Goldeyes Complete Sweep, Monarchs Flex Muscles, Explorers Avoid Sweep
American Association Daily provides insights, features, and recaps of the action from around the American Association of Professional Baseball League, as well as player and coaching profiles and transactions. In today’s edition, Robert Pannier recaps the five games in the American Association on Wednesday, including the Winnipeg Goldeyes their series with the Sioux Falls Canaries, the Kansas City Monarchs clubbing five homeruns, and the Sioux City Explorers avoiding a sweep. This and much more.
Power Surge Propels Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs earned their “Lords of Legends Fields” moniker on Thursday evening, blasting five home runs to help lead the club to a 6-1 victory over the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. Kansas City jumped out to a 2-0 lead, as Gabriel Guerrero hit a solo homerun in the first and Jan Hernandez added one in the second. A wild pitch brought home the third run, but the team then hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the third as Casey Gillaspie, Alexis Olmeda, and Willie Abreu all went deep.
That was plenty enough support for Matt Hall (1-1), who allowed no runs in 6.0 innings to earn his first victory of the season. Hall allowed three hits and two walks while striking out six, lowering his ERA to 0.82. Darnell Sweeney and Abreu both had three hits in the contest.
Pete Maris continues his torrid start, going 2-5 to raise his average to .429. Manuel Boscan drove in the lone run for the RedHawks.
Kansas City Monarchs Recap by Kaitlyn Sanders
Martinez Stars in Debut for Goldeyes
R.J. Martinez was signed by the Winnipeg Goldeyes on Thursday. Thursday evening, the right-hander proved why he was such a smart pick up for Manager Rick Forney, allowing one unearned run in six innings to help lead the Goldeyes to a 10-1 victory. Martinez allowed three hits and two walks while striking out three. Jhon Vargas tossed a scoreless seventh and José Vasquez tossed two scoreless frames, striking out five to finish off the victory.
Winnipeg jumped on Sioux Falls Canaries starter Angel Ventura, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the first inning. The team sent 10 men to the plate, hitting three doubles to stake themselves to a 2-1 lead. With the Goldeyes up 3-1 and the bases loaded, Reggie Pruitt drilled a 1-0 pitch for a grand slam. Winnipeg added one more run in the bottom of the second in two more in the sixth to close out the scoring.
Ian Sagdal went 3-4 with a run in two RBI. Eric Rivera was to-five with three runs scored, a homer, and an RBI. Raul Navarro, Deon Stafford, and Max Murphy each had two hits. Jabari Henry drove in the only run for Sioux Falls, his first RBI of the season.
Winnipeg Goldeyes Recap by Jason Young
Explores Avoid Sweep, Snap DockHounds Win Streak
It was a twofer for the Sioux City Explorers on Thursday. The team avoided a sweep while also snapping the three-game winning streak of the Lake Country DockHounds in a 10-6 victory. Lake Country scored solo runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, but the Explorers responded with two runs in the bottom half of each of those frames. After the teams each scored a run in the seventh, Sioux City blew the game open with five runs in the bottom of the eighth. The DockHounds rallied in the ninth, but Sioux City held on for the victory.
Nate Samson, Nick Franklin, and Sebastian Zawada led the way, as each had three hits in the contest. Zawada drove in three and added a triple. Franklin scored two runs and had an RBI. Kevin McCanna earned his second victory, allowing two runs in 6.1 innings.
T.J. Bennett led the way for Lake Country, going 2-4, including hitting his first homerun of the season. Evan Kruczynski suffered the loss.
Lake Country DockHounds Recap by Sam Matheny
Sioux City Explorers Recap by Mackenzie Attkisson
Saltdogs Down Dogs to Take Series
Hunter Clanin hit his first homerun of the season and drove in three to lead the Lincoln Saltdogs to an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Dogs, giving Lincoln two of the three games in the series. The Saltdogs jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Chicago rallied to make this a two-run contest. However, Brandon Cunniff came on in the ninth to close out the contest for his first save of the season. Carter Hope earned the victory, tossing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.
The loss spoiled a big day for Dogs outfielder Danny Mars, who went 3-5 with two runs scored and five RBI. Mars hit his third homerun of the season. Charlie Tilson had two hits and scored two runs.
Lincoln Saltdogs Recap by Michael Dixon
Worley Sharp in Cougars Victory
Vance Worley allowed two runs in 7.0 innings to earn his first victory of the season, leading the Kane County Cougars to a 4-3 victory over the Gary SouthShore RailCats. Gary opened the contest with a run in the top of the first, but Kane County responded with two runs in the bottom of the second as B.J. Lopez hit his first homerun of the season to put the Cougars on top. The RailCats tied the score, but the Cougars scored single runs in the fourth and sixth innings then held on for the victory.
Worley was sharp, allowing nine hits and a walk while striking out five. Logan Nissen came on in the eighth inning, recording the final five outs of the game to earn his second save of the season. Lopez finished with two hits, two runs scored, and two RBI.
The heart of the order for the RailCats had a big game as Michael Woodworth, Michael Cruz, and Alec Olund each had two hits, going a combined 6-14 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Gary SouthShore RailCats Recap by Ryan Zimmerman
Three Stars of the Night
No. 3 – Hunter Clanin (Lincoln Saltdogs) 2-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR, BB
No. 2 – R.J. Martinez (Winnipeg Goldeyes) 6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 0 ER, 3 K
No. 1 – Danny Mars (Chicago Dogs) 3-5, 2 R, 5 RBI, HR
American Association Daily Notes
The Winnipeg Goldeyes defeated the Sioux Falls Canaries on Thursday. That gave them a sweep of the three-game series. The Goldeyes became the first team this season to sweep a series… Chicago Dogs outfielder Danny Mars was red-hot in the series against Lincoln, going 6-14 with five runs scored, two homeruns, and 10 RBI. He produced nine RBI over the final two games of the series and added four walks…The Sioux Falls Canaries have lost four straight games.
Transactions
Chicago: Signed C Joshua Mosley; Released C Luke Bowman
Kane County: Signed C Milton Perez
Winnipeg: Signed LHP R.J. Martinez
By Robert Pannier
