Aaron Civale brilliant over eight innings for Lynchburg, Ryan Merritt sets up Saturday start for Indians

Before we get to the minor league action yesterday, some special congratulations go out to the five Lynchburg Hillcats players who were selected for the Carolina League All-Star game:

RHP Shao-Ching Chiang
RHP Triston McKenzie
RHP Argenis Angulo

2B Sam Haggerty
C/1B Sicnarf Loopstok

The Hillcats pitching staff has been incredible all season, and likely would have had two more All-Stars if Thomas Pannone and Matt Esparza hadn’t been promoted to Double-A Akron already. Haggerty is leading all minor league players in triples while Loopstok has been the most consistent producer in the heart of the Lynchburg batting order all season.

Lynchburg Hillcats 8, Wilmington Blue Rocks 1

Box Score · Hillcats improve to 37-25

This game was all Aaron Civale. The 2016 third round draft pick was downright dominant, shutting down Wilmington over eight stellar innings. he only allowed two hits, they just unfortunately were in the same inning and resulted in a single run scored. Civale was extremely efficient, finishing his eight innings in just 84 pitches and he could have gone for a complete game, but the coaching staff brought in the bullpen. All in all, he didn’t walk a batter while striking out four.

Offensively, a whopping six players had multi-hit games for the Hillcats. Most impressively was outfielder Ka’ai Tom, who went 3-5 on the day, finishing a triple short of the cycle. Sicnard Loopstok went 2-5 with a triple while Willi Castro went 2-4 at the dish with a stolen base in the blowout victory.

Lake County Captains 5, Bowling Green Hot Rods 4

Box Score · Captains improve to 23-40

Three home runs and a sacrifice fly resulted in all of Lake County’s offense. The first three players in the batting order, Junior Soto, Miguel Eladio and Li-Jen Chu all went deep for the Captains as Lake County won despite being outhit 12-7.

Since Columbus didn’t play today, Ryan Merritt made a spot appearance for Lake County to keep his arm fresh for Saturday’s double-header in Cleveland. He was solid, allowing two runs in seven innings while striking out four and walking one. The bullpen bent, but didn’t break, allowing two runs in the final two innings to squeak out the victory.

DSL Indians 5, DSL Dodgers2 4

Box Score · Indians fall to 1-7

This game was a serious heartbreaker for the DSL Indians. The team held a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth thanks to multi-hit performances from the top three members of the batting order, Marcos Gonzalez, Jonathan Lopez and Jhon Torres.

Unfortunately, the bullpen allowed four runs in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings. The Indians again scored in the top of the 10th, but the bullpen allowed the Dodgers2 to walk off with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

DSL Indians/Brewers 3, DSL Rays2 6

Box Score · Indians/Brewers fall to 3-5

Not many Indians players contributed to this loss, but 17-year old prospect Makesiondon Kelkboom did go 1-3 with a walk and two runs batted in, the only RBIs for his team. He also had his sixth error of the season already.

Indians pitcher Henry Garcia pitched two scoreless innings of relief in the loss.