The upper levels suffered crushing defeats, but the lower levels got victories.

Tucson 10, Colorado Springs 2

The Sky Sox (9-6, 1 GB) got 11 strikeouts in only 5.1 IP by Rob Scahill, but two errors by PuRP 20 Tommy Field and another by PuRP 24 Jordan Pacheco led to 6 unearned runs. Scahill allowed only 4 hits but walked 3 men, creating enough traffic for the errors to cause damage. On the bright side, Scahill did double and scored a run while Pacheco went 2-4.

Springfield 6, Tulsa 0

The Drillers (9-4, Up 2 in division) got blanked in this one, mustering only 5 hits in the game. Of course, 2 of those hits came from PuRP Nolan Arenado, so there's that. Dan Houston took the loss by allowing 4 runs on 7 hits in 4 IP.

A ball (and winning) below the fold.

It's hard to lose when your pitching doesn't allow a run. For the Nuts (4-10, 7.5 GB), this meant that Christian Bergman was lights out. After pitching very well last year in Tri-City, Bergman got to skip Asheville and certainly showed he was ready for the California League with this performance. He allowed 4 hits and didn't walk a batter over 8 IP. Offensively, Brett Tanos went 3-4 with 2 doubles to lead the Nuts.

Asheville 10, Rome 6

The Tourists (10-4, 0.5 GB) continued their offensive onslaught on the South Atlantic League -- this game was the 9th in their 14 games in which they had scored at least 8 runs. They've won 6 straight and 9 of 10.

PuRP 11 Rosell Herrera, PuRP 12 Trevor Story, and Brian Humphries each had multi-hit games and Harold Riggins hit a 2 run homer (2). Riggins' line thus far: .383/.482/.660. The beneficiary of this offensive explosion was Danny Winkler, who went 5.1 innings and allowed 4 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6.