=== Daily Dugout Chatter - Thursday, August 12th === (Games from Wednesday, August 11th)
From The My Sportsbook
GREAT FALLS OF FIRE
Eric Everly and Demetrius Banks combined on a nine inning no-hitter and recorded 16 strikeouts as the Great Falls Whitesox blanked the Helena Brewers 3-0 in Pioneer League action Wednesday night. Everly (2-1) tossed the first six innings, striking out 10 batters, to pick up the victory. Banks closed out the game with three perfect innings and struck out six Brewers to record his first save of the season. Neither pitcher walked a batter. Chris Kelly led the offensive charge as he went 3-for-4 and knocked in one run. Boomer Berry contributed a 1-for-3 effort and scored twice in the win. Robert Wooley (3-2) took the loss for Helena after he gave up three runs, two earned, on five hits in four innings of work. Wooley struck out seven in his outing. Only an infield error in the sixth inning prevented a perfect game. The loss snapped Helena's eight-game winning streak while Great Falls won for the fifth time in a row.
BY JOSH
Josh McKinley collected three hits, including two home runs, and drove in five runs, as the Harrisburg Senators nipped the Bowie Baysox, 10-9 in a wild Eastern League contest. The Baysox jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the second inning when Lance Burkhart smashed his eighth home run of the year, a two-run shot. James Lofton plated a run in the first on a ground out. Harrisburg answered in the top of the third on a McKinley three-run round tripper. Alejandro Machado and GJ Raymundo scored on the play. Juan Camilo and Shawn Norris put the Senators up by three after each smacked run scoring doubles in the four and fifth innings respectively. Norris' double plated two runs. Trailing 7-3 in the seventh, Bowie answered with a six-run rally to go up by two. Tony Mota highlighted the inning with a two-run single, while Kris Wilson and Burkart contributed run scoring singles. The Senators tied the game at nine in the eighth on solo home runs by McKinley and Jason Brown. In the ninth, McKinley sealed the win with an RBI single to score Josh Labandeira and make a loser out of Bowie reliever Jacobo Sequea (3-5). Jonathan Searles earned the win in relief for the Senators. He pitched 1 1/3rd shutout innings and allowed two hits. Searles improved to 3-2, while Anthony Ferrari recorded his first save of the season.
HOWARD GETS HIS FIRST, BARONS LOSE
Ryan Glynn tossed six solid innings to record his sixth victory and three Syracuse hitters collected two RBI apiece as the SkyChiefs survived a late comeback attempt to defeat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons 9-5. Glynn (6-2) allowed just one earned run on six hits in his six innings of work to pick up the win. He walked two and struck out four in the outing. Anton French, Russ Adams, and Julius Matos knocked in two runs apiece for Syracuse. French went 3-for-5 with a double, home run, and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot while Adams finished 2-for-5 with a triple and scored once. Matos doubled and scored once for the SkyChiefs. Eric Junge (0-3) was rocked for seven earned runs in just four innings to take the loss for the Red Barons. Junge allowed eight hits, walked two, and fanned two. Tim Whittaker and Chad Hermansen both chipped in a double and one run scored in the win. Hermansen also knocked in one run. Ryan Howard smacked his first home run since being promoted to Triple- A, a solo shot in the second inning that briefly tied the game at 1-1. Howard was leading the Eastern League with 37 homers before the promotion.
EXPRESS CHUG ALONG
Tim McClaskey lead the Round Rock Express to a 3-0 victory over the El Paso Diablos by pitching 7 2/3rds shutout innings, allowing just four hits while striking out six batters. He improved his record to 6-6. Brooks Conrad lead the Express' offense by going 2-for-3 with two RBI. The first RBI came on a single in the bottom of the fourth. The second on a bases loaded walk in the 8th. Relief pitcher Santiago Ramirez earned his 29th save of the season throwing 1 1/3rd innings of shutout relief. Beltran Perez took the loss despite only allowing one eanred run over four innings pitched. His record fell to 2-3.
SIR LANCE-A-LOT
Lance Caraccioli hurled six innings of scoreless ball to lead the Chattanooga Lookouts to a 3-1 victory over the West Tenn Jaxx Wednesday evening.The Jaxx could do very little against Caraccioli (1-0), who allowed just three hits, struck out seven and walked three in six innings of work. Brad Salmon allowed the Jaxx their only run in two innings and Chris Booker finished up with a scoreless ninth to notch his third save of the season. The Lookouts did not exactly have an easy time of it against losing pitcher Carmen Pignatiello (6-6), who allowed only two earned runs, five hits over five innings of work, striking out eight and walking just one batter. Tennessee scored single runs in each of the middle innings. Edwin Encarnacion doubled in the Lookouts first run in the fourth following a lead-off walk to Jeff Bannon and a single by William Bergolla. The Lookouts doubled the lead in the fifth on an RBI single by Ramon Moreta and completed their scoring in the sixth thanks to an error by first baseman Matt Creighton that allowed Jason Hill to score. Micah Hoffpauir, Geovany Soto and Ronny Cedeno each had two hits apiece for the Jaxx (18-26), who have lost five straight. Chattanooga (30-13), which owns a 30-13 record and 4 ½ game lead over Greenville in the East Division, has won three straight and seven of their last eight.
LEWIS PROVIDES RELIEF
Richard Lewis laced a key three-run home run as the Iowa Cubs rallied for five runs in the sixth inning to beat the Salt Lake Stingers, 7-4, in a Pacific Coast League game Wednesday night. With the win, Iowa improved to 66-50 while Salt Lake fell to 45-73. Trailing 4-2 heading into the top of the sixth inning, Iowa plated five runs in the frame with Lewis' three-run home run to right field the highlight. David Kelton contributed two hits, two RBI, a walk and a run for Iowa. The runs made a winner out of Jimmy Anderson (5-3). He gave up four runs - two earned - on 10 hits in 6 2/3rd innings. Losing pitcher Jason Middlebrook (6-7) was touched for five runs on eight hits in 5 2/3rd innings.
SLAM DUNCAN
Steven White tossed six innings of one-run ball and Shelley Duncan homered and drove in three runs to power the Tampa Yankees past the Clearwater Threshers 6-1 in game two of their doubleheader. Clearwater took game one 8-6. White (4-2) scattered four hits, walked one batter, and struck out three in his outing. Carlos Artiles came in to throw a perfect seventh inning to close the game. Duncan went 2-for-3 and scored one run to pace the Tampa offense. The homer was his 15th of the season. Tommy Winrow added his fourth home run and knocked in two runs for the Yankees. Michael Mihalik (0-1) gave up three earned runs in two innings of work to take the loss for Clearwater. Mihalik gave up five hits, including both Tampa homers, and struck out three in the loss. With the split, Tampa remains atop the West Division, 1/2 games ahead of Dunedin. Clearwater falls 7 1/2 games behind Tampa.
FIRST PLACE FALTERS
Matthew Cain threw seven scoreless on his way to leading the Norwich Navigators to a 5-1 victory over the Binghamton Mets Wednesday evening. Cain improved his record to 6-1 by allowing three hits while walking four and striking out five. The bulk of Norwich's offense came from Daniel Ortmeier and Justin Knoedler. Both batters had two hits, scored two runs, and had an RBI. Ortmeier added a home run. For Binghamton, Brett Harper and Jeff Keppinger each had two hits. Brian Bannister took the loss, pitching seven innings and allowing three earned runs. He allowed five hits and also walked five. His record fell to 2-1. Norwich gained a game in the Eastern League's Northern Division with their victory over Binghamton. Binghamton is currently in first place at 70-48. Norwich is currently at 62-55, 7 1/2 games behind Binghamton.
