Jim Goulart

Final: Jupiter (Marlins) 4, Brevard County 2 Game Summary from the Hammerheads' Site: The Hammerheads got back on the winning track Thursday, beating the Brevard County Manatees 4-2 at Roger Dean Stadium. The win evens up the season series 2-2, and also gives Hammerheads pitcher Jeff Gogal (1-0) his first decision of the season. Manatees pitcher Ken Durost falls to 0-3 on the year. The Manatees out-hit the Hammerheads 10 to 4, but it was the ability of Hammerheads pitchers to squeak out of jams that proved to be the decisive factor tonight. Hammerheads pitchers stranded 13 Manatee base runners on the night, including escaping a bases loaded jam in the top of the 3rd, giving up only one run in the inning. Gogal was solid in his first win of the season. He pitched five innings, allowing one run on six hits with two strikeouts. Mike McNutt came on for the 6th and 7th, allowing one earned run on three hits. Ryan Baker and Kevin Cave each pitched one inning, shutting the door on the Manatees late in the game. Cave earned his third save of the year. The Hammerheads did all their scoring in the 2nd inning. Ryan Bear led off the inning with a double to left, followed by a Kevin Randel walk and a Reggie Abercrombie single. Patrick Arlis drove in a run on a fielder?s choice, and Jose Campusano followed with a line single to right, knocking in two. Frank Moore would add an RBI single, subsequently knocking Durost from the game. Not to be overlooked is the Manatee relief pitching, a combination of Jeremy (Bo) Hall and Jeremy Lewis. Both combined for six and two-thirds innings of no-hit ball. The same two teams will play again tomorrow at Roger Dean Stadium. Game time will be 7:05 p.m., with Hammerheads righty Josh Teekel squaring off against Ty Taubenheim. Brevard County Box Score: 3B Adam Heether now 9-for-26 in the early going... YTD YTD BREVARD COUNTY AB R H BI AVG JUPITER AB R H BI AVG O.Chavez SS 5 1 2 0 .245 A.De Aza LF 4 0 0 0 .318 L.Palmisano CAT 4 0 2 0 .244 F.Moore DH 3 0 1 1 .360 D.Anderson LF 4 0 0 0 .311 A.Molina RF 4 0 0 0 .288 A.Heether 3B 4 0 3 1 .346 L.Mitchell 3B 4 0 0 0 .306 J.Eure DH 4 0 0 0 .277 R.Bear 1B 4 1 1 0 .273 J.Brady 1B 4 1 0 0 .029 K.Randel 2B 1 1 0 0 .190 S.Sollmann 2B 4 0 1 0 .222 R.Abercrombi CF 3 1 1 0 .163 C.De La Cruz RF 4 0 0 0 .154 P.Arlis CAT 2 0 0 1 .258 R.Deevers CF 4 0 2 1 .211 J.Campusano SS 3 1 1 2 .103 K.Durost PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 J.Gogal PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 B.Hall PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 M.McNutt PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 J.Lewis PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 R.Baker PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 K.Cave PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 TOTALS 37 2 10 2 TOTALS 28 4 4 4 BREVARD COUNTY 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0- 2 10 2 JUPITER 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 X- 4 4 1 E--O.Chavez, J.Brady, J.Gogal. DP--BREVARD COUNTY 2, JUPITER 0. LOB--BREVARD COUNTY 13, JUPITER 4. 2B--A.Heether (3), R.Bear (3). HBP--L.Palmisano, J.Eure, J.Brady, K.Randel. YTD IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA BREVARD COUNTY K.Durost (L,0-3) 1.1 4 4 3 2 2 0 10.38 B.Hall 3.2 0 0 0 1 1 0 3.48 J.Lewis 3.0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1.35 JUPITER J.Gogal (W,1-0) 5.0 6 1 1 1 2 0 3.97 M.McNutt 2.0 3 1 1 0 2 0 2.45 R.Baker 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1.08 K.Cave (S,3) 1.0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1.80 HB--B.Hall, J.Gogal, M.McNutt, K.Cave. WP--B.Hall. SO--D.Anderson, J.Eure 3, J.Brady, C.De La Cruz, A.De Aza 3, L.Mitchell 2, P.Arlis. BB--D.Anderson, A.Heether, F.Moore, K.Randel, P.Arlis. T--2:29. A--709Brevard County Game Log: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_jupafx_1

Final: Lexington (Astros) 8, West Virginia 1 West Virginia Site Game Summary: The West Virginia Power went into Thursday Night?s game against the Lexington Legends hoping for a victory to end the homestand, but the Legends spoiled the fun with an 8-1 victory at Appalachian Power Park. The Power scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the first inning. Grant Richardson hit a single into left field, on the throw to the plate, Alcides Escobar knocked the ball out of catcher Lou Santangelo?s hands and the Power took the early 1-0 lead. Lexington scored the next eight runs of the game. The Legends tied the game at 1-1 on Francisco Caraballo?s RBI single in the top of the second inning. Caraballo struck again, this time in the fourth inning on a two-out, three-run double to give Lexington a 4-1 lead. Saul Torres made it a 5-1 ball game when he singled in Hunter Pence in the top of the fifth inning. Pence smacked a solo homerun in the top of the seventh to give the Legends a 6-1 advantage. Mario Garza hit a solo homer of his own in the eighth inning, and Francisco Caraballo scored the final run of the game on a groundball hit by Jonny Ash. Jimmy Barthmaier (1-0) earned the victory for the Legends and Forrest Martin (0-3) obtained the loss for West Virginia. With the victory the Legends improve to 8-6 on the season and the Power drop to 2-12 with the loss. The Power will start an eight game road trip tomorrow night against the Lake County Captains in Eastlake, Ohio. Righthander Josh Baker (0-1, 12.86) will throw for the Power and the Captains will counter with lefthander Aaron Laffey (0-0, 0.00). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM (6:05 Central). West Virginia Box Score: Did the teams agree to play a "short" game on getaway day? Why play the top of the 7th and not the bottom? www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1 West Virginia Game Log: This lineup simply isn't going to strike fear into many pitchers; has the Hurricane been downgraded, at least temporarily? www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

No idea who "Lou Bradley" is -- Brevard County first baseman tonight; how does Josh Brady's name become Lou Bradley? No record of a "Lou Bradley" anywhere in organized baseball...

In progress: Jupiter (Marlins) 4, Brevard County 0, after two innings RHP Kenny Durost was your "TBD" Manatee starter tonight. Rocked by a four spot before he could get out of the 2nd inning, he's been relieved by RHP Bo Hall.

Nashville Pre-Game Media Notes: www.nashvillesounds.com/pdf/notes.pdf

I don't always have enough time to read the full link report every day. I'll pretend I didn't see this http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Here are the links that you'll use tonight to follow the four farm team games as they happen: Nashville: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_orhaaa_1 Huntsville: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1 Brevard County: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_jupafx_1 West Virginia: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

Link while active, text follows: www.dailymail.com/news/Sports/200504213/ Minor league hurlers keep busy Matt Lockhart Charleston Daily Mail Sportswriter If there's a tall athletic type in your Appalachian Power Park seat behind home plate, don't be rude. You might even want to ask for an autograph before booting him on down the aisle. When scouts like Milwaukee's Larry Aaron -- son of Major League all-time home run leader Hank Aaron -- aren't charting players' abilities, street-clothed West Virginia Power pitchers are finding seats where they can behind the backstop. That's part of the deal here. These players aren't to the point where Major League officials hand them detailed scouting reports on every player coming to the park. So, they work with what they have -- pens, pads and a radar gun. But deciphering curveballs from sliders and cutters from four-seam fastballs isn't the biggest hassle. It's finding a seat in the new ballpark. "You really don't have a set seat, so you have to meander around to find what seat you can use," said pitcher Derek DeCarlo, who gave up three runs in Wednesday's 6-2 loss to Lexington. Earlier in the week, DeCarlo had radar gun duty while he and Yovani Gallardo found seats normally reserved for one of the Power's co-owners, Mike Kirtner. Radar gun duty gets perhaps the most attention, because high velocity makes for curious fans. "Usually people want to know how hard guys are throwing," he said. "The one that is up (in centerfield) is about 4-to-5 mph slow." So when Mark Rogers suposedly hit 94 earlier in the week, what was the actual speed? "Rogers hit 98," DeCarlo said. "He basically hits 94, so when it showed 89 or 90, it's actually a little bit faster than that." Getting impressive speed numbers, however, isn't the most important job of these new part-time scouts. Game charts are, and it's a detailed process. "You do a whole bunch of stuff," said Gallardo, who took the loss for the 2-11 Power Wednesday. Whoever is slated to pitch the following day will chart every West Virginia hitter. This gives the coaching staff a good idea of what areas the batter needs to work on. Then, they write down what happens when Power pitchers face opposing hitters -- a much-needed packet of information for the next day's starter. "He can see the other team's hitters to see what pitches he can use," DeCarlo said. "You know what the hitters' tendencies are -- if they can hit the curveball, or if they can hit the fastball." The final scouting piece belongs to the video guy. When the coaching staff needs video of a certain player's at-bat or pitch, he has one of the pitchers get in a position to get footage. Coaches then use this video to break down potential problems or positives. The Brewers aren't alone in this minor league ritual. "A lot of times the other team's guys are right next to us," DeCarlo said. West Virginia pitchers Forrest Martin, Josh Baker and Robbie Wooley sat close to two Lexington hurlers doing the exact same scouting job Wednesday. So until pin-point scouting reports on every flaw and every strength reach low Class A minor league ball, look out for someone in your seat. "It's not too bad," DeCarlo said. "It's a good chance to have a day off from (sitting) in the dugout." West Virginia Power pitchers Yovani Gallardo, front, and Derek DeCarlo chart their teammates? performances on the mound during a recent game at Appalachian Power Park. Charleston Daily Mail Photo: Craig Cunningham http://www.dailymail.com/images/thurStats0421.jpg

Link while active, text follows: www.dailymail.com/news/Sp...format=prn Disappointed Power manager won't be surprised by more roster changes Matt Lockhart Charleston Daily Mail Sportswriter Ramon Aviles has spoken. And from a distance, West Virginia Power players looked over his shoulder when he said it. "We have some guys in extended (spring training) that are swinging the bat pretty good," he said. "(The team) better be looking over their shoulder. In this game you have to do it, because there is always someone behind you that wants to take your spot." Aviles said he was embarrassed following his team's 6-2 loss to Lexington Wednesday that dropped the West Virginia Power to 2-11 on the season. "We have some people who are not doing the job," he said. "This is a new stadium, a new commitment with Milwaukee and a new team here. We are trying to put a winning team on the field for the fans to keep them coming to the ballpark." So, Aviles wouldn't be shocked if the Power made another roster move soon. The club already released Jason Tuttle and sent outfielder Adam Mannon down to extending spring training Monday after just 11 games -- the earliest Aviles said he has seen a roster move in his 22 years of coaching in the minor league. "All I can tell the fans is that I will do everything in my power so that the players give 100 percent on the field," Aviles said. "Today I don't think they gave me 100 percent." That's why this game -- the fifth loss of the young year to Lexington -- was tough for Aviles to swallow in front of 2,480 fans at Appalachian Power Park. "I'm not upset about losing the game," he said. "You are going to lose games and win games. I'm upset about the effort out there." He's upset about the eight runners left on, the crucial walks allowed, the misplayed balls and his team's 14 strikeouts in the 6-2 loss. Every starter -- except first baseman Grant Richardson -- struck out Wednesday. "The guys are taking the fastball and swinging at the breaking pitch," Aviles said. "You have to be ready to hit the fastball. To play in the big leagues, you have to hit a fastball." Power hitters had trouble adjusting to Troy Patton's pitching sequence. The Lexington starting pitcher would follow a 64-mph off-speed pitch with an 86-mph fastball. It's leaving Aviles throwing his hands up. "They have to go across those lines and do it," he said. "We can tell them what to do, but we cannot do it for them." Aviles admits this doesn't look like the team he guided in Arizona during spring training. "When we left spring training, everybody was saying ?With the pitching you got on that team, you are going to win some ballgames,' " Aviles said. "But we're not pitching good and we're not hitting in the clutch." * * * THIS BREWERS' farm club could use Lexington outfielder Hunter Pence. Had he not been patient, he might have been in West Virginia this season. The Milwaukee Brewers selected Pence in the 40th round of the 2002 draft, but he decided to stay in school. Two years later, the Houston Astros took him with its first pick in the draft's second round. He hasn't disappointed. Pence is batting .351, including a double, a home run and two RBI in the series against the Power. Lexington catcher Chris Clark, who knocked in two runs Tuesday, is from Ashland, Ky., near Huntington. West Virginia ends its first homestand of the season today at 7:05 p.m. (6:05 Central) when right-hander Forrest Martin (0-2, 5.19 earned run average) takes the mound against Lexington RHP Jimmy Barthmaier (0-0, 1.10). The promotion for today is Buck Night, which means drinks, hot dogs and reserved bleacher seats are $1. West Virginia Power catcher Nestor Corredor shows that he has survived a collision with Lexington?s Lou Santangelo and held onto the ball during the Power?s 6-2 loss Wednesday afternoon at Appalachian Power Park. Santangelo was called out on the play at home. Photo: Bob Wojcieszak, Charleston Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.com/images/BALLGAME20421.jpg

David Weiser's www.starsboxscore.com Huntsville update: Yawn!...... An early riser for fans who wanted to see the Stars today, but this one was meant mostly for the schoolkids who were invited out from various elementary schools around the area. They got their money's worth today. The top of the 5th started shortly before noon, nearly two hours after this game started and was still in the 5th by the time it reached the 2:18 point of yesterday's game. They plan another one of these dates for them on the next homestand, but this one drew considerably less than the 6,900 who filled the stadium along the left side and right side stands last year...... They got an arithmetic lesson today counting the runs, hits, and errors, as well as a wild pitch, a balk, and a Stars victory to top it off........ They also saw a rather frightening collision in the 4th inning, which I'll get to. The Stars win their 5th straight today, 10-7. Mobile loses their 9th straight after winning their first four games of the season. Like I said, it was a long, wild ride. Both teams traded a pair of runs in the 1st....... Kennard Jones and Ronnie Merrill led off with a pair of singles off Manny Parra. On a 1-0 pitch to Paul McAnulty, Parra's wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position...... Ahead of the pitcher, 3-and-1, McAnulty hopped a ball deep to the right side where Brandon Gemoll had to pitch to Parra to retire the batter, ceding the run. Merrill would score on a single up the middle by Corey Smith....... Parra would then settle down and retire the next five batters, striking out two, but he would expend 30 pitches in getting through the first two innings. Meanwhile, the Stars, hot at the plate recently (hitting .315 on this homestand), went to work, matching Mobile's two-spot........ With one out, Tony Gwynn parachuted a single that fell in between Merrill and right fielder Troy Cameron....... Brandon Gemoll started his short and fateful day with a double to dead-center over the head of Kennard Jones, scoring Junior easily from first...... Nelson Cruz, now 9-for-16 (.563) with four doubles in his last four games, slapped a single on an 0-2 pitch through the right side, moving Gemoll to third. On a pickoff attempt to first with a 0-1 count to Tony Zuniga at the plate, Mobile starter Travis Chick throws the ball toward the Mobile bullpen, scoring Gemoll and sending Cruz to 3rd, but Chick would retire Zuniga on a liner snared by Greg Sain and strike out Vinny Rottino swinging on a 3-2 pitch. The day started out at 68°, not ten degrees warmer as was reported by milb.com, but it was getting hotter fast. I have the sunburn to show for it...... But it was not such a hot day for Parra, who turned in the shortest start this season in the rotation......... He started out the 3rd by walking Kennard Jones on seven pitches, but is forced at second by Merrill........ Or it looks that way....... Enrique Cruz flipped the ball near the bag to Callix Crabbe covering the base, but umpire Rob Hansen was working alone on the basepaths due to the absence of his colleague Jason Dunn, who was at the funeral of his grandfather........ Hansen called Jones safe, saying that Crabbe's foot was off the bag. Yet it was Cruz who was charged with the error, even though he made the clean flip to Crabbe........ No matter. McAnulty followed with a clean single to left-center on an 0-2 pitch, scoring Jones to put Mobile ahead, 3-2. Merrill held at second....... Next, Corey Smith, on a 1-1, hit a tailor-made DP grounder to Crabbe, but Crabbe booted the ball trying to pick it up, sending the ball in the direction of the bag for an error, loading the bases.......... The bases are full for Greg Sain when on a 2-and-0 pitch, Parra balked, a textbook case if there ever was one. In the middle of his follow-through, he just stopped with the ball still in his hand, as if time were called, except it wasn't. He may have thought it was, but it was his mistake....... A balk with the bases loaded. You don't see that every day......... Merrill scored making it 4-2...... Parra went full on Sain, then struck him out on an 84 mph change. He would retire the next two hitters to get out of the inning, but Cameron's grounder scored McAnulty to make it 5-2. Mobile was not facing a team in a slump, however....... With one out, Gwynn got things going again with a single to right, nearly caught off the grass by Cameron, but the ball trickled out of his glove........ Next, Gemoll on a 3-2 pitch doubled over the head of McAnulty in left, his 2nd RBI double of the day, scoring Gwynn again, who this time had stolen 2nd on Chick's 2-2 pitch....... With Nelson Cruz at bat, Gemoll stole third, which I don't believe he's ever done, even under Frank Kremblas, but Cruz struck out looking on Chick's 91 mph fastball, and it was up to Tony Zuniga, who was hitting .171 at the time......... Zuniga hit a towering fly ball to left...... Will it go out?....... McAnulty was determined to take this one away, but it would be an inside-the-park home run instead. McAnulty crashed forcefully into the wall and went down in a heap, motionless. Kennard Jones threw the ball in to the infield as Zuniga, who is not built for speed, looking behind him as he chugged around the third base bag, just made it under Carlin's tag. It was 5-5........ Zuniga's inside- the-park home run was the first since Jamie Gann's on July 8 of last year, a week after his debut with the Stars. After a 32-pitch third inning, Manny Parra was out. He had thrown 62 pitches, 38 for strikes (61.2%)...... David Bradley, who would get the win, was successful in quieting down the Bay Bears, giving up three hits in his three innings of work without allowing them to score, lowering his ERA to 1.00 after 4 appearances...... The Stars rallied behind Bradley in the bottom of the 4th, sending nine men to the plate in a five-run inning --- all coming with two out. Callix Crabbe led off the 4th with a walk. Then with two out, Kennard Bibbs pulled a ball deep into the right field corner. Crabbe flew around the bases like Mercury and broke the 5-5 tie. Jason Clements' throw to third to cut down Bibbs is not only late, but way off line, allowing him to score to make it 7-5....... Gwynn and Gemoll finally chased Chick, the Padres' top pitching prospect, from the game with successive singles........ R.D. Spiehs came in from the bullpen. Last year he held the Stars to a 1.84 ERA in 14 appearances, but Jeff Winchester made a loser out of him Monday with his 11th inning RBI single..... Nelson Cruz greeted his 3-2 pitch with a drive deep to left. McAnulty, who recovered from his encounter with the left field wall the last inning, was more shy about chasing the ball this time. It hits off the Computer ER sign on the second tier of boards, and bounces back on the field, scoring Gwynn and Gemoll, making it 9-5....... Zuniga finished the Stars' scoring, driving in his 3rd run with a one-hop hit straightaway to center, scoring Cruz...... Rottino recorded the 3rd of his four inning-ending outs with a fly ball to right........ For the rest of the game, Spiehs and Rusty Tucker retired 11 of the next 13 Stars to come to the plate. The Stars' victory was somewhat overshadowed...... In the top of the 5th, shortly after noon, Greg Sain, on a 2-1 pitch with no one on base, lofted a high pop-up near the first base line. Gemoll was coming down the line and a little more than halfway up the line, not seeing Sain, collided violently into him, sending both players flying off their feet...... Both were down on the ground for several minutes. Sain was the first to get up, about five minutes later, and Gemoll, a couple of minutes later, got up and was escorted off the field, seeming to favor his right leg......... No word was released after the game about the condition of the two players, but both were taken out of the game. Matt DeWitt got two outs on three pitches in the 9th, but wound up having to face the tying run at the plate after giving up back-to-back singles to Cameron and catcher Luke Carlin....... Jason Clement struck out on a 2-2, 91 MPH fastball, making DeWitt the first Stars reliever to pick up his 2nd save. Thursday, this homestand wraps up as either right-hander Jose Oyervidez or right-hander Mike Bumstead takes the hill for Mobile against Glenn Woolard for the Stars, then it's on to Pringles Park....... The Stars will be looking for their 6th straight victory, something they haven't done since 2002, when they closed out their season winning 9 of their last 11. Tony Gwynn, after a 3-for-4 day, is now hitting .471 from the # 2 hole in the lineup....... He's 4-for-24 as a leadoff hitter this year.

Link while active, text follows: www.al.com/sports/huntsvi...174690.xml Joe Davis Stadium is filled with noise, bedlam and joy Contact Mark McCarter at markcolumn@aol.com Huntsville Times The promotion was entitled "Three R's With The Stars,'' an educational experience intertwined in baseball. The 'rithmetic would have sent Einstein reaching for an aspirin bottle. Twenty-six hits. Seventeen runs. Five straight wins for Huntsville. Nine straight losses for Mobile. One-hundred ninety-seven minutes of baseball. Then you skip the readin' and writin' and go to science class, with a seven-point-oh on the Richter scale for a collision between Huntsville first baseman Brandon Gemoll and Mobile first baseman Greg Sain on a pop fly. Want to silence 1,000 school kids at once? Have 440 pounds of baseball player going three-quarters speed run directly into each other, then leave them sprawled on the ground for five minutes. I saw Gemoll after the game, propped on a table in the trainer's room. For the first time in my journalistic career, I had a sense of what it was like to cover the losers' locker room for a heavyweight fight. "You might,'' trainer Dave Yeager suggested, "want to wait a day to interview him.'' The school kids were given a quick lesson about how the Three R's relate to baseball. For instance, you have to know math to figure a batting average. The picnic tent adjacent to right field was packed. Inside, it had the same roaring, waterfall echo of a school cafeteria, a thousand voices at full decibel. All it was missing was the inimitable school cafeteria smell of green beans, broiling mystery meat and ammonia cleaner. The right side of Joe Davis Stadium was a sea of caps and visors and T-shirts and team jerseys. On the backs were names of the famous to the maybe-one-day-famous, from Iverson and Hardaway to Jayson and Aaron and Pooh. To sit in the stands, eavesdropping, was like sitting on a sofa and clicking through the TV. "Hey, 33, can you get me a ball? ...'' "... break a leg ...'' " ... did you see that? ...'' " ... it's only four dollars ...'' " ... sit down where you were sitting before'' In Section L, boys were lobbing a baseball back and forth. Said one little girl, perhaps the same one who reminds the teacher at the end of a school day she forgot to assign homework, "They're going to hit someone in the head.'' And when a leather-lung shouted at an ump late in the game, "I've seen better eyes on a potato,'' the taunt was greeted with the same sort of giggling as when a teacher accidentally lets slip a cuss word. Escaping the noise and bedlam and joy for a few minutes was Tom Van Schaack, the Stars general manager. "I think it's great to see a stadium with kids in it,'' he said. "The looks on their faces when they walk in the door. When they get their first Dippin' Dots (ice cream). That's the fun part. If they walk away with a smile on their faces, then we've got a fan for life.''

Link while active, text follows: www.al.com/stars/huntsvil...174690.xml Rally makes BayBears see Stars Huntsville wins fifth straight with 10-7 comeback By MARK McCARTER Times Sports Staff markcolumn@aol.com Who said: "I'm watching ... then I hear, 'Pow!' '' (a) Stars first baseman Brandon Gemoll, whose 3-for-3, two-RBI day was rudely interrupted by a jolting, frightening collision with Mobile's Greg Sain. (b) Mobile's Greg Sain. © Mobile manager Gary Jones, the former Stars skipper, whose club started the season 4-0 only to lose nine in a row, including Wednesday's mid-day 10-7 defeat at the hands of the Stars at Joe Davis Stadium. (d) Huntsville manager Don Money, whose team's winning streak has blossomed to five after a dismal 1-6 start. (e) Mobile left fielder Paul McAnulty, who went full-speed, face-first into the fence, chasing a Tony Zuniga blast that would up an inside-the-park home run. It merely proved baseball is not a cartoon, else he'd have left a full-sized Paul McAnulty silhouette on the fence as he ran straight through it. (f) All the above. That it happened to be (d) Don Money is only incidental. It could have been (f). Well, maybe not (a), since Gemoll was left with a concussion, a gash in the chin that would require stitches on a post-game hospital visit and various other bruised and tender spots. Again, that proved baseball is not a cartoon, else he'd have been sitting on the trainer's table with little birds tweet-tweet-tweeting around his head in the universal sign for a character knocked loopy. Let's not make too light of it all. Trainer Dave Yeager said Gemoll could be sidelined five to seven days, depending upon how he responds. It was, however, a Cartoon Network sort of crowd, with more than a thousand school kids making up the majority of the announced crowd of 1,323. The Stars will be shooting for a slightly older demographic tonight in their "Thirsty Thursday,'' promotion, the final game of the homestand before the club hits the road for eight in a row. No matter the outcome tonight, there is considerably more optimism now than a week ago. Money didn't want to celebrate the turnaround too boldly - "you do that, it comes back to bite you in the butt,'' he said - but it is a Huntsville team that has proved both resilient in the big picture, from the sputtering start, and in snapshots, as in its rally from a 5-2 deficit Wednesday. "It shows the guys aren't giving up,'' Money said. "It's a good sign being able to come back.'' Huntsville starter Manny Parra gave up three hits and a pair of runs in the first inning, and would last only three innings. The Stars tied it 2-2 in the first on consecutive hits by Tony Gwynn, Gemoll and Nelson Cruz, plus a bad pickoff attempt by losing pitcher Travis Chick. Mobile went up 5-2 in the third on a pair of Huntsville errors, a walk, a balk and only one hit, but the made it 5-5 in the bottom half on a Gemoll RBI double and Zuniga's two-run inside-the-park homer as McAnulty lay dazed on the warning track. Huntsville blew it apart with a five-run fourth that included a Kennard Bibbs RBI triple, Gemoll's third hit of the day, a two-run Cruz single and a Zuniga RBI single. The Mobile fifth brought the day's biggest pow! With one out, Sain hit a high infield pop near the first base line. Gemoll hustled in, calling off catcher Vinny Rottino, watching the ball the whole way. Sain was running toward first, head down. They hit violently, each spending five minutes sprawled on the field as they were tended to by trainers. Poor Gemoll. Last spring, he took an errant throw in the face during practice that left him with badly blackened eyes. This year, after a half-season in Triple-A, he was returned to Double-A. The Stars are resilient. Now, how much resiliency will one Star need?

Link while active, text follows: www.wvgazette.com/section...2005042048 Learning to love Our Bums Mitch Vingle To contact sports editor Mitch Vingle, send e-mail to mitchvingle@wvgazette.com or call 348-4827. I guess we're going to need an attitude adjustment. We have this beautiful new baseball park in Charleston. Yet the baseball team is anything but pretty. The West Virginia Power?s record is now 2-11. The pitching is bad. And the meat of the batting lineup is more like tofu. We simply can?t let it get to us. Right? The ballpark is pristine. It?s our brand-spanking-new baby Camden Yards. We?re going to enjoy the park, the atmosphere and the crack of the bat whatever the Milwaukee Brewers place in front of us. Daggone it, we will. Just because the team is terrible, we won?t give up. It?s not the end of the world. Over? Did you say over? NOTHING is over until WE decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Sorry. (Shirley Mason?s other personality was Sybil; mine is Animal House?s Bluto.) We?re just going to have to adjust our way of thinking. We?ll have to look at this West Virginia Power team as Chicago fans look at the Cubbies. Loveable losers. Loveable losers we?ll still turn out to see. Because unless we want Appalachian Power Park to draw the old crowds of Watt Powell Park, we have little choice for now. The Brewers promised us a strong club for this level. The fans listened and came out, not only to support the building of the stadium, but the team itself. Before yesterday?s game, Power fans? average attendance was 4,188 through five games, fourth best in the 16-team South Atlantic League. But on the field? So far, not so good. It?s so bad the pre-game press release listed pitcher Simon Beresford under the heading, ?Who?s Hot.?? ?Simon,?? said the release, ?has now thrown three consecutive scoreless innings in relief.?? Three! The only league leaders for the Power? In the category of ?home runs allowed.?? West Virginia has three of the top four pitchers there. ?I?d like to apologize for the record we have,?? said Power manager Ramon Aviles after Wednesday?s loss. ?I?m embarrassed. I don?t know about [the players], but I?m embarrassed. In spring training this team played a lot different than it is now. ?We played so good in spring training that when we left, everybody was saying, ?With the pitching you have on that team, you?re going to win some ballgames.? ?But we?re not pitching good and we?re not hitting in the clutch.?? Aviles continued. ?All I can tell the fans is this: I will do everything in my power to make sure the players give 100 percent. That?s all I ask. I told them when we first met, ?All I ask is that you?re on time and you give 100 percent.? Today I don?t think they gave 100 percent.?? Many of the Power?s supposed leaders have yet to step up. First-round draft pick Mark Rogers is 0-1 with a 6.52 earned run average in three games. Second round pick Yovani Gallardo has been one of the team?s best pitchers. (On Wednesday, though, he took the loss and fell to 0-2.) 2002 second-round pick Josh Murray, a third baseman, is hitting .136 as the team?s No. 5 hitter. Third-round pick Josh Wahpepah, a righty, is 1-1 with a 5.25 ERA in seven innings of work. And Josh Baker, a fourth-round pick, is 0-1 with a 12.86 ERA in seven innings. ?We cannot do much,?? Avila said of his staff. ?We can come here and work hard every day. We can tell them how to do things. But they have to go between the lines and do them.?? At times, the Power is downright frustrating to watch. But there is flavor of the Bad News Bears. On Wednesday, for example, the Power had runners on first and third. With no outs, needing to advance a man, Freddy Parejo hit a pop fly in foul territory ? on the first pitch. Frustrating. Agustin Septimo then struck out ? looking. Frustrating. Finally, Alcides Escobar rapped what looked to be a two-run scoring double ? until he decided to go for third base. The throw from the outfield easily beat Escobar. But the ball trickled out of the Lexington player?s glove. Frustration turned into, hey, kind of charming. Septimo also contributed in the field. Playing center field, he dropped a liner for an error. Frustrating. Immediately after, he caught a high fly ? before dropping his head and jogging toward the dugout. With but two outs and Legends circling the basepaths. Frustrating. But Septimo recovered and gunned down the runner at home. See? Kind of cute. We can do this, right? Love this bunch even in troubled times? Looks like, with the team?s cleanup hitter batting .175, we have little choice.

Link while active, text follows: www.wvgazette.com/section...2005042047 Strikeouts make long day for Power By Jim Workman For The Charleston Gazette Any time your team strikes out 14 times, it?s going to be a long day. For the West Virginia Power, the head-hung-low trip back to the dugout was a scene viewed quite frequently by the crowd of 2,480 at ?Grand Slam School Day? at Appalachian Power Park Wednesday. The Lexington Legends used the punchout effectively in defeating the Power 6-2 in an morning/afternoon South Atlantic League contest. Five different Power starters struck out twice, and all but first baseman Grant Richardson had at least one K to their credit. ?We?ve been striking out too much,? said Power manager Ramon Aviles. ?The guys aren?t being aggressive. They?re taking the fastball and swinging at the breaking pitches. That?s a tough way to hit. You have to be ready to hit a fastball. To play in the big leagues, you have to hit a fastball. I don?t know why they?re guessing and swinging at the bad pitches. ?When you end up swinging at a pitch out of the strike zone, you?re not going to put the ball in play. We had some chances; we just didn?t come through.?? Many scoring opportunities were squandered, as eight runners were left on base by the Power. ?In the first inning, we had men on first and second and didn?t even make contact,? Aviles pointed out. ?All we needed to do was hit a ground ball to first or second base and we could have moved a runner to third base. But we couldn?t do that. We have to make adjustments. This is a game of adjustments.? The Power woes weren?t exclusive to the offensive side. Two fielding errors added more frustration. ?I?m not upset about losing the game, because you?re going to win some and you?re going to lose some games,? Aviles said. ?I?m upset about the effort out there. I don?t think we gave our best effort.? The game?s first pitch came at 10:35 a.m. due to the children from several schools being in attendance for the club?s promotion. But Aviles didn?t have a problem with the breakfast-time beginning following a late Tuesday night game. ?I don?t like making excuses that we had a game [Tuesday] night,? he said. ?Lexington had a long trip and came in here and won that game and they got the same amount of sleep as we did and won this game. We can?t take that as an excuse because we played an early game.? Scott Robinson got the Legends (7-6) on the board by singling home Jonny Ash in the first inning. Lou Santangelo swatted a solo home run in the third to increase the Lexington lead to 2-0. Santagelo blasted a triple in the top of the fifth and scored on Ash?s sacrifice fly to up the advantage. West Virginia (2-11) plated its two runs in the bottom of the fifth when Alcides Escobar smashed a two-run triple. The Power was still in the game, trailing just 3-2, after eight innings. But the Legends tacked on three more runs in the top of the ninth. Santangelo walked, advanced to second on an error, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice fly by Ash. Scott Robinson knocked in Ben Zobrist and Hunter Pence with a two-run double to stretch the lead to 6-2. Left-handed reliever Jeff Wigdahl slammed the door shut, pitching the final two innings to record the save for the Legends. Aviles said roster moves could be coming to remedy the Power problems. ?We have some guys in extended [spring training] that are swinging the bat pretty good,? he said. ?They better be looking over their shoulder. There?s always somebody behind you that wants to take your spot. I never relaxed when I played. We have some people that are not doing their job.? The Power will play Lexington tonight at 7:05 in the final game of the three-game series with the Houston Astros affiliate. Right-hander Forrest Martin (0-2, 5.19 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Power. Lexington will start right-hander Jimmy Barthmaier (0-0, 1.10). The Power?s Agustin Septimo (16) dives back to third base as Lexington?s Saul Torres chases down the ball. Charleston Gazette Photographer: M.K. McFarland http://www.wvgazettemail.com/images/stories/pow1.jpg

For the second time this season University of Vermont LHP Derek Miller was named America East Pitcher of the Week, the conference announced. A senior , Miller was dominating last Saturday against Hartford for his fourth win in his last four starts. He allowed just two singles and one walk while striking out 11 over seven innings in a 12-0 blanking of the Hawks. He is now 4-0 on the season (six starts) with a conference best 0.90 ERA. He has struck out 52 hitters and walked only nine in 40 innings pitched. Miller also won the award on March 28th. Gotta love those New Englanders... This is the way to do it, get them after re-establishing themselves post-Tommy John surgery. Colby, at what point, if any, does Miller convince himself he should re-enter the draft if the Brewers don't pony up? Where would he fall in June if he keeps this pace up and fails to sign as a draft-and-follow? I realize this isn't a Manny Parra-type DFE, but could he be looking at 5th-10th round money? He's somebody who could debut at West Virginia upon signing... And Deik Scram (what a great name) is still raking -- similarly, he has to be earning himself some bonus money as well...

Thursday's Daily Menu: No earlybird specials today... All times Central; pitchers subject to change: Nashville: LHP Andy Pratt at Oklahoma (Rangers), 6:45 PM pre-game, 7:05 gametime Audio link: www.nashvillesounds.com/listenlive/ Huntsville: RHP Glenn Woolard at home vs. Mobile (Padres), 6:50 PM pre-game, 7:05 PM gametime Audio link: www.espn1450.com/ If that link is down for bandwidth, use: specs.eyecentric.com/pres...opup.shtml Brevard County: TBD at Jupiter (Marlins), 6:00 PM Audio link (opponent's): www.live365.com/cgi-bin/m...2747300015 West Virginia: RHP Forrest Martin at home vs. Lexington (Astros), 6:05 PM Audio link (opponent's): www.wlxg.com/WLXG.asx

http://prodtn.cafepress.com/6/14087126_F_tn.jpg

Photos from the Stars' Booster Banquet: www.geocities.com/starsboosters/05wb.htm Boosters' site is an offshoot of Johnny Phillips' very nice Huntsville fan site: www.angelfire.com/sports/starsfan/

Final: St. Lucie (Mets) 11, Brevard County 8 This roster is as non-descript as recent High Desert clubs; suddenly even Lou Palmisano is a JAG (just another guy)... Brevard County Site Game Summary: VIERA, FL ? Pitching problems once again doomed the Manatees as they were swept by the visiting St Lucie Mets 11-6 Tuesday night at Space Coast Stadium. The Mets got on the board early with two runs in the first off starter Tim Dillard. Both runs were unearned and ran Dillard's unearned runs streak to 13.2 innings. The Mets did end that streak in the third on an RBI double by Ryan Harvey. More offense by the Mets put six runs up in the sixth inning to seal the game though the Manatees would make a late run. A solo home-run by Jeff Eure and a two-run shot by Carlos De La Cruz in the bottom of the sixth would keep the ?Tees in it. But a late rally in the ninth by Brevard would be cut short. Eure would get his second RBI of the game on a double and he would score on a wild pitch to cut St. Lucie?s lead to 11-8. Again the late rally would come up short for BC. Brevard would leave eight men stranded on the base paths. The Manatees drop to 4-8 after the three game sweep while the Mets move up to 8-5. Brevard heads on the road for two three game sets with the Jupiter Hammerheads and the Palm Beach Cardinals before returning home next Tuesday to take on the Vero Beach Dodgers for four games. Brevard County Box Score: Four wild pitches included in Tim Dillard's rough night -- defense didn't help; Drew Anderson fulfilling the promise shown this spring... ST. LUCIE 11 AT BREVARD COUNTY 8 YTD YTD ST. LUCIE AB R H BI AVG BREVARD COUNTY AB R H BI AVG C.Ragsdale SS 3 2 1 2 .294 O.Chavez SS 5 0 0 0 .227 J.Hill RF 4 1 0 0 .133 L.Palmisano CAT 5 0 0 0 .220 L.Milledge CF 5 2 1 1 .213 D.Anderson LF 5 1 4 0 .341 B.Harper 1B 4 2 1 3 .300 A.Heether 3B 5 2 1 0 .273 R.Harvey DH 5 0 2 3 .500 J.Eure 1B 5 3 3 2 .302 A.Turay LF 5 0 1 0 .162 W.Campana DH 5 0 1 0 .391 S.Bowman 3B 5 0 0 0 .106 S.Sollmann 2B 5 1 1 1 .220 B.Whealy 2B 3 2 2 0 .311 C.De La Cruz RF 4 1 2 3 .222 Y.Garcia CAT 3 2 1 1 .138 T.Ezi CF 1 0 0 0 .182 E.MacLane PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 R.Deevers PH 0 0 0 0 .133 H.Owens PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 R.Deevers CF 3 0 1 0 .133 I.Maldonado PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 T.Dillard PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 D.Grybash PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 N.Slack PIT 0 0 0 0 .000 TOTALS 37 11 9 10 TOTALS 43 8 13 6 ST. LUCIE 2 0 1 1 0 6 0 1 0-11 9 3 BREVARD COUNTY 0 0 0 2 0 3 0 1 2- 8 13 3 E--C.Ragsdale, S.Bowman, E.MacLane, O.Chavez 2, A.Heether. DP-- ST. LUCIE 0, BREVARD COUNTY 0. LOB--ST. LUCIE 5, BREVARD COUNTY 8. 2B--R.Harvey (3), B.Whealy 2 (3), J.Eure (6). 3B--C.Ragsdale (2). HR--B.Harper (8), Y.Garcia (2), J.Eure (3), C.De La Cruz (1). SB-- L.Milledge (4). CS--A.Turay. HBP--C.Ragsdale. YTD IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA ST. LUCIE E.MacLane (W,2-0) 5.1 8 5 2 0 2 2 1.65 H.Owens 2.0 3 1 1 0 1 0 7.71 I.Maldonado 1.2 2 2 1 0 1 0 9.00 BREVARD COUNTY T.Dillard (L,0-2) 5.2 6 8 5 4 7 0 2.70 D.Grybash 2.1 3 3 3 1 3 2 9.45 N.Slack 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 13.50 HB--T.Dillard. WP--I.Maldonado, T.Dillard 4. SO--J.Hill, L.Milledge 3, B.Harper 2, R.Harvey, A.Turay, S.Bowman 2, Y.Garcia, O.Chavez, A.Heether, S.Sollmann, R.Deevers. BB--C.Ragsdale, J.Hill, B.Harper, B.Whealy, Y.Garcia. T--2:48. A--679Brevard County Game Log: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_breafx_1

Final: Nashville 16, Oklahoma (Rangers) 13 Link with Julio Mosquera photo, text follows: www.nashvillesounds.com/n...ewsId=1516 Nashville Site Game Summary: The Nashville Sounds won a barnburner at SBC Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City on Wednesday afternoon, jumping out to an early 13-1 lead and withstanding a 10-run Oklahoma inning to hold on for a 16-13 victory over the host RedHawks in the second game of a four-game series. With the victory, Nashville (8-6) took a half-game lead in the American Conference Northern Division, pending the result of the Omaha-Albuquerque contest later in the day. The 29 combined runs scored in the contest marked the most in a game involving the Sounds since May 20, 2000, when Nashville and Colorado Springs combined for 32 runs in a 20-12 Sounds victory at Sky Sox Stadium. Nashville?s 16 runs marked a season high as well as their best scoring output since the Sounds plated 16 against Iowa on July 21, 2004. The Sounds? 16 hits in the game were also the club?s highest total this season. Every Sounds batter recorded a hit, scored a run, or produced an RBI. Rickie Weeks, Kevin Orie, and Ryan Knox all homered for the visitors and catcher Julio Mosquera led the club with four RBIs. The only Nashville player without a hit in the game was third baseman Trent Durrington, whose 0-for-4 effort snapped the Aussie?s season-best seven-game hitting streak. The Sounds got things started quickly in the top of the first inning as the first four batters reached base to produce a pair of runs against Oklahoma starter Shane Bazzell, who was making his career Triple-A debut. Knox walked to open the game and Weeks was hit by a pitch to set the table for the heart of the Nashville order. Prince Fielder (3-for-5) and Brad Nelson (3-for-5) followed with consecutive RBI singles to center and a 2-0 lead. The run driven in by Fielder in the frame snapped an 11-game RBI-less streak for the first baseman, who extended his hitting streak to a season-best three games. After Oklahoma halved the lead in the bottom of the frame on an RBI groundout, the Nashville offense exploded in the following two frames, posting 11 runs while batting around in each of the second and third innings to give the Sounds a comfortable 13-1 lead. Weeks delivered the big shot during a six-run second for the Sounds, belting a three-run homer ? his second longball of the year ? off Bazzell. Nelson, Mosquera, and Orie also added run-producing knocks in the inning; Orie?s RBI infield single extended the veteran infielder?s team-best hitting streak to nine games; he finished the contest with a 2-for-4, three-RBI afternoon, notching his team-leading fifth multiple-hit effort of the season. Corey Hart and Mosquera provided the firepower in Nashville?s five-run third inning, which sent Bazzell to the showers. With the bases loaded and one out, Hart stroked a single to right to plate the Milwaukee Brewers? top two prospects ? Weeks and Fielder. Three batters and a pitching change later, Mosquera came to the plate with the sacks again full of Sounds and turned a Craig House offering into a bases-clearing, three-run double to left to up the lead to 13-1. Sounds starter Rick Helling had things comfortably under control, allowing only one hit ? a first-inning Esteban German single ? over the first five innings. Oklahoma made a game of it in the bottom of the sixth, however, plating 10 runs in the frame off Helling while sending 15 batters to the plate. Jason Botts belted a grand slam and Jason Conti crushed a two-run shot off Helling, and Gerald Laird later added a three-run homer against Nashville reliever Mike Meyers to highlight the inning?s scoring, which reduced the Nashville advantage to 13-11. The 10 RedHawks runs were the most scored against Nashville in a single inning since the start of the 1999 season. In the RedHawks? sixth, eight batters came to the plate and six runs scored before Helling recorded the first out on a strikeout of Cody Ransom. The home runs by Botts, Conti, and Laird in the inning was each player?s fourth home run of the 2005 season for Oklahoma. The offensive fireworks continued for both clubs in the seventh as the teams traded two-run homers to make it a 15-13 contest. Orie belted his third roundtripper of the year, a two-run dinger off Oklahoma reliever Keith Stamler, in the top of the frame before Oklahoma centerfielder Manny Alexander delivered the RedHawks? shot with a one-out, two-run effort against Meyers in the bottom of the frame, the veteran?s first tater of the season. Knox smacked his first home run of the season to lead off the top of the eighth for Nashville, driving a Stamler offering down the left field line for a 16-13 lead. Helling (1-0) earned his first victory of the year following a performance that included five solid innings prior to the 10-run sixth inning by Oklahoma. All told, the Sounds right-hander allowed 10 runs on seven hits and four walks in his 5 2/3 innings of work. Bazzell (0-1) took his lumps in his first taste of Class AAA ball, allowing 12 runs on 10 hits and five walks in just 2 1/3 frames to absorb the loss. Right-hander Kane Davis tossed the final two innings for the Sounds to earn his first save of the season. The teams continue their series with a 7:05 p.m. matchup on Thursday evening at SBC Bricktown Ballpark. Nashville left-hander Andy Pratt (0-1, 9.35) takes the ball for his third start of the season. He?ll face former Sound John Wasdin (1-1, 5.56) for the RedHawks. Audio link -- Rickie Weeks' Three Run HR: www.nashvillesounds.com/a...204-20.mp3 Nashville Box Score: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_orhaaa_1 Nashville Game Log: Kudos to you if you review this one line-by-line... www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_orhaaa_1

Final: Lexington (Astros) 6, West Virginia 2 Link, then text follows: www.wvpower.com/news/deta...?newsID=51 West Virginia Site Game Summary: The Lexington Legends took a 3-2 lead over the West Virginia Power into the ninth inning of Wednesday morning?s game, and scored three insurance runs in the final frame as they won their sixth game against the Power, by the final score of 6-2 at Appalachian Power Park. Scott Robinson drove in the first run of the game on a two-out RBI single to give Lexington the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The Legends took it to 2-0 on Lou Santangelo?s solo homerun in the top of the third inning. Jonny Ash?s sacrifice fly scored Santangelo in the top of the fifth inning to give the Legends a 3-0 advantage. The Power came within a run when Alcides Escobar hit a two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 3-2 ball game. The score remained 3-2 until Lexington added three runs in the top of the ninth. Jonny Ash drove in Lou Santangelo on a sacrifice fly for the second time in the game to make it 4-2 Legends, and Scott Robinson smacked a two run single to drive in the final two runs of the game. Troy Patton (1-0) earned the victory for the Legends and Yovani Gallardo (0-2) obtained the loss for West Virginia. With the victory the Legends improve to 7-6 on the season and the Power drop to 2-11 with the loss. The Power will end the first homestand on a ?Buck Night? at Appalachian Power Park on Thursday night against the Legends. Right Hander Forrest Martin (0-2, 5.19) will throw for the Power and the Legends will counter with Right Hander Jimmy Barthmaier (0-0, 1.10). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM (6:05 Central). West Virginia Box Score: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1 West Virginia Game Log: Wasted opportunities in the 1st and 4th innings, especially the 1st... www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1

Final: Huntsville 10, Mobile (Padres) 7 Huntsville Site Game Summary: Link with Tony Zuniga photo, text follows: www.huntsvillestars.com/s...newsId=568 A Wild Wednesday Win Tony Zuniga hit an inside-the-park home run and David Bradley worked three scoreless innings in relief to lead the Stars to their fifth consecutive win, a 10-7 decision over Mobile Wednesday afternoon at Joe Davis Stadium. The Stars improved to 6-7 on the season and to 5-1 at home, while the BayBears lost their ninth straight game to drop to 4-9. The win was somewhat overshadowed by a nasty collision between the two first baseman, Mobile?s Greg Sain and Huntsville?s Brandon Gemoll in the top of the fifth inning. Sain lofted a high, pop up near the first base line and on his way up the line, Gemoll was coming down the line to try to make the catch and the two smacked into each other head on and hit the ground. Both players were down for a few minutes before being taken out of the game. No word was released after the game on the condition of either player. Huntsville broke up a 5-5 game with a five-run fourth inning rally, matching their season high for runs in one frame set in the 8th inning of Sunday?s 11-2 win over Carolina. Callix Crabbe walked to lead off the inning and remained at first base until Kennard Bibbs delivered a two-out triple into the right field corner. Jason Clements? errant relay throw to third base to try to cut down Bibbs instead allowed him to score to give the Stars a 7-5 lead. Tony Gwynn, Jr. and Gemoll each singled for their third hits of the day to chase Mobile starter Travis Chick, who was lifted after 3 2/3 innings in his shortest outing of the season. RD Speish took over and was greeted by a Nelson Cruz double, his second of the day and seventh of the year, to score both runners to push the home team?s lead to 9-5. Zuniga then followed with a base hit to center field plate Cruz to finish Huntsville?s scoring. Mobile tallied single runs in the seventh and eighth innings off of Matt Ford and put two runners on in the ninth against Matt DeWitt before the veteran right-hander fanned Clements to end the game and pick up his second save of the season. The BayBears took advantage of two Stars errors in the third inning to score three times to take a 5-2 lead. A leadoff walk to Kennard Jones was followed by an Enrique Cruz throwing error, a run-scoring single by Paul McAnulty, a Crabbe fielding error, a balk by starting pitcher Manny Parra that allowed a run to score and a run-producing ground out by Troy Cameron, his first of two on the day. Huntsville had committed just seven errors in the first 12 games of the year and more than one error in just two games prior to Wednesday. The Stars rallied for three runs in the bottom of the inning to tie the score for the second time in the game. Gwynn, Jr. singled, stole second and scored on a double by Gemoll, who has hit safely in five out of six games. Gemoll stole third before Nelson Cruz struck out and Zuniga came to the plate and blasted the first pitch he saw from Chick deep to left field. McAnulty gave chase and crashed into the outfield wall in an unsuccessful attempt to make the catch. The ball bounded away, back toward the diamond, and by the time the relay throw was sent home, the 30-year old Zuniga legged out the Stars first inside-the-parker at Joe Davis Stadium since July 1 of last season when Jamie Gann performed the same feat. Zuniga hit his first long ball of the year and became the first Stars player to drive in three runs in a game this season. Bradley took over for Parra in the fourth and worked out of runners at first and second with one out jams in the fourth and sixth innings to earn his first win of the season. The right-hander fanned three, walked one and allowed three hits in his second three inning relief stint of the season. The Huntsville bullpen has now earned four of the team?s six wins on the season. The series against Mobile concludes Thursday evening with right-hander Glenn Woolard getting the starting assignment for the Stars against BayBears right-hander Jose Oyervidez Coverage of the game gets underway at 6:50 p.m. central time on ESPN 1450 AM and via the internet at www.huntsvillestars.com. Huntsville Box Score: If Carlos Lee or Geoff Jenkins went on the DL today, wouldn't you call up Nelson Cruz before Brad, Corey, or David? www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1 Huntsville Game Log: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1

Link while active, text follows: www.dailymail.com/news/Sp...005042021/ Serfass doesn't feel the heat with the Power Matt Lockhart Charleston Daily Mail Sportswriter Jake Serfass leaned up against the batting cage before his West Virginia Power opener. Pop music buzzed in the background as hitters sprayed line drives to the outfield. "Zeros straight across?" a scoreboard operator asked as he prepared to load the stat-less Serfass into the high-tech message board at the $23 million Appalachian Power Park Tuesday. After watching other outfielders take swings, Serfass stepped in front of his new slow-throwing boss -- Power manager and former Major League infielder Ramon Aviles. He lined a few to left, and many more to right. This, Serfass admits, beats the heck out of the Arizona heat. The former West Virginia University outfielder has spent the past two months in Phoenix since reporting there for spring training. When many Milwaukee Brewer farmhands received their season assignments at the first of April, Serfass was left out to dry in Arizona. He stayed in what they call extended spring training, something designated for injured players or guys who will begin their season in the late-starting Rookie League. "I was a little upset at first, but you have to brush it off," Serfass said, as his fingers brushed across his right shoulder. So when Serfass got the call to be one of two players to replace Power outfielders Jason Tuttle and Adam Mannon after a 2-9 start, no questions were asked. He'll let his role define itself. "I'm a goofy guy. I lighten things up a little bit, but I'm sure they didn't send me here for that," said the 23-year-old former Mountaineer, who went 0-for-3 with an RBI in the Power's 10-5 loss to Lexington Tuesday. One answer for his call-up might be the left-hander's power potential in a hitter-friendly ballpark. "I hear the ball flies out here in right field," said Serfass, who corrected an early career strikeout problem at WVU to bat .302 with six home runs last season for the Mountaineers. "I'm a left-handed power hitter, so maybe they sent me out here for that." Word traveled fast to Arizona about Appalachian Power Park's lively hitter's paradise. "When you hear that, you don't believe it," he said. "You have to see it first." One thing the former WVU standout wouldn't mind seeing in Charleston is an opportunity to become a local favorite. "The hometown crowd will hopefully help me out a little bit," said the Fairless Hills, Pa., native who struggled at the plate (.177) last season between Rookie League Helena and Class A High Desert. "It would be fun to be the hometown guy." There's a good chance that will be a little unfamiliar to Serfass this year, especially in the South Atlantic League. Hagerstown's Grant Psomas and Asheville's Jason DiAngelo were teammates of Serfass' at WVU. Psomas, who keeps in regular contact with the new Power outfielder, homered twice on opening night against this West Virginia team. DiAngelo, a 27th-round selection in 2003 by the Colorado Rockies, is serving a 15-game suspension for violation of baseball minor league steroids policy -- a test he called a "mix-up." Two other WVU teammates, and state natives -- Eric Grimm and Jarod Rine -- played in the SAL last season for the Baltimore Orioles' Delmarva club. Grimm, who is from Parkersburg, is recovering from an injury, while the Moundsville native Rine is playing advanced Class A ball in Fredrick (Va.). WVU pitcher Zac Cline pitched for Lakewood of the SAL last season, also. Major League clubs drafted those players, with the exception of Grimm. But Serfass had to take an alternate route. There were 1,498 names called in the 2004 first-year player draft, none of which were his. "I was talking to a bunch of guys who told me they might pick me," Serfass said. "When it didn't happen I was bummed about it." Serfass, though, said he wasn't ready to put the cleats away. It just took a few weeks passed before good news came. "A scout called and asked if I wanted to play," he recalls. "I said ?Absolutely.' I wanted to give it a shot." Now Serfass has his shot with the Power. It sure beats the Arizona heat or the draft day blues. Jake Serfass Photo by Craig Cunningham http://www.dailymail.com/images/Serfass0420.jpg

Sorry if i missed a post on this, but where has Krynzel been the past couple of days? Is he just getting some time off or did he hurt himself? No mention of anything in today's media notes -- maybe somebody who's listening in has heard something: www.nashvillesounds.com/pdf/notes.pdf Haven't heard these two yet, but here are pre-game audio links -- RHP Clint Weibl (Wednesday): www.nashvillesounds.com/a...204-20.mp3 Manager Frank Kremblas (Tuesday): www.nashvillesounds.com/a...204-19.mp3

Thanks for the updates, everyone. Here are the links to the action so that others can follow along -- Brevard County is tonight... Nashville: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...a_orhaaa_1 Huntsville: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_hunaax_1 Brevard County: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_breafx_1 West Virginia: www.minorleaguebaseball.c...x_wvaafx_1