Diamonds in the Rough 7-17-18

HR Roll Call: Jack Lopez (5)

BPKC Hitter of the Day: Cristian Perez 3-5 2R, 2b, RBI

BPKC Pitcher of the Day: Garrett Davila 4 IP 2 H 1 R 0 ER 1 BB 3K 7-1 GO-FO 71p/46k

Transactions – OF Brewer Hicklen promoted to Wilmington from Lexington and OF Kyle Isbel promoted from Idaho Falls to Lexington.

Lexington Legends 10 Greenville Drive 3

Former Florida Gator and 1st round pick Jackson Kowar made his second start for Lexington, struggling with the strikezone again somewhat in his abbreviated outing. The right-hander walked a pair in the first before tossing a wild pitch to move two into scoring position. With the two on, he gave up an RBI double to drive in two runs before getting a strikeout to finish off the inning. In his second inning of work he got a strikeout before giving up a pair of singles, the second of which was a bunt single that was perfectly placed down the line prior to stranding the runners with a pop out and a groundout. The Legends offense quickly countered the two-run innings with a four-run frame of their own with three rbi hits and an RBI groundout to take a 4-2 lead through two. Lefty Garrett Davila would replace Kowar in the third inning, yielding just an unearned run over the next four innings. After an insurance run in the eighth, the Legends broke the game open with a five-run ninth inning with a pair of rbi singles by Matt Morales and Cristian Perez before Manny Olloqued doubled in a pair to give Lexington their eventual winning margin.

MJ Melendez: 0-5 RBI, K

Jackson Kowar: 2 IP 3 H 2 R 2 ER 2 BB 2 K 3-0 GO-FO 40p/24k

Springfield Cardinals 3 NW Arkansas Naturals 2

Defensive errors helped the Cardinals towardsthree runs in a one-run defeat of NW Arkansas. Struggling starter Emilio Ogando gave his teammates a quality start, working six innings of one-run baseball with the only run allowed coming on a sacrifice fly after Ogando had moved them forward with an errant pickoff attempt at first. That unearned run tied the game after Erick Mejia had given NW Arkansas a 1-0 lead with a two-out double that scored Khalil Lee from first base. After the teams exchanged another run each, third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez made a two-out fielding error that allowed the Cardinals to take the lead and the eventual win after the Naturals failed to counter in the ninth.

Khalil Lee: 0-1 R, BB, K 2 Sac
Jecksson Flores: 2-3 R
Erick Mejia: 1-3 2b, RBI, BB

Nashville Sounds 11 Omaha Storm Chasers 1

Not much to see in this one with starter Zach Lovvorn giving up eight runs in the first two innings while the offense put together just five hits in the blowout loss.

Josh Staumont: 3 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 3 BB 5 K 2-1 GO-FO 65p/35k
Nicky Lopez: 0-4
Ramon Torres: 3-4 2b