Carey went 3-5 with a pair of doubles in the win
There was plenty of action down on the farm on Wednesday, including a walk off win, multiple strong pitching performances and several significant offensive outings. So let’s get into it.
(21-26) Gwinnett Stripers 7, (20-26) Louisville Bats 4
- Ronald Acuna Jr., RF: 1-4, 2B, R, BB
- Jarred Kelenic, CF: 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, BB
- Eddy Alvarez, SS: 2-4, HR, RBI, 2 R
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 9 K
Gwinnett came out on the right side of a back-and-forth game on Wednesday, ultimately winning thanks to some late-inning heroics by Jarred Kelenic.
The Stripers didn’t waste any time jumping on the board in this one as a James McCann single plated Ronald Acuna Jr. — who drew a walk in the game’s first at-bat — and Kelenic to make it an early 2-0 Gwinnett lead in the top of the first. McCann later came around to score on an Eddys Leonard triple to extend the lead to 3-0.
The Stripers tacked on another run in the top of the second after Eddy Alvarez launched his fourth homer of the year over the right field wall to make it 4-0 Gwinnett.
Meanwhile on the mound, Hurston Waldrep was very solid. Across six innings of work, Waldrep allowed two earned runs and walked a pair of batters, but managed to strike out nine in the process. An interesting trend for Waldrep in his previous couple of starts, is that he has tended to rely more heavily on his fastball while giving his signature splitter more of a break when it comes to putting batters away. The fact that he is still managing to put up solid numbers without using his best pitch is a very encouraging sign for a guy whose prospect stock has dipped a bit recently.
Getting back to Wednesday’s action, Louisville ultimately tied things up in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 4-4 game. Then, when down to their final out in the top of the ninth, Kelenic turned on a slider and hit a 108 miles per hour rocket over the right center field wall for a three-run homer, giving Gwinnett the 7-4 lead.
In the home half of the ninth, Craig Kimbrel was called upon to get the save and did so in excellent fashion, striking out a pair of batters in a scoreless frame to seal the win.
(18-21) Columbus Clingstones 5, (21-19) Montgomery Biscuits 1
- Cal Conley, SS: 2-4, 2 RBI, R
- David McCabe, 3B: 2-4, R
- Stephen Paolini, DH: 1-4, 2B, RBI
- Ian Mejia, SP: 7 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 5 K
Ian Mejia was excellent in his start for Columbus and the offense tallied twice as many hits as Montgomery on Wednesday as the Clingstones came away with the 5-1 victory.
For the third straight start, Mejia tossed seven innings on Wednesday night, allowing just four hits and one run. He also issued one walk and struck out five.
Simply put, Mejia has been absolutely phenomenal for Columbus this season. Across 43.2 innings in eight starts, the 25-year-old has struck out 34 batters en route to a glistening 1.03 ERA. In fact, Mejia has been so good, that the run he allowed on Wednesday was the first one he has given up since April. It wouldn’t be a shock at all to see Mejia get the bump up to Gwinnett soon to see if he can replicate his performance at a higher level.
At the plate, the Clingstones were held scoreless for the first two frames before scoring in the third. Keshawn Ogans scored on a Cal Conley single to make it a 1-0 game and Ethan Workinger would score on a Drew Compton groundout in the bottom of the fourth to extend the lead to 2-0.
Columbus added on in the bottom of the sixth as David McCabe scored on a Stephen Paolini double to make it 3-0 Clingstones. Conley would once again come through in the bottom of the seventh by plating Kade Kern and later scoring on a passed ball to make it 5-1 which held as the final.
(22-19) Rome Emperors 2, (21-20) Hub City Spartanburgers 3
- Jace Grady, RF: 1-4, 2B, RBI, BB
- Will Verdung, 1B: 1-5, 3B
- Herick Hernandez, SP: 6 IP, 4 H, ER, BB, 10 K
Whenever you get 10 strikeouts across six innings from your starting pitcher, that’s usually a good indicator that you’re going to come out on the right side of a game. While that’s the performance that Herick Hernandez turned in for Rome on Wednesday, the Emperors would ultimately fall in 12 innings.
Rome struck first in this one as Ambioris Tavarez scored on a passed ball to make it a 1-0 game in the top of the second inning. Hub City would later tie things up by scoring a run in their half of the fifth inning — the only blemish on Hernandez’ record for the night.
As the game went into extra innings, Rome briefly took a 2-1 lead as Jace Grady doubled home Mac Guscette to make it a 2-1 game. However, that would be the last meaningful offense the Emperors would be able to scrape together as Hub City tied the game in the bottom of the tenth and later walked things off in the home half of the 12th to hand Rome the loss.
(21-19) Augusta GreenJackets 5, (19-22) Charleston RiverDogs 4
- Owen Carey, RF: 3-5, 2 2B, RBI, R
- John Gil, SS: 2-5, 2B
- Mason Guerra, 1B: 1-4, 2 RBI, R
- Luke Sinnard, SP: 5.1 IP, 3 H, BB, 5 K
Luke Sinnard was excellent once again for Augusta, tossing 5.1 innings of scoreless ball while striking out five in the process. While that type of performance would normally be enough to garner most of the attention in a recap, Owen Carey decided to jump into the mix and make a strong case for the day’s best showing.
Carey had his fingerprints all over this one. He scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the sixth on a Colby Jones single and even tallied two doubles over the course of the game as well.
While Sinnard was doing his thing, Mason Guerra drove in a pair of runs for Augusta and Luis Sanchez doubled him home to give the GreenJackets a 4-0 lead to work with.
However, Charleston scored twice in each of the eighth and ninth innings, appearing to send the game to extras. In the home half, however, Carey once again came through, lacing a 3-0 pitch into right field for a single that scored Josnaider Orellana to give Augusta the 5-4 victory in the walk off win.
On the season, Carey — who is one of the youngest players in low-A — has posted a .303 average and an OPS of .812 this far. Don’t be surprised if you see Carey’s name rocketing up prospect boards mid-season.