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Colorado Springs 2, New Orleans 1
The Sky Sox took the series from New Orelans behind lefty starter Pedro Hernandez, who allowed just one earned run despite allowing six hits and two walks over five innings. Just one of those hits was for extra bases, helping to minimize the damage. Manny Corpas and Brooks Brown combined for three scoreless innings in relief, allowing Chris Martin to secure his first save of the season for Colorado Springs.
Catcher Jackson Williams hit his first home run of 2014, despite striking out in his other three at bats. Similar to the opponents, this was the only extra base hit for the Sky Sox on the day, perhaps emphasizing the difference in play styles we can expect to see this year with the Pacific Coast League's new divisional layout. The winning run came around in the fourth inning when Matt McBride scored on a throwing error from a play off the bat of Ben Paulsen. McBride was two for two in the game, as was Ryan Wheeler, though Wheeler was caught stealing and made a fielding error of his own.
With the win Sunday, the Tourists split the four game set against San Antonio. Unlike a certain other Anderson, Tyler Anderson pitched extremely well yesterday, allowing just one earned run on one hit and a walk over five innings while striking out six. Fresh off of the disabled list, Carlos Hernandez threw three solid innings of his own in his Rockies-system debut, in which he retired all nine batters he faced. Though it wasn't a save situation, Drillers closer Scott Oberg pitched a clean ninth inning.
Brian Humphries hit four singles in the game and knocked in two runs, while Joey Wong produced three hits, which included a double. It was a game of twos for Tom Murphy, who had two hits, two runs batted in and scored two of Tulsa's runs. Cristhian Adames also scored twice despite not getting a hit in the game. Adames' only hit on the season remains his heroic home run in the season opener. The final multi-hitter of the game was Ryan Casteel, with two. Tulsa combined for 15 in the game.
Modesto has been swept by Bakersfield to open the season. Jayson Aquino, Modesto's best pitching prospect, melted down in his A+ debut. He allowed eight earned runs over for innings. Aquino was undone by several instances of Bakersfield offense production stacking. In the first inning, he allowed four hits and three of the eight runs, but even though Aquino would only allow two more hits in the game, the damage was far from done. The young lefty starter walked three and hit two batters at the plate. These, when combined with poor base management from Aquino and battery mate Chris O'Dowd, led to further disaster. Tyler Gagnon was unable to bail out Aquino in the fifth, and both he and Raul Fernandez each allowed another of their on in relief.
The Nuts were limited to two hits, a solo home run by David Kandilas (his first of the year) and a pinch hit double by Jose Rivera, which also scored Kandilas for the second Modesto run. Trevor Story and Will Swanner, both repeating Modesto after poor 2013s, combined for five strikeouts.
Delmarva evened the series by defeating Alex Balog and the Tourists. Balog didn't demonstrate great control, but kept the ship afloat until the fourth when he melted down a bit. He allowed three runs on three hits and three walks over five and two-thirds, and just to make it found fancy, he struck out three as well. Carlos Estevez allowed another run, while Trent Blank's innings were, well, blank.
The Tourists actually outhit the Shorebirds 8-7, but their run production was limited to two solo home runs from David Dahl and Michael Benjamin, the first of the year for both. Both Dahl and Raimel Tapia had two hits each. Jose Briceno stole a base, already his third of the season. Correlle Prime had a rough game, striking out three times and making an error in the field.