Toledo Mud Hens 2, Omaha Storm Chasers 0 (box)
Toledo and Omaha each had five hits on Saturday, but the Mud Hens were the only team to score in a 2-0 win over the Storm Chasers.
Sawyer Gipson-Long outdueled Mitch Spence in a battle of minor-league veterans. Both went five innings, but Gipson-Long was better, allowing just two hits and no walks while striking out three. The only time Omaha threatened to score off SGL was in the fourth, when Tyler Tolbert got to third base with one out. Gage Workman made a nice play to home to get the tag out and preserve
the shutout.
His changeup was his best pitch, drawing four whiffs on five swings, but his fastball played well to contact with just one hard hit and an average exit velocity of 78.1 mph in seven batted ball events.
The Mud Hens scored two off Spence in the third. Luke Ritter led off with a double to right field, Ben Malgeri walked with one out and Workman doubled both in. Workman had the only other hit off Spence, a two-out single in the first.
Toledo threatened in the fifth, loading the bases — Ritter walked, Max Clark reached on an error and Spence intentionally walked Workman to set up the force out — but Corey Julks flied out to strand all three runners.
Enmanuel De Jesus was good (I know, shocking), allowing just two baserunners over two innings in relief of Gipson-Long. He struck out a pair and retired his first four batters before giving up a single and a walk. Grant Holman got the eighth and struggled out of the gate. He worked around a leadoff walk and a single to strand both runners.
Ricky Vanasco gave up a two-out double in the ninth, but he got the final out of the game on three pitches right after.
Clark: 1-4
Workman: 2-3, 2B (9), 2 RBI, BB, K
Gipson-Long (W, 1-2): 5.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K
Coming Up Next: The Mud Hens go for win No. 5 in a row on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. ET in Toledo.
Erie SeaWolves — POSTPONED
Coming Up Next: Erie and Binghamton will play a straight doubleheader on Sunday, starting at noon ET.
Lake County Captains 3, West Michigan Whitecaps 2 (box)(F/10)
West Michigan and Lake County battled to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation, but the Captains outscored the Whitecaps in extra innings to win on Saturday, 3-2.
Neither team scored until the seventh inning, when Lake County took a 1-0 lead on a leadoff home run from Jace LaViolette. The 2025 first-round pick out of Texas A&M had two of the Captains’ seven hits, including a leadoff double in the first.
West Michigan’s pitching was sound for the most part. Gabriel Reyes threw 4 1/3 shutout innings, giving up just three hits. Walks were a bit of a problem, but he worked around all four of them — two in the third and two in the fourth. On the brighter side, Reyes drew a game-high 11 swing-and-misses.
Ryan Harvey replaced Reyes in the fifth with one out. It started out rough with a walk and a hit batter, but he retired the next five batters in a row. Logan Berrier took over in the seventh and gave up the homer to LaViolette. He stranded men on the corners after allowing a single, throwing a wild pitch and walking a batter. Berrier went 1-2-3 in the eighth.
Zack Lee retired the side in order in the ninth, holding the game at 1-0. That’s when West Michigan manufactured a run to extend the game.
Cristian Santana singled to open the ninth. He moved to second on a Juan Hernandez groundout and got to third on a wild pitch from Michael Kennedy. Junior Tillien grounded out to short, allowing Santana to cross the plate.
Duque Hebbert relieved Lee in the 10th, but he gave up a two-run homer to Nolan Schubart, which ultimately decided the game thanks to the runner placed on base at the start of the inning. Hebbert gave up a double after the homer, but he retired the side without allowing any more damage.
Bryce Rainer added a run for the Whitecaps in the bottom of the 10th, but that’s all they got. Rainer put together his first multi-hit game at High-A. He had three singles: two infield base hits to third in the third and 10th, and a grounder through the left side in the sixth.
Rainer: 3-5, RBI, K
Santana: 2-4, R, 2 K
Reyes: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K
Coming Up Next: The Whitecaps have a chance to tie the series on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.
Lakeland Flying Tigers 6, Tampa Tarpons 1 (box)
The Flying Tigers scored as many runs as the other three teams in the organization that played on Saturday. The result was a convincing 6-1 win against the Tampa Tarpons to take a 3-2 series lead.
Lakeland took an early 2-1 lead in the second when Edian Espinal singled in Jude Warwick and Carson Rucker. Warwick reached first on a one-out single, and Rucker walked before both were moved into scoring position by Anibal Salas’ groundout to the right side.
Zach MacDonald made it a 5-0 game in the fifth with a three-run homer. MacDonald was a single shy of the cycle today, hitting a ground-rule double in the third and a triple in the seventh. It’s always a little funny when they can’t do the easy one, but what a showing from the 2024 15th-rounder, who has a 1.078 OPS on the year. MacDonald’s home run brought in Jordan Yost (single) and Thayron Liranzo (ground-rule double).
The Flying Tigers’ only other hit on the day was a solo home run for Carson Rucker in the eighth. The game was all but wrapped up by that point, with Tampa trailing 6-1 heading into the ninth.
Left-hander Caleb Leys made his third start of the season, and he was solid through four innings once again. He went four innings, giving up one run on three hits and three walks while striking out two. While effective, those strikeout and walk numbers need to be a little better. Last week he sat down five batters and gave up just one free pass. Still, Leys has a 1.33 ERA and 1.13 WHIP over his last two starts.
He was a bit too in the zone with his slider today, with a 70% zone rate. All three batted balls were hard hit, but he still drew a 46% whiff rate on them. His fastball isn’t fooling anybody, but it’s not drawing hard contact either. The only run Tampa scored came off Leys in the first. Engelth Urena hit a triple with one out and scored on a groundout.
The bullpen was elite for Lakeland today. Luke Hoskins took over in the fifth and gave the Flying Tigers two innings of one-hit ball. Donye Evans worked around a two-out error for a hitless seventh, and Jan Caraballo closed things out without allowing a baserunner.
Caraballo was the most impressive of the bunch, striking out four of the six batters he faced. Six of his 10 sliders thrown were strikes, including four whiffs on five swings.
Yost: 1-4, R, K
Liranzo: 1-3, 2B (1), R, BB
MacDonald: 3-4, 2B (4), 3B (2), HR (7), R, 3 RBI
Leys: 4.0 IP, 3 H, R, ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Coming Up Next: Lakeland goes for the series win on Sunday at noon ET.
