Lake County splits double header while Akron remains winless

Columbus Clippers 2, Louisville Bats 6

Box Score · Clippers fall to 4-2

It was a two-person show for the Clippers on Tuesday, but they weren’t enough.

All the offense came from veteran infielder Mike Freeman, who went 2-3 with a pair of solo home runs. The rest of the Clippers lineup combined for one hit.

Starting pitcher Chih-Wei Hu was brilliant through five innings, but ran into some and was chased out of the game before finishing his sixth frame. His final line was 5.2 innings pitched, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out two and walking one.

Relievers R.C. Orlan and Nick Goody were not particularly effective, both allowing two runs, which was more than enough for Louisville to pull away for the victory.

Akron RubberDucks 2, Trenton Thunder 7

Box Score · RubberDucks fall to 0-6

Sam Hentges’ rough start to the 2019 campaign continued Tuesday as he was knocked around for seven runs (four earned) on nine hits in just 3.1 innings while striking out three and walking none.

The RubberDucks’ bullpen kept the team in the game thanks to 5.2 perfect innings of relief from Luke Eubank, Rob Kaminsky and James Karinchak, who combined to strike out seven batters.

Unfortunately, the Akron offense wasn’t able to get out of first gear as no players recorded an extra base hit. Mitch Longo had the lone multi-hit game, going 2-4 while Logan Ice went 1-2 with a walk and a hit by pitch.

Lynchburg Hillcats 1, Salem Red Sox 14

Box Score · Hillcats fall to 4-2

Let’s just pretend this game never happened.

Starting pitcher Justin Garza was obliterated, allowing six earned runs on nine hits in 3.1 innings and every reliever that followed him also was touched up for multiple runs.

Steven Kwan and Tyler Friis were the lone bright spots as Kwan went 2-4 with a double and a walk. Kwan has had multiple hits in all five games he’s played thus far this season. He leads the Carolina League with a .520 batting average.

Friis went 1-3 with a double and a pair of walks. The double was already his fourth of the season, which is tops in the Carolina League.

Lake County Captains 3, Bowling Green Hot Rods 6 (F/10)
Lake County Captains 14, Bowling Green Hot Rods 4 (F/7)

Game 1 Box Score · Game 2 Box Score · Captains move to 4-2

Game one went into extra innings thanks to a strong pitching performance by Alex Royalty, who allowed two runs on five hits in 5.0 innings while striking out six and walking one.

Both bullpens kept the game tied into the 10th inning, where, with the score tied 2-2, reliever Dakody Clemmer allowed four runs to score in his third inning of work. The Captains only tacked on one run in the bottom half of the frame.

Josh Rolette and Marcos Gonzalez both went 1-3 with a double and a walk in the loss.

Game two was a different story as the Captains blasted off for nine runs in the fifth inning to easily even up the double-header.

Ruben Cardenas went 3-4 with a double and three stolen bases in game two while Mitch Reeves, who was called up when Ulysses Cantu was placed on the injured list, went 3-3 with a double, a home run and a walk. Will Benson also had a great game, going 2-3 with a home run, a walk and a stolen base.

Zach Draper picked up a no decision despite a terrific pitching performance, tossing 4.0 shutout innings on three hits while striking out two and walking one.

Of note, Brady Aiken had another ugly outing out of the bullpen, lasting just 0.1 innings while allowing two earned runs after walking two batters, throwing two wild pitches and then giving up a double.