Cubs Minor League News |
As is the case every Sunday, with the Rookie Leagues enjoying one of their off days, Sunday is a much lighter night on the diamond, as the only teams in action are the full-season teams. However, yesterday saw even less Minor League action for the Cubs and their system as AA Tennessee and Biloxi had their game canceled due to wet grounds.
That left three games for the fans to watch, and for the most part, those games were as good as advertised, as all three of them came down to the wire. The end result was a positive 2-1 showing, as the Cubs ended a tough week of competition on a positive note. IOWA CUBS 11 - COLUMBUS CLIPPERS 6: It was a very challenging week for the Iowa Cubs, as they dropped several close games to Columbus throughout this series. In desperate need of a win, the Cubs were once again trailing 5-4 entering the ninth before a seven-run ninth inning broke the game open and led them to an 11-6 victory. Riley Thompson's start was far from perfect. He gave the Cubs four innings and allowed four earned runs. He turned things over to a bullpen that allowed just one run in five innings, with guys like Brad Weick and Michael Arias starting things off with three scoreless frames. After a rough start to his AAA career, Arias is starting to settle in, as his ERA is now just 1.50. It didn't take the Clippers long to get on the scoreboard, with Angel Martinez delivering an RBI single in the first to make things 1-0. He would later come in to score on the Micah Pries sacrifice fly as the Cubs were down 2-0. Darius Hill got one of those runs back with an RBI groundout in the second, only to have Martinez and Pries deliver two more runs in the third to push the lead to 4-1. Iowa continued to battle back in the fourth with a two-run single from Miles Mastrobuoni, but once again, it was Jose Tena coming through with a massive homer to put the Cubs in a 5-3 hole after four. With Owen Caissie pulling them to within 5-4 with a sacrifice fly in the sixth, it was the ninth inning when the Cubs settled in offensively, and that all started with a Hill fielder's choice to tie things up 5-5. His RBI was followed by a pair of RBI singles from Ali Sanchez and Mastrobuoni as the Cubs took their first lead of the night, 8-5. The big blow in that inning came from Caissie, who clubbed a three-run shot to cap off the seven-run inning to put the Cubs up 11-5 before winning 11-6. Caissie only had one hit, but led the team with four RBIs. However, it was Mastrobuoni's coming out party as he led the team with four hits and drove in three. BJ Murray Jr also had three hits, with Cole Roederer and Luis Vazquez adding multi-hit games. TENNESSEE SMOKIES at BILOXI SHUCKERS (Cancelled due to Wet Grounds): Although there was no game for Tennessee on Sunday, there was some note worth news as No. 6 overall prospect Moises Ballesteros has gotten his promotion to AAA Iowa. Ballesteros has been the Smokies best hitter all season, and now he is getting rewarded for his hard work. He won't be alone as right-handed reliever Frank Scalzo Jr is also getting the bump after not allowing an earned run in AA this season. PEORIA CHIEFS 6 - SOUTH BEND CUBS 5 (F/11): Despite South Bend being the only team to lose on Sunday, it didn't come easily. The Chiefs needed 11 innings to get things done. Sam Armstrong only lasted three innings, but with four strikeouts and one run allowed, he continues to impress, as his ERA is now at 1.97. Usually an outing like that would get more attention, but with Quinn Mathews going 6 2/3 innings and striking out 11, you can see why Armstrong didn't get the love he deserved. For as good as Mathews was most of the night, he fell behind early, with Felix Stevens kicking off the scoring with an RBI single in the first while the Jonathon Long fielder's choice made things 2-0. It was a lead the Cubs would hold until the fifth as a wild pitch put the Chiefs on the board in the third ahead of the game-tying sacrifice fly from Zach Levenson. The Cubs answered back in the top half of the seventh off the Long homer to put them back in front 3-2, only to have the Chiefs grab their first lead with a three-run seventh as Chris Rotondo unloaded for a three-run shot. Trailing by two in the eighth, Jefferson Rojas did his part to keep things close with an RBI triple before hustling home on a wild pitch to tie things up and force extras. Peoria would get the last laugh in this one, as they found a way to scratch across the winning run in the 11th to deliver the walk-off 6-5 win. Rojas led the way with two hits, while Ed Howard was the only player without a hit. You also had Long leading the way with two RBIs. MYRTLE BEACH PELICANS 11 - COLUMBIA FIREFLIES 10 (F/11): By far, the most exciting game of the day came on the beach, where Myrtle Beach had to rally several times to deliver an extra-inning walk off win. Apart from four strong Nico Zeglin innings where he allowed no runs on two hits, pitching wasn't the strong suit for either side as both offenses came to play. The same can be said for Felix Arronde, who allowed just one run in his five innings as both bullpens picked a terrible time to struggle. With the score tied 0-0 entering the fifth, the Fireflies broke through first as an error, and two wild pitches led to three runs to put the Pelicans in a 3-0 hole. Christian Olivo got one of those runs back with an RBI forceout in the bottom of the fifth before a Jacob Wetzel homer and Drew Bowser single tied things up in the sixth. Errors continued to be an issue for the Pelicans in the seventh as an RBI double from Jhonny Perdomo was followed by another error, and just like that, the Birds were down 5-3. Not to be outdone, Myrtle Beach showed great patience at the plate as bases-loaded walks to Andy Garriola and Bowser brought things back to even. Then came the big play of the inning as a costly with the basses loaded allowed Christopher Paciola to reach base and brought home three runs to put the Pelicans in front 8-6. The back-and-forth affair continued into the eighth, where the Lizandro Rodriguez triple made things 8-7 before the Fireflies tied things up and forced extras. In the extra frames, Columbia scored first on a 10th-inning wild pitch, only to have Frank Hernandez tie things up with a single and get the game to the 11th. Once again, the Fireflies found a way to score first as they used a sacrifice fly to take the lead and put the pressure back on the Pelicans and their offense. Well, this was one of those days where the pressure didn't matter as Bowser capped off his best game of the season with a two-run walk-off double to lift the Pelicans to an 11-10 win. Bowser was one of three Pelicans with three hits in the game but led the way with four RBIs in the win. Wetzel and Paciolla also had three hits, and Frank Hernandez added the other hit for the Birds. INDEPENDENT LEAGUES KANE COUNTY COUGARS 10 - CHICAGO DOGS 3: An already long weekend got worse on Sunday, with the Cougars finishing off the Dogs 10-3. Most of the Cougars damage came after the fourth inning when they scored nine of their 10 runs on offense. This came after the Dogs grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the second off the Nick Novak triple and a Dusty Stroup sacrifice fly. The Cougars pulled within 2-1 in the third after a sacrifice fly before taking a 4-1 lead in the fifth courtesy of another sacrifice fly and the two-run Jonah Davis single. Kane County continued to add to their lead with a two-run double in the sixth before adding four more runs late. Three of them came in the ninth off a Davis homer and a Hayden Dunhurst single as the Cougars scored 10 unanswered runs to grab a 10-2 lead. Nick Dalesandro capped off the scoring with an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth for the Dogs. WINDY CITY THUNDERBOLTS 3 - GATEWAY GRIZZLIES 2: Looking to secure the series win on Sunday, the Bolts received back-to-back strong pitching performances to pick up the 3-2 win. John Mikolaicyk got the start for the Bolts, allowing two runs in five innings while striking out eight. He turned things over to Kyle Potthoff, who struck out four in three innings to pick up the win as the Thunderbolts recorded 14 strikeouts as a team. Like Windy City, Gateway also received strong pitching, with Kaleb Hill setting the tone with six strong innings of seven-strikeout ball. Hill was backed by a two-run Abdiel Diaz double in the second as the Grizzlies took an early 2-0 lead. Those would be the only runs of the game for Gateway as Windy City tied things up in the fourth off the Kingston Liniak homer. With the score still tied in the ninth, Windy City pushed across the winning run off an error as they took the weekend series with a 3-2 win. Liniak led the way offensively with two hits and both RBIs in the win.
