Yes, that's my headline.
Three runs was the most scored by any of the minor league teams last night, and even that required an Ontario kid to come up with a hit in the final inning. We've got a rainout, a rain delay, a rain-induced doubleheader and...well, our Third Star today is the rare ballplayer whose first and last names both contain the letters r-a-i-n.
Syracuse was rained out in Ottawa. What, no snow?
New Britain 5 @ New Hampshire 3
This one was delayed due to rain in the top of the 8th.
Through then, Michael McDonald had, well, a lot of ground balls. He went 7 innings and had 13 of them, along with three strikeouts. Unfortunately, four runs (two earned) came along with that and the F-Cats' offense isn't Murderer's Row. More like Marble Rye Thief's Row.
Curtis Thigpen tripled home two runs with two out and Carlo Cota and Miguel Negron on base in the second. I wonder how many catchers can actually hit a triple...
After the game resumed, the Rock Cats added another in the 8th to make it 5-2...and that was about it.
Dunedin 0 @ St. Lucie 1 (7 innings, Game 1)
A complete game for Jesse Litsch as he goes the "distance" giving up just the one run over six innings. That run came in the second after a two-base error by the first baseman and a sac fly, though. However, it was almost 1-0 in the first inning when Ambiorix Concepcion hit one to CF and raced around second...then around third. He was thrown out at home trying for the inside-the-parker.
The D-Jays were shut out on four hits. One of those hits, naturally, came from Ryan Patterson who is hitting .331 now after what appeared to be a slow start. Moral of May: you won't be hitting .250 forever. My boy David Corrente came up in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded, but he flew out to end the first game.
Dunedin 3 @ St. Lucie 2 (7 innings, Game 2)
Ron Davenport hit a two-run homer to open the scoring, but I've got to give props to David Corrente again. He came up in the seventh with runners in scoring position once again, and this time he singled to Jamar Hill rather than flying out to Jamar Hill. That made it 3-1 Dunedin, which is all they needed. This time, the four-hitter was from Ricky Romero (4.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K in his third start), Official Pitcher of Thomas Ayers Connor Falkenbach (one perfect inning) and Brad Mumma (well, one batter). Romero, however, gave up nine fly ball outs against zero groundouts.
Lansing 2 @ Burlington 7
A five-run fourth did it for the Nuts yesterday afternoon. Kristian Bell fell apart, it seems, after a couple of good innings when he hit a couple of batters, gave up a homer and uncorked a wild pitch. So it's your basic Jeff Weaver inning, despite the fact that Bell didn't start off with two quick outs before the bad times started. Adrian Martin stranded all three runners Bell left on, and allowed just one run over the fifth, sixth and seventh -- and that was on a double play groundout.
Brian Pettway (double), Anthony Hatch (single) and Brian Bormaster (double) combined for the two runs Lansing scored in the fourth inning. Bormaster also had another single, making him the only multi-hit member of the Lugnuts in the game. Also, the attendance was a powerful 494 -- good ol' Low-A ball.
Three Star Selection:
3. Adrian Martin
2. Ricky Romero
1. Jesse Litsch
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20060517185956493