4/11 Minor League Wrap-Up

I am live for the moment from Smith in Capitol Hill, where I just finished off a quality sausage/egg breakfast from their revamped (and far more normal than the previous) menu, and am about to head down to Seattle U's soccer field for LL Softball.

Meanwhile, thanks for your patience, as I was out last night and didn't get home until pretty late, and definitely needed some sleep after a long week.  Here is the wrap-up for last night's games... well, the ones that actually happened.  Cold inclement weather once again wiped out two of the four scheduled games for the org, and you can probably guess one.  Plus, one of those who did play probably wished they hadn't... but one was certainly happy with the outcome of a comeback win.

On to the wrap-up!  And if you're going to Softball, see you there.

A:  Guess what happened to Wisconsin's series opener with Dayton?

Informer!
You know say daddy me snow T-Rats a blame
A licky boom-boom down
'Tective man he say, say Dayton Me Snow me stab someone down the lane
A licky boom-boom down

A+:  High Desert 6, Inland Empire 5, 11 innings

Keith Renaud:  5 IP, 4 H, (5 R) 4 ER (HR), 3 walks, 3 K, wild pitch
Nick Hill:  4 IP, 0 H (!), walk, 2 K
Family Warrior Harold Williams:  2 IP, 2 H, 4 K
Jamie McOwen:  4-6, double, R
Kuo Hui Lo:  0-5, 2 K
Carlos Peguero:  1-6, 3 run HR, K
Chris Minaker:  1-5, double, walk
Greg Halman:  1-5, R, sac fly RBI, 4 K: The Golden Sombrero
Travis Scott:  1-5, RBI
Ogui Diaz:  2-5, R, K

Empire jumped out to another quick lead, hammering Keith Renaud with some help from four early walks.  To Renaud's credit, despite surrendering five early runs, he managed to get through 5 innings and give the bullpen a relatively manageable workload.

Groundballs:  7
Flyballs:  5
Line Drives:  2
Pop Ups:  1
Walks:  3
Strikeouts:  3

Military Man Nick Hill saved the day by tossing four HITLESS innings in relief, saving the bullpen and atoning for earlier struggles this season and showing us he may well have this High A Ball thing in hand.

The Mavs got a run in the 8th, but they came into the bottom 9th down 5-1.  Ogui Diaz and Jamie McOwen frontloaded singles.  With one out and men on 1st and 2nd, Johan Limonta grounded to 2nd, and Jamie Pedroza threw YIKES AND AWAY to score Diaz and make it 5-2 with runners on 2nd and 3rd.

Then Carlos Peguero nucleared a Given Kutz suck pitch over the RCF wall to TIE THE BALLGAME, BITCH.  Paul Koss comes in too little too late, and though he walked Chris Minaker, he got Greg Halman on strikes and Travis Scott to fly out for Empire to survive regulation alive.

Family Warrior Harold Williams relieved Nick Hill and struck out Christian Lara but allowed a scary one out triple to Trayvon Robinson.  But Jamie Pedroza dug the goat ditch a little deeper by striking out, and Josh Bell watched strike three to end the threat.  In the bottom 10th, Jamie McOwen hit a two out single and swiped 2nd on the newest fad (defensive indifference) but Kuo Hui Lo struck out in a curiously quiet 0 for 5 night for a guy who had a hot start to the year.

Empire got a leadoff single from Matt Berezay in the 11th, and Carlos Santana Caravenserai'd him over with a sac bunt for one out.  Not That Eduardo Perez grounded to 2nd for two outs, moving Berezay to 3rd, but Harold got Thomas Giles swinging to end the threat.

Johan Limonta led off the bottom 11th with a single through the left side.  With one out, Blake Brannon relieved David Pfeiffer, and Chris Minaker crapped all over an initial offering for a double to move Limonta's slow ass to 3rd.  But Greg Halman finished the job with a dagger sac fly to seal the 6-5 win.

AA:  Huntsville 10, West Tenn 1

Arthur Rhodes:  one out, 2 H, (3 R) 1 ER, walk, K, not ready
Justin Thomas:  5.2 IP, 5 H, (2 R) 1 ER (HR), 7 K, wild pitch, hit batter
Mumba Rivera:  1 IP, 2 K
Roman Martinez:  1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 walks, K, hit batter
Brodie Downs:  1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER (HR), 2 walks
Jeff Dominguez:  2-3
rest of DIAMOND JAXX lineup:  1-28, R, walk, 4 K

Lost in this is that Justin Thomas didn't pitch too bad of a ballgame.  Sadly, like a bad porno, it was bookended by a ton of suck, including an Arhtur Rhodes rehab appearance that could have gone way better, setting the table for a 4 run disaster 1st inning from which the Stars did not look back, thanks to the DIAMOND JAXX playing dead at the plate.  Thomas was the bright spot in a bad day for the DIAMOND JAXX:

Groundballs: 7
Flyballs:  5
Line Drives:  1
Pop Ups:  2
Walks:  0
Strikeouts:  7

AAA:  Tacoma's game in Colorado Springs was postponed due to extreme cold, brought to you by Coors, the official shitty beer of baseball.