Kernels bullpen, giving up only three hits and zero walks over two scoreless innings. Through Mason is sporting a 2.84 ERA over 6.1 innings pitched so far this year in Low-A.

[Box Score]

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