Charlotte and Bowling Green both exploded for 11 runs
As you might imagine, Montgomery was unable to play with the turbulent weather in the south.
Triple-A Durham Bulls (18-9)
A late three run inning led Durham to a 6-5 win over the RailRiders. In the eighth, Vince Belnome started a one out rally with a double, and after Jerry Sands walked, he came around to score on a Mike Fontenot double. Robby Price singled home Sands, and Fontenot scored on a Ray Olmedo squeeze bunt. Kirby Yates allowed a run in the ninth, but he worked out of trouble to save the game. Fontenot had a three hit game.
A first inning home run put Durham down 1-0 early, but they rebounded with their first three run inning of the game in the second. Olmedo triple home a pair of runs with two outs, and Eddy Rodriguez's single scored Olmedo. Unfortunately, starter Matt Andriese had problems with the long ball, allowing more than one home run in one game since August of 2012 when he was in the Cal League pitching road games at High Desert. Andriese allowed four runs on nine hits and a walk in six innings with six strikeouts.
Double-A Montgomery Biscuits (16-9)
Montgomery was postponed.
Class-A Advanced Charlotte Stone Crabs (11-14)
Charlotte piled on St. Lucie in their 11-2 win over the Mets. The Stone Crabs turned the tables on the league's best offense, hitting two home runs and scoring in seven different innings with 17 hits. Tommy Coyle's solo home run in the first inning got the scoring started, and they were up 3-0 entering their biggest inning of the game. In the four run fifth, Charlotte got two extra base hits from the organization's top two picks in the 2010 draft. First, Justin O'Conner drove in two with a double, and Josh Sale later followed that with a two run dinger, his first of the season.
With the early run support, Austin Pruitt turned in what was certainly his best start of the year, allowing one run on three hits and three walks in six innings with three strikeouts. Nick Sawyer gave up St. Lucie's second run when he walked three in 1.2 innings, but the Stone Crabs were up 10-1 at the time and were never in any danger. Six Stone Crabs reached base multiple times, led by Coyle who reached five times. Sale also hit his first triple of the season, and Andrew Toles picked up two hits and two steals.
Class A Bowling Green Hot Rods (7-16)
Bowling Green battled and came out on top in an 11-9 slugfest against South Bend. In addition to the 20 combined hits, the teams combined to walk 18 batters which led to all but one of the game's runs being scored before the sixth inning. After the Hot Rods went up 3-0 in the first inning, South Bend rebounded and sent Blake Snell to an early exit, scoring four runs against him before Aaron Griffin entered out of the bullpen. Snell fired a 1-2-3 first inning, but in the second, he allowed the four runs on three hits and two walks while recording just two outs, and he also balked in a run.
Griffin and then Colton Reavis didn't fair much better, combining to allow five runs in 5.1 innings of relief. Fortunately for Bowling Green, South Bend couldn't record outs either, allowing seven more runs to put the Hot Rods ahead 10-9 after five innings. Around this point, the game started to settle down a bit, and the last run of the game came on a Darryl George solo home run. Stone Speer struck out two in two scoreless innings to finish the game. George and Granden Goetzman each had three hits and reached base four times, and they both contributed a steal to the team's five total during the game.
Star of the day- There were a number of strong offensive performances, but I'll give this to George in Bowling Green's tight win.
Goat of the day- No goat on a sweep day. In the minors, anyway.
Today's games (probables courtesy of milb.com)
Durham is off
Montgomery v. Huntsville 11:35 AM (MiLB.TV, radio stream)
Dylan Floro (2-1, 6.41) v. Brooks Hall* (2-1, 2.77)
Charlotte @ St. Lucie 6:30 PM (Radio stream)
Leonel Santiago (0-3, 13.20) v. Steve Matz (2-1, 1.52)
Bowling Green v. South Bend 11:35 AM (Radio stream) DOUBLEHEADER
Jake Faria (0-1, 2.66) v. Braden Shipley (1-1, 0.79)
Jordan Harrison (0-1, 3.15) v. Blayne Weller (1-1, 3.55)
Both games will be seven innings
*Listed as TBA on milb.com
Scouting the opposition
Huntsville Stars (Milwaukee)
15-10 (1st in SL North)
Offense: 108 R (4th) .656 OPS (8th)
Pitching: 2.85 ERA (2nd) 1.07 WHIP (1st)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Mitch Haniger (3), RHP Taylor Jungmann (6), RHP David Goforth (8), 1B Jason Rogers (20), RHP Kevin Shackelford (21), RHP Drew Gagnon (25), RHP Tyler Cravy (29), OF D'Vontrey Richardson (30)
St. Lucie Mets
14-11 (T-2nd in FSL South)
Offense: 145 R (1st) .793 OPS (1st)
Pitching: 4.76 ERA (10th) 1.40 WHIP (8th)
Top 30 Prospects: OF Brandon Nimmo (8), LHP Steve Matz (12), 2B Dilson Herrera (13), RHP Michael Fulmer (14), RHP Gabriel Ynoa (15), RHP Domingo Tapia (19), RHP Matt Koch (24)
South Bend Silver Hawks (Arizona)
14-10 (2nd in MWL East)
Offense: 103 R (9th) .642 OPS (15th)
Pitching: 3.47 ERA (6th) 1.24 WHIP (3rd)
Top 30 Prospects: RHP Braden Shipley (2), RHP Aaron Blair (5), OF Stryker Trahan (8), 1B Daniel Palka (17), C Michael Perez (20), LHP Daniel Gibson (21), RHP Geordy Parra (22), SS Joe Munoz (26), 2B Jamie Westbrook (27), 2B Andrew Velasquez (28)