Tue. 5/10 - New Week Begins, Shuckers Need to Pick It Up

[Ro Mueller]

Just now, Julio Muchacho said:

Joe Gray Jr. stays hot at the plate: His 3rd HR of the young season. It's 3-1 T-Rats.

He’d taken 9 pitches over 2 at-bats: a 4-pitch walk; then watched 2 strikes and 3 straight balls before pulling the trigger to park that one. The man is serious about baseball.

[Joseph Zarr]

A first pitch double, and the Linbolm 'no no' is over. It was an absolute hanging meatball first pitch and he gives up a deep triple to right field on a 99 mph off-the-bat deep looping hit off the wall and way back into shallow right field. It is now 1-1. We have a ballgame.

[Ro Mueller]

Jackson Chourio reached on an infield single and then scored on a throwing error. Mudcats lead 1-0 in the 5th inning.

[Joseph Zarr]

12 minutes ago, damuelle said:

Jackson Chourio reached on an infield single and then scored on a throwing error. Mudcats lead 1-0 in the 5th inning.

No they don't. LOL. It's now 1-1 on a seeing eye single to RF. On to the 6th. ?

[Ro Mueller]

The Rattlers have blown open the game in the 4th inning on RBI singles by Carlos D. Rodriguez and Antonio Pinero, then a 3-run homer by Tyler Black (his 1st of the year). It's 8-1 Wisconsin.

[Ro Mueller]

Gabe Holt doubled in Noah Campbell (who'd walked) in the 4th inning, then Joey Wiemer stole home while Jakson Reetz was caught in a pickle the next inning. It's 4-0 Shuckers in the 7th inning now, though Birmingham has two aboard via infield singles with one out, Taylor Floyd pitching. 

[Ro Mueller]

Tristan Peters launched his second home run of the season. He's in quite the groove after some initial uncertainty which level of ball he'd actually play at (e.g. High-A vs. Low-A). It's 9-1 Wisconsin in the 5th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

3 minutes ago, damuelle said:

Gabe Holt doubled in Noah Campbell (who'd walked) in the 4th inning, then Joey Wiemer stole home while Jakson Reetz was caught in a pickle the next inning. It's 4-0 Shuckers in the 7th inning now, though Birmingham has two aboard via infield singles with one out, Taylor Floyd pitching. 

Floyd induced yet another grounder, the 4th of the inning. This was resulted in a threat-ending double play. It's 7th inning stretch time, with Biloxi leading 4-0.

[Ro Mueller]

Joey Wiemer blasted his 5th home run of the season on a 3-1 pitch, a solo shot. Then Thomas Dillard doubled home Felix Valerio to stretch the Biloxi lead to 6-0. On to the 8th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

In Fayetteville, Carolina Manager Estevez allowed Ryne Moore to complete 7 innings (93 pitches). It's 1-1 there heading to the 8th inning.

In Jacksonville, Brice Turang nearly got himself home (single, stolen base, took third on a fly out) in the 8th inning, but it was to no avail. Nashville is down 2-1 entering the 9th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

Two errors by Gabe Holt, two singles and two runs scored in the top of the 8th inning have Biloxi fans, players and coaches understandably on edge. It's 6-2, 2-on, nobody out with Robbie Hitt pitching.

[Ro Mueller]

Nashville's tied it up 2-2 on a David Dahl single, Mario Feliciano double (his 4th hit of the game) and Alex Jackson ground out.

Garrett Whitley has returned from injury, running for Feliciano and representing the potential lead run with 1 out in the top of the 9th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

After struggling a bit in this game, CF Jonathan Davis comes through in the clutch with a 2-out single the other way to score Garrett Whitley from second base and give Nashville a 3-2 lead.

From there, Davis creates his usual havoc, stealing second and taking third on an error charged to the catcher.

[Ro Mueller]

It hasn't gotten any better in Biloxi, as it's now 6-3, bases loaded for Birmingham with only one out. RHP Matt Hardy is coming in to try to preserve this 8th inning lead.

[Ro Mueller]

Gulp. Carolina wasn't able to put anyone on base in the top of the 9th inning, so they head to the bottom half with RHP Christian Tripp on the mound to try to prevent a walk-off loss in Fayetteville. It's been 1-1 since the 5th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

Oh man. The wheels are nearly off in Biloxi. They've committed two more errors (Devanney, Campbell), making it 4 errors in the inning, allowing Birmingham to put up 6 runs thus far, still with only 1 out.

Thankfully, the next batter grounded it to Felix Valerio, who combined with Freddy Zamora and Cam Devanney to turn the double play.

Somehow it's all tied up at 6-6 as they head to the bottom of the 8th inning.

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Hobie Harris gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the 9th inning of that tight 3-2 contest, but calmly induced a groundout to third base and struck out the next two Jacksonville batters to close it out. Another Sweet win for the Sounds!

[Ro Mueller]

Christian Tripp scaled through 2 scoreless innings, so Carolina and Fayetteville head to extras, still knotted at 1-1.

[Ro Mueller]

The Timber Rattlers sent 12(!!) hitters to the plate in the 7th inning, scoring 6 runs to extend their lead in Quad Cities to 15-4.

[Ro Mueller]

RHP Matt Hardy calmed the situation in Biloxi, working around a single to keep it tied 6-6.

Zamora, Mitchell, Wiemer and Valerio will try to grab victory in walk-off fashion.

[Ro Mueller]

The Mudcats couldn't move Manfred's ghost off of second base in the top half of the 10th inning.

So it's still 1-1, with RHP Michele Vassalotti facing the difficult task of giving his mates another chance.

[Ro Mueller]

And the Shuckers come through!  Felix Valerio singles to left to score the speedster Garrett Mitchell from second base. Biloxi ends their skid with a 7-6 hard-fought victory. Kudos to Freddy Zamora with the leadoff walk.

[Ro Mueller]

Cool cucumber Vassalotti strikes out the first two batters and gets an infield pop up. Carolina and Fayetteville are going to the 11th inning!

[Ro Mueller]

Eduardo Garcia comes through with a 2-out, 11th inning base hit to left field to score Manfred's ghost (Zack Raabe) and give Carolina a 2-1 lead.

Then Jackson Chourio follows with a ground rule double, but that's not quite enough to score Garcia. Jeferson Quero then lined out to center field.

Hold on Mudcats!!  Vassalotti stays in the game for the bottom half, attempting to replicate his 10th inning magic.

[Ro Mueller]

And Vassalotti does indeed close it out, throwing scoreless 10th and 11th innings to earn the win for our Carolina Mudcats.

That's THREE, count 'em, THREE one-run victories for our minor league affiliates today:
- Nashville 3-2
- Carolina 2-1
- Biloxi 7-6

Wisconsin apparently didn't get the message, as they're leading 17-4 at this point.

Woo hoo!!!! Good night ya'all.