Its Tough At The Top

Thursday, May 24 2018 @ 09:36 PM EDT

Contributed by: Gerry

Sean Reid Foley learned today that AAA hitters can take care of business if you can't hit your spots. He gave up eight runs in 2.1 innings. Buffalo lost but does scoring seven runs in the last four innings give them some hope? New Hampshire got home runs from Bo Bichette and Vlad Jr. but still lost. Randy Pondler came out of the woodwork to get the win for Dunedin. Lansing scored three in the ninth to come from behind and win.

Buffalo

Buffalo went down 11-1 in the middle of the sixth but rallied to lose only 11-8 by going to plan B. That involved getting Darnell Sweeney and Ian Parmley to shut down the Syracuse offense and getting the bats to come to life. In the sixth a triple by Richard Urena and a double by Danny Jansen got the offense going. In the eighth a single by Urena, and doubles by Rowdy Tellez and Jansen kept the line moving. In the ninth Dalton Pompey doubled and Jansen added his third double in four innings. It was too little, too late, but many of the Bisons hitters have not been hitting. Before this game the Torontonians, Pompey, Urena, Gurriel and Alford, all had bad batting averages. Pompey and Urena had a couple of hits each and Gurriel had one. One of Pompey's hits was an opposite field home run. The Bisons need those guys to get hot. With his three hits, Jansen's average is back up to .312. And Rowdy Tellez had two doubles, he is hitting .367 over his last eight games.

Sean Reid-Foley started but didn't last long. After a 1-2-3 first he gave up three runs in the second and five in the third. He was pulled after 2.1 innings. He threw 64 pitches, 37 strikes and 27 balls. As mentioned Darnell Sweeney and Ian Parmley each pitched a shutout inning with no hits.


New Hampshire

Josh DeGraaf made his first start of this year for New Hampshire and took the loss. He was charged with all four runs in a 4-3 loss. Two of the runs were unearned thanks to a Bo Bichette error. All three Fisher Cat runs came via the home run. Bo Bichette broke out of his slump with a 2-4 day including his second home run of the season. Vlad Jr hit his 9th home run and also had a 2-4 day. The Cats had seven hits with Bo and Vlad accounting for four of them. Cavan Biggio was 0-2 with two walks. The Fisher Cats did not have a hit after the fifth inning.


Dunedin

Randy Pondler was pitcher of the year for Bluefield last season but didn't get an assignment to Lansing to start this year. With pitchers being shuffled around he was sent to Dunedin to help out. Connor Eller started and went 2.1 shutout innings. Then Pondler entered and pitched 4.2 innings giving up one run. It wasn't outstanding as he had six hits and two walks but he punched out six.

The Jays got two runs in the first inning. Edward Pinto and Alberto Mineo both doubled then Riley Adams singled to make it 2-0. The Jays added three more in the sixth. A couple of walks were followed by a bases loading single by Kacy Clemens . A sac fly, a walk and a single from Josh Palacios made it 5-1 and that's how it ended. Mineo and Adams led the way with two hits each.


Lansing

Lansing's bullpen blew a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth to leave the Lugnuts down 4-3 but they came back with three runs in the ninth to win 6-4. In the ninth inning, with runners on second and third, South Bend elected to walk Yeltsin Gudino to set up a bases loaded, one out, situation. Brandon Grudzielanek doubled to bring in two runs and give the Lugnuts a 5-4 lead. The sixth run scored on a bases loaded walk. Grudzielanek was 2-4 with three RBI. Brock Lundquist hit his ninth home run.

Maverik Buffo started and went six innings with nine K's. He gave up just one run but didn't get the win. Newest Lugnut, Claudio Custodio gave up three runs in his second inning of work.



3 Stars

3rd star: Danny Jansen

2nd star: Maverik Buffo

1st star: Brandon Grudzielanek


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