Khal Stephen dominated Daytona and Dunedin scored 14 for a win. It is a race between him and Yesavage to see who gets to Vancouver first. The FCL Jays started their season with a win for a Florida double. Vancouver also had a big win. New Hampshire won a 1-0 game. Buffalo were the only losers.
Buffalo 2 Iowa 10
Portland 0 New Hampshire 1 - game one
New Hampshire at Portland - game two, postponed
Hillsboro 0 Vancouver 6
Daytona 1 Dunedin 14
FCL Blue Jays 7 FCL Phillies 4
Three Stars
Third Star - JR Freethy
Second Star - Cutter Coffey
First Star - Khal Stephen
NOTES
Jake Bloss had a very bad first inning for Buffalo, three walks and three hits led to three runs. He settled down a bit to get through 3.1 innings with four runs allowed.... back to the drawing board. The Jays signed Connor Overton earlier this week, he hasn't contributed yet, six runs allowed in 2.2 innings.
On offense Will Wagner homered and Orelvis had three hits to get his average up to .200.
New Hampshire scored the only run in game one on a balk. But it was the pitching that stood out. Michael Dominguez and Ryan Jennings combined on a three hitter over seven innings. The Jays are being careful with Dominguez, he was limited to 50 pitches in this game. That got him 3.2 innings, he just allowed one hit and struck out four, no walks.
Ryan Jennings has recently gone through a rough patch but there was no sign of that on Saturday. He threw 3.1 innings, two hits, four K's and no walks. There was one difference between the two pitchers, Dominguez had a 4-1 fly ball to ground ball ratio, Jennings had four ground balls, no fly balls.
Vancouver held Hillsboro to two hits. Grant Rogers went 5.2 innings, two hits, two walks, four K's. He also hit a couple of hitters.
Cutter Coffey had a big game, 3-4 with two RBI. Sean Keys also had two RBI from two hits. Arjun Nimmala singled and walked twice.
Khal Stephen didn't need much run support but he got 14 runs anyway. Phil Clarke, on rehab, had three hits and four RBI including a two run home run. JR Freethy had two hits, two walks and scored four times.
Khal Stephen breezed through five innings, four hits, no walks and eight K's.
The FCL started on Saturday. There are only four 18 year olds on the active roster, a sign of the Jays lack of impact signings over the last few years. 2024 draftees Johnny King and Carson Messina should be two of the starters. One of the 18 year olds is Aiden Taggart from Grimsby, Ontario.
Marc Hulet highlighted some players to watch in yesterdays update.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20250504012328347