Sunday’s News & Notes

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 7 Syracuse 1
• Skole 1-4, RBI
• Severino 2-3, BB

The Chiefs took a commanding 1-0 lead in the 1st and failed to hold it for a 7-1 loss to the RailRiders.

Harrisburg 4 Reading 2
• G. Ross (W, 5-3) 6IP, 8H, R, ER, 2BB, 5K
• Bacus (H, 3) 2IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Marmolejos 2-3, R, 2B, SF, RBI
• Ward 2-3, R, BB

Harrisburg took advantage of two Reading errors to score their final two runs and secure a 4-2 victory. Greg Ross turned in six innings of one-run ball on eight hits and two walks while striking out five to notch his fifth AA win. Dakota Bacus shut the door for two innings before turning the ball over to Andrew Robinson who Soriano’d through the 9th on a leadoff HR to get the rulebook save. Jose “Orange” Marmolejos singled, doubled, and hit a sacrifice fly while Drew ward reach base three times with two singles and a walk to lead the Sens’ offense.

Potomac 4 Frederick 2 – GAME ONE
• Baez (W, 4-8) 7IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 4BB, 7K, HR
• Turner 2-3, R, 2B, SF, RBI
• Mejia 1-3, 2B, RBI

Joan Baez continues to dominate in the month of August (3-1, 1.88) as he spun a complete-game gem in a 4-2 P-Nats win over the Keys. Baez walked four and allowed a solo HR and two hits total but also struck out seven. Trea Turner, who flied out weakly in each of his four ABs on Friday night, singled, doubled, and hit sacrifice fly (one of three) to cap off Potomac’s two-run 6th. Bryan Mejia (double) and Rhett Wiseman (single) accounted for the other two P-Nats hits.

Frederick 2 Potomac 0 – GAME TWO
• Fuentes (L, 0-1) ⅔ IP, 2H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 0K
• Pantoja 3⅓ IP, 4H, 0R, 2BB, 1K, WP
• Mendez 3IP, 0H, 0R, 0BB, 3K
• Mejia 1-1, SAC
• Beckwith 1-2

In the nightcap, it was all Frederick as two pitchers combined to shut out Potomac 2-0 on two hits to split the doubleheader. Steven Fuentes made the start but wasn’t pitching to blind basketball players, so he walked three of the seven batters he faced and fell behind in nearly every count to dig a 2-0 hole after just 2/3rds of an inning. Jorge Pantoja stranded three while getting the last out of the 1st and held the Keys scoreless for three, as did Gilberto Mendez, who retired all nine batters he faced. Matt Reistetter broke up the perfect game with a walk in the 3rd while Tyler Beckwith denied the no-no with a two-out single in the 5th. Bryan Mejia’s infield single to lead off the 6th was the fourth and final P-Nats baserunner. Roster moves: IF Austin Davidson placed on the 7-Day DL; C Matt Reistetter activated from the 7-Day DL.

Hagerstown 13 West Virginia 2
• Ramirez (W, 1-2) 7IP, 10H, 2R, 2ER, 0BB, 4K
• Held 2IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 2K
• Barrera 4-4, 2R, 2HR, 3RBI, BB
• C. Kieboom 4-6, 2R, HR, 3RBI, CS
• Agustin 3-4, 2R, 2B

The extra point sailed wide in Hagerstown’s six-run 4th as they went on to a 13-2 takedown of West Virginia. Yonathan Ramirez scattered 10 hits over seven innings but walked none and struck out four as he finally earned a Low-A win. Sam Held mopped up with two scoreless innings. Tres Barrera homered twice while Carter Kieboom went deep once; both had four hits and three RBI to lead the Suns’ 17-hit parade.

Batavia 5 Auburn 4
• Crowe 3IP, 2H, R, ER, 0BB, K, HR
• Rishwain (BS, 4; L, 1-4) 3IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 0BB, 3K, HR
• Scudder 3-5, 2B, 2RBI
• Pryor 2-3, 2R, BB, SF, RBI
• Pascal 2-4, SB

The Muckdogs reclaimed 5th place in the Pinckney Division with a 5-4 win over the Doubledays. Wil Crowe got the start and gave up a homer and two hits total over his three innings for the no-decision. Michael Rishwain blew his fourth save in as many opportunities and lost for the fourth time with the final four Batavia runs allowed on six hits over three innings. Jake Scudder and Jonathan Pryor both reached base three times, scoring twice (Pryor) and driving in two (Scudder) to lead the Auburn offense.

GCL Nationals 5 GCL Mets 4 (8 inn.)
• N. Lee 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0BB, 0K
• Peguero (BS, 1; W, 1-0) 1⅔ IP, 3H, 0R, 0BB, 2K, 2-1 IR-S
• Connell 3-3, BB, 2RBI, OF assist at HP
• Blash 2-4, 3R, 2B, 2SB

Rain shortened this to eight innings, just in time as the G-Nats took a 5-4 lead in the top of the final frame and Justin Connell threw out the would-be tie run at the plate at the bottom of the final frame. Nick Lee made his first regular-season appearance of 2017 with a scoreless inning in the first for the “start.” Jairon Peguero got the blown-save-win as Alex Dunlap’s passed ball let in one of two inherited runners in the 6th and he worked around two singles in the 7th. Connell reached base four times with three singles and a walk and drove in two while Jamori Blash singled, doubled, scored three times, and stole twice to pace the G-Nats’ attack. Roster move: LHP Nick Lee assigned from Harrisburg for MiLB rehab.

DSL Nationals Update
The D-Nats closed out the 2017 campaign with back-to-back wins, but it wasn’t enough to avoid a last-place finish in the DSL South at 28-43, 21 games off the pace.

Playoff Update
GCL – The G-Nats lead by 3½ games and have gotten a little help from Mother Nature as rain has postponed or suspended the last three games for the streaking (seven straight wins) second-place G-Marlins.

Low-A – While the Suns went medieval on the Power’s [buttocks] last night, they remain in fourth place and four games behind (three in the loss column) in the Sally North with just one game (today’s) against the three teams they’re chasing.

High-A – Potomac lost three one-run ballgames to Salem this week, and split a pair of doubleheaders the past two nights with Frederick. The P-Nats are also in fourth place and four games back, but also play their would-be playoff opponent (Lynchburg) while the Red Sox and Keys play each other this week. TL;DR – Potomac needs to reel off several wins over the final nine and get a lot of help.