Toledo Mud Hens 16, Lehigh Valley IronPigs 2 (box)
The Mud Hens crushed six home runs to crush Lehigh Valley on Sunday, but lost the series four games to two. The Mud Hens welcome in Louisville next week, before concluding the regular season on the road against the Iowa Cubs from the 16th through the 21st of September. They’re the lone affiliate who won’t see postseason action this year.
Max Anderson and Riley Unroe each launched two-run homers in the top of the second inning to kick start the offense. In the fourth, Andrew Navigato walked and stole
second before a Riley Unroe single was misplayed and Navigato scored. Trei Cruz singled Unroe to third and the Pigs went back to the pen. Hao-Yu Lee popped out, but Cruz stole second and drew a wild throw that allowed Unroe to scored from third. Eduardo Valencia later singled in Cruz for a 7-0 lead.
Lael Lockhart Jr. returned from rehab to make his first start in months for the Hens. He was extremely wild by his standards, walking six, but only allowed a fourth inning run before giving way to RJ Petit in the sixth. Petit allowed a run on a Brewer Hicklen double and an RBI single. Ryan Boyer, Drew Sommers, and Jordan Balazovic took it the rest of the way with scoreless innings of work.
Eduardo Valencia continued his rampage with a solo shot in the seventh and Gage Workman luanched a solo shot as well to make it 9-2. They tacked on two more in the eighth, and Navigato added a solo shot and Jace Jung a three-run homer in the top of the ninth.
Valencia: 2-6, R, 2 RBI, HR, 2 K
Unroe: 3-5, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR, K
Cruz: 3-4 3 R, RBI, BB, SB
Navigato: 1-2, 3 R, RBI, HR, 3 BB, K, SB
Lockhart (W, 4-7): 5.0 IP, ER, 3 H, 6 BB, 3 K
Erie SeaWolves 5, Portland Sea Dogs 0 (box)
The SeaWolves wrapped up a series victory in their second to last series of the regular Double-A season by shutting out the Sea Dogs on Sunday.
Austin Bergner gave them a strong start with five scoreless frames with four hits and two walks allowed, striking out five along the way. Andrew Magno’s control was still iffy, but he managed to throw two scoreless despite walking three hitters. Richard Guasch continued his strong run with two scoreless innings, scattering a hit and a walk while punching out four. Guasch’s fastball command was good in this one and the slider nasty as usual.
The SeaWolves offense didn’t have much luck again Portland’s John Holobetz either. They didn’t muster any kind of a threat until John Peck and Kevin McGonigle singled to start the top of the fourth, and they still didn’t manage to score a run.
Finally Holobetz departed after six, and the SeaWolves immediately broke through. Josue Briceño led off with seventh with a walk and Jake Holton followed suit. Justice Bigbie flew out, but a wild pitch advanced the runners and Eliezer Alfonzo singled in Briceño. Seth Stephenson lined a single to center field to plate Holton before the Sea Dogs could get out of the inning. 2-0 Erie.
In the eighth, three straight singles from Briceño, Holton, and Bigbie made it 3-0. Max Clark singled in Alfonzo in the ninth, and John Peck doubled to right field to plate Clark, concluding the scoring in this one.
The 79-53 SeaWolves now come home to face the Altoona Curve as their final series to prep for the Eastern League postseason, which will begin on the road on September 16th with the playoff round.
Peck: 2-5, RBI, 2B, K
Clark: 2-5, R, RBI, K
McGonigle: 1-4, BB, K
Briceno: 1-4, 2 R, BB, 2 K
Bergner: 5.0 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 K
West Michigan Whitecaps 5, Fort Wayne TinCaps 0 (box)
The Whitecaps concluded their 2025 season just as you’d expect shutting downt the TinCaps again to run their incredible record to 92-39 on the year.
After a rough year trying to build on his strong 2024 campaign, Rayner Castillo put together one of his best of the season on Sunday. The 21-year-old struck out five, scattering one hit and two walks, over 4 2/3 innings of work.
His teammates gave him a little lead to work with in the bottom of the first. Woody Hadeen led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on an Andrew Jenkins single. We also saw Izaac Pacheco flash the leather a bit.
In the fifth, walks to Jackson Strong and Patrick Lee to start the inning were followed by a ground rule double from Andrew Jenkins that scored a run. That was all they’d get, but Strong added a solo shot in the sixth to make it 3-0.
Paul Sewald took over in the top of the seventh and struck out three, allowing just a single in his inning of work. One would expect him to make two rehab appearances with the Mud Hens this week and then to hopefully be ready to re-join the Tigers for the final two weeks of the season.
Walks led to two more in the seventh on an Izaac Pacheco sacrifice fly and then a Jenkins single. Overall a pretty quiet night at the plate, but when you walk 10 times in a game you aren’t getting a whole lot to hit, and it was more than enough to win.
Tony Cappuccili and his staff have an off day on Monday before beginning the division championship series on the road against Lake County on Tuesday night. Game 2 and 3 if necessary, will be at LMCU Park on Thursday and Friday night.
Jenkins: 3-4, 2 RBI, K
Strong: 2-3, 2 R, RBI, HR, BB, K
Hadeen: 0-1, 2 R, 4 BB, K, SB
Castillo: 4.2 IP, 0 R, H, 2 BB, 5 K
Lakeland Flying Tigers 13, Jupiter Hammerheads 1 (box)
Kelvis Salcedo’s final outing of the year looked fantastic as the Flying Tigers crushed the Hammerheads to conclude their regular season with a 4-2 series victory.
The 19-year-old right-hander has emerged from the Complex League looking the club’s most promising young pitching prospect. With a good 94-95 mph fastball touching 97 and a good, high spin cutter/slider combination, Salcedo has also really made progress with his changeup and that was on full display in this one. He racked up six whiffs on the changeup, punching out six of the 10 hitters he faced in a short, three inning outing.
Salcedo now has 68 2/3 innings of work under his belt, and will make at least one appearance in the Florida State League playoffs. For his age that’s plenty and I don’t really expect the Tigers to send him to the Arizona Fall League, but it isn’t out of the question and would give him a look at more experienced hitters before tacking the Midwest League next spring.
Lakeland took advantage of wildness from Jupiter’s pitching for their first big rally in the second inning. Beau Ankeney and Stephen Hrustich led off with walks and a bloop single from Jude Warwick loaded the bases. Cristian Santana drew a walk to score the first run and Sergio Tapia grounded out to bring in Hrustich. Jesus Pinto followed with an RBI single. An error on a Chris Meyers grounder scored Santana, while Junior Tilien greeted a reliever with an RBI single as they batted around for a 5-0 lead.
Tapia doubled in Warwick in the third, and a two-run single from Warwick in the fourth made it 8-0. Another parade of walks in the fifth were followed by a bases clearing triple from Ankeney, and Hrustich singled him in for a 13-0 lead.
Logan Berrier, Ethan Sloan, Andrew Pogue, Joe Ruzicka, and Ronny Chalas closed it out, with solid relief appearances.
The Flying Tigers finish with a 75-53 record. They’ll head to Clearwater on Tuesday for Game 1 of the playoffs with the Threshers, before welcoming them back into Lakeland on Thursday for Game 2, and if necessary, a Game 3 on Friday.
Ankeney: 2-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 3B, K
Warwick: 3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, K, SB
PInto: 2-6, R, RBI, 2 K
Salcedo: 3.0 IP, 0 R, H, 0 BB, 6 K
