Rockies prospect Erick Julio young but mighty

There has been a good amount of success coming from some of the Boise Hawks’ pitchers this season. One of those hurlers is right-hander Erick Julio, who has been in the Colorado Rockies organization since 2014 and is just 19 years old. Last week, Julio may have had one of the best starts of his career, not to mention against the best team in the Northwest League.

Julio was dominant in 7¹⁄₃ innings against the Eugene Emeralds last Thursday, retiring nine of the first 11 batters he faced en route allowing just one earned run and throwing 62 out of 85 pitches for strikes.

In two starts at Eugene this season, Julio has allowed just one run over 13¹⁄₃ innings while striking out eight batters and walking three against a team that enters this week with a league-best 45-17 record and the third-best OPS (.719) in the NWL.

Those numbers reflect like gold in a pitcher’s eyes. To date, Julio sits with a 3.94 ERA and has the second-most strikeouts on the team with 44. He may be young, but he sure seems to know what he is doing.

Offensively, Luis Castro had a sneaky good week for the Hawks, who are 3-4 in their last seven games. Castro had just four hits in 19 plate appearances, but one was a home run, and he also walked six times while striking out only five.

The Hawks sit at 10-14 in the second half and will finish up an 11-game road trip this week before playing their final home series of the season next Monday.

Quick statistical leaders for the Hawks through 62 games:

Batting (qualified)

Jacob Bosiokovic: .286/.396/.432 in 236 PA
Garrett Hampson: .292/.392/.401 in 255 PA

Pitching (qualified)

Erick Julio: 3.94 ERA, 44 K, 12 BB in 61²⁄₃ IP
Antonio Santos: 4.17 ERA, 45 K, 11 BB in 58¹⁄₃ IP