Frontier League: Game Recaps, Notes, News & Transactions — June 3, 2021

Frontier League baseball continued on Wednesday night and no game were postponed, although it came close. Enjoy all the game recaps and my notes, below.

There were new baseball discussions, yesterday, with players who are either making waves or making people talk and I recommend you watch both interviews to know more about the artists who take the field everyday:

Florence Y’alls OF Rodney Tennie is very fast and slow at the same time and that leaves no one indifferent. Watch and listen what I mean by that in this discussion about stealing bases, pace of game, hitting, the Pecos League and real estate!

LHP Danny Wirchansky is a starter for the New York Boulders and he joins us to talk about his dominant start to the season, being drafted by the Brewers, his Tommy John surgery, T.J. Stanton, the cluhouse chemistry and more.

NEWS

TRANSACTIONS

GATEWAY GRIZZLIES

June 2: Signed OF Ty Moore, a 27-year-old left-handed hitter that has played three seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but also with Schaumburg in the Frontier League and Sioux City in the American Association. He has not played pro ball since 2018. He can play both corner outfield positions and I like this addition a lot for the Grizzlies, who are having a hard time scoring runs, but also making contact to advance the runners. He might be able to push them in the right direction on that front, although last night he was not able to drop it safely, but did make contact all four times at the plate.

June 2: Transferred RHP Paul Young to the 14-day injured list.

JOLIET SLAMMERS

June 2: Sold the contract of LHP Steve Moyers to the Seattle Mariners. Congratulations, Steve!

June 2: Signed RHP Wes Albert, who is no stranger to the organization, since he pitched 49.1 innings for them in 2019, a third of them starts. He has been mostly a starter in his career and with Moyers leaving, you can bet he’ll be given a chance to win and keep a rotation spot. For that, he’ll have to work on his control of the strike zone, a recurring problem.

NEW JERSEY JACKALS

June 2: Placed RHP Christian Tessitore on the 7-day injured list.

NEW YORK BOULDERS

June 2: Placed catcher Marcus Mastrobuoni on the 7-day injured list, retroactive to June 1.

SCHAUMBURG BOOMERS

June 2: Received RHP Kirstian Scott from the Gary SouthShore RailCats to complete a previous trade. He’s a reliever who was hit hard in four games (5.1 IP, 12 H, 8 ER, 4 BB and 4 K) with Gary this season, but who might profit from a change of scenery. Let’s see how they use him and the results in the coming weeks.

GAME RECAPS and NOTES

Game 1 of the Washington Wild Things vs Florence Y’alls doubleheader

Game 2 of their doubleheader

Washington news release:

FLORENCE. Ky. (June 2) — The Washington Wild Things went into Florence winners of their last two and didn’t allow a single multi-run inning in Wednesday’s doubleheader. Florence allowed just one Wild Thing to score across the 14 innings of play though, and with that, the Y’alls escaped the night with two victories in the doubleheader, 4–1 in game one and 2–0 in game two.

Florence scored singular runs in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings of the first game and got a strong start from Jared Cheek, who fanned seven over 5.2 innings of one-run ball. Washington scored its run on a Grant Heyman RBI double in the sixth.

McKenzie Mills suffered the loss after five innings of four-run ball. Sean Kealey chucked a scoreless frame in relief for Washington, who left four on base in the front end of the twinbill.

The Wild Things had chances in the second game, but couldn’t scratch anything across. The comeback effort after Florence scored on a groundout in the first and a flare to center in the fourth, was unsuccessful, despite the Wild Things bringing the tying run and go-ahead runs to the plate on multiple occasions. Bralin Jackson doubled twice in the loss, while Cody Erickson added two hits of his own. Those two accounted for four of the seven Wild Things’ hits in game two.

The two teams shift their focus to tomorrow now and a series finale that will get underway at 6:34 p.m. It’s set to be the final game of the eight-game road trip for Washington before the Wild Things return home for Friday’s home opener, which will be the first of a nine-game home stand.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• The Wild Things are not playing bad at all, despite their 3–5 record. Their pitching staff has a 3.33 ERA, and ratios of 10.5 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Their offense, however, needs to come together and string some hits to improve on that lineup batting line: .234/.313/.336
• Florence SS Luis Pintor had a 4-hit night, including a triple and a homer, to keep his batting line hot and steady at .333/.448/.625.
• As always, the Game Reports from Florence Pitching Strategist, Chad Rhoades:

Boulders news release:

BOULDERS, KIRTLEY WALK OFF VALLEY CATS

Rockland County, NY (June 2, 2021) — Zach Kirtley singled in Austin Dennis with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the New York Boulders a 6–5 Frontier League win over the Tri-City Valley Cats on Wednesday at Palisades Credit Union Park.

Dennis had led off the inning with a double off the left field wall. Milton Smith, Jr.’s sacrifice bunt moved Dennis over to third. Tri-City pitcher Trey Cochran-Gilll walked Tucker Nathans intentionally to face Kirtley, who responded with the game-winning hit.

James Mulry pitched a perfect ninth inning to pick up the win for the Boulders, their second straight as they moved to the .500 mark on the year at 3–3.

Cochran-Gill took the loss.

The Boulders had tied the game at 5–5 with a run in the bottom of the seventh. Dennis was hit by a Eddy Tavarez pitch leading off the stanza. He advanced to second on a wild pitch and then stole third.

After Smith, Jr. drew a walk, Trey Cochran-Gill relieved Tavarez and surrendered a game-tying sacrifice fly to Nathans.

Tri-City grabbed a 1–0 lead in the top of the first when Steve Figueroa, who led off the game with an opposite field triple down the line in left, scored on a groundout by Juan Silverio.

The Boulders responded with four in their half of the first, all the runs coming with two outs — a pair on a single by Jack Sundberg and the other two coming on a double by Zach Penprase.

However, the Valley Cats came right back in the second frame, tying the game at 4–4 on a three-run homer by Keaton Weisz.

Tri-City took the lead at 5–4 in the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single by Figueroa. That hit also ended Boulders’ starter Matt Valin’s night.

Orsen Josephina came on to replace Valin and was splendid, going 4 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out six.

The Boulders and Valley Cats conclude their three-game series on Thursday, first pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• What a relief appearance by the Boulders’ Orsen Josephina (68% of his pitches were strikes)! Manager T.J. Stanton has used him in short and long stints this season, already having thrown 8 innings and he has not allowed a run, yet: 4 H, 1 BB and 8 K.
• Boulders OF Jack Sundberg has yet to record an extra-base hit, but he’s still hitting .375 and getting on base.
• In our conversation with ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia before the season, he mentioned how his team would be running a lot and near the top of the league in stolen bases at the end of the season, but yesterday saw the team record their first one and it was Denis Phipps who had the honor.
• Tri-City catcher Oscar Campos has been a godsend for the offense since his return to the lineup on May 31: two singles, double and triple.

Schaumburg news release:

The Schaumburg Boomers, presented by Wintrust Community Banks, came from behind to grab a 5–1 decision over the Joliet Slammers on the road Wednesday night, using a fifth consecutive quality start to hold down the hosts.

Joliet scored in the bottom of the first inning but managed very little the rest of the game against Kyle Arjona. Arjona bounced back from a difficult opener by spinning the fifth quality start in a row, working six innings with just the single run allowed, striking out six. Chase Dawson tied the game with a two-out RBI single in the top of the third. Clint Hardy put the Boomers in front with a two-run single in the fourth and later scored as the Boomers plated three to open a 4–1 edge. Hardy tripled home the final run in the fifth with the third three-bagger of the season for the Boomers.

Stephen Chamblee and Darrell Thompson finished out the win on the hill with Chamblee working two innings and Thompson tossing the ninth. Eight members of the lineup reached for the Boomers. Hardy finished with two hits and three RBIs while Luke Becker also tallied a pair of hits. Schaumburg stole three bases in the game and owns nine steals in the first six games of the season.

The rubber game of the series is on Thursday night as the Boomers (3–3) send LHP Andrew Dean (1–0, 0.00) to the mound in the 7:05 p.m. contest. The team returns home on Friday to begin a seven-game homestand.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• Difficult to argue with the Boomers starters performance so far; if not for the rough first start of Arjona, they’d all stand with an ERA below 3.00.
• Boomers leadoff hitter Alec Craig again reached base two times and stole a base, raising his season total to 3.
• Former major leaguer Willy Garcia is having a rough go to start the season for Schaumburg, hitting only .087 with 11 strikeouts. He has too much talent to stay that way and their offense really needs him in the long run.
• Joliet 2B Lane Baremore had his fourth consecutive multi-hit game and his average now stands at .417.

Windy City news release:

SAUGET, IL — Tyler Thornton and Miguel Ausua combined to hold the Gateway Grizzlies to two hits as the ThunderBolts opened a five-game road trip with a 2–1 win at GCS Credit Union Ballpark Wednesday night.

Gateway (2–4) struck first with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Jose Rosario was hit by a pitch, advanced on an error and scored on a Justin Jones sacrifice fly. It was the first run allowed this year by reigning Frontier League Pitcher of the Week Tyler Thornton, but it was unearned.

In the first four Windy City games this season, the team that scored first went on to win, but Wednesday saw the first lead change of the year when the Bolts (4–2) struck for a pair of fifth-inning runs.

With two outs and nobody on, Brynn Martinez and Zac Taylor kept the inning alive with back-to-back singles. Dan Robinson followed with a two-run double that put the Bolts ahead for good.

From there, it was handled by the pitchers. Aside from two Chase Vallot doubles, Thornton did not allow a hit over six innings. Miguel Ausua came on next and faced the minimum over the final three.

The Grizzlies threatened in the seventh when Jones appeared to hit a one-out double to put the tying run in scoring position. On appeal, though, Jones was ruled out at first base after he had failed to touch the bag.

Ausua was not challenged the rest of the way as he got the final nine outs for his first professional save. Thornton (2–0) picked up his second straight win. Sebastian Kessay (0–1) took the loss despite pitching well. He allowed two runs over 5.2 innings.

The ThunderBolts will aim for the two-game sweep on Thursday night. Kenny Mathews (0–1, 0.00) gets the Windy City start against Gateway’s Jorge Tavarez (0–0, 4.50). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 from Sauget.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• The Thunderbolts are offering tremendous pitching performances to begin the season: 2.05 ERA, 11.7 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9. Reigning Pitcher of the Week, Tyler Thornton, was again dominant, gave length to his manager and relied more on his defence to get through the night (64% of his pitches were strikes). If their offense can get hot (only a .629 OPS so far), there’s nothing stopping them.
• Grizzlies catcher Chase Vallot added two doubles and was the only batter in their lineup with a hit. His 1.273 OPS leads the team. They won’t stay down for long and Ty Moore (see transactions, above) might change their offense a little to be more contact-oriented, as he proved in that game by putting in play, but always finding a fielder and not dropping in safely.

Southern Illinois news release:

The Southern Illinois Miners came back from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, then another two-run deficit in the bottom of the tenth to force a home run derby to decide the game against Équipe Québec, but lost the derby 3–0 to lose the game at Rent One Park on Wednesday night.

Équipe Québec struck first in the top of the third inning, scoring two runs on four hits in the frame against Miners starter Zac Westcott. With runners at first and second and nobody out, L.P. Pelletier grounded a ball over to Miners second baseman Craig Massey who tried turning a double play, but threw the ball into left field, allowing Gift Ngoepe to score. The next batter, Elliott Curtis, singled up the middle to score the second run, putting Équipe Québec up 2–0.

The Miners were able to respond right away in the bottom of the third, scoring one run when Anthony Brocato scored on an error from the Équipe Québec third baseman Elliot Curtis on pop-up, making it 2–1 Équipe Québec.

The visitors got that run back in the top of the fourth inning on a solo home run by Riley Pittman, making the score 3–1. It would remain 3–1 until the bottom of the ninth inning. Andrew Case came on to pitch for Équipe Québec, and walked Nolan Earley to lead off the inning before allowing singles to Jared Mang and Ryan Stacy, loading the bases with no outs. Spencer Henn then came up with an RBI single two batters later to make it 3–2, and Jarrod Watkins followed with a slow grounder to second base to tie the game at 3–3.

Équipe Québec was able to score twice with the International Tiebreaker in the top of the tenth inning for a 5–3 lead, and again the Miners came back. Luke Mangieri’s RBI single scored the automatic runner to make it 5–4, and later in the inning, Marshall Rich struck out with two outs, but the ball got past catcher Jeffry Parra, allowing Massey to score the tying run and send it to a home run derby at 5–5.

The Miners would send Mangieri, Earley, and Mang to hit, while Équipe Québec sent Pittman, Dane Tofteland, and Jack Barrie to hit for them. All three Équipe Québec players hit one home run, while none of the Miners were able to send one out of the park, giving the visitors the victory.

The two teams will conclude the series on Thursday, June 3, in a doubleheader at Rent One Park beginning at 5:05 p.m.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• ÉQ leadoff man Elliott Curtis has three multi-hit games in his last 4 games (he also stole a base yesterday). He’s now hitting .350/.458/.500. 1B Riley Pittman came out of his shell after a slow start with a home run, two singles and a walk.
• ÉQ SS Gift Ngoepe ended a 0-for-16 streak to begin his Frontier League career, hitting a double in the 3rd inning that juuuuust missed being a home run.
• It has now been four very tough losses for the Miners, all coming late in the game and in spectacular fashion. They have all the elements to go deep in the postseason, but they really need to take charge of games from now on.

Evansville news release:

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Following a 45-minute rain delay before the ballgame, the Evansville Otters bested the Lake Erie Crushers in a thrilling return to Bosse Field Wednesday night by a score of 10–6.

The high-scoring affair got rolling in the bottom of the first inning, when Bryce Denton drove home Andy DeJesus from third on an RBI groundout, notching his seventh RBI of the season.

The Crushers answered in a big way in the top of the second, as Karl Ellison launched a grand slam to left field, giving the Crushers a 4–1 lead.

Otters’ starter Anthony Arias settled down after that, retiring the following three Crushers batters while finishing his performance with two scoreless innings in the third and fourth.

The Otters never gave up, chipping into the deficit in the bottom of the third to score two runs: one on an RBI single by DeJesus, and another on a Riley Krane sacrifice fly, logging his seventh RBI.

The Otters would take the lead in the bottom of the fourth, after Dakota Phillips tied the game with an RBI single and Miles Gordon hit a sacrifice fly to center.

Denver McQuary came out of the Otters’ bullpen to face the minimum over two innings of relief, issuing a walk in the sixth but rolling a double play ball to end the inning.

The Otters extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth to two runs, after DeJesus drove in his second RBI of the game, this time with two outs.

The Crushers battled back in the seventh, however, and managed to score two runs to tie the game off of Justin Lewis. Bryan DeLaRosa walked with the bases loaded, and Dylan Jones hit a sac fly to centerfield.

The Otters stormed back following the seventh inning stretch, as Dakota Phillips hit a go-ahead RBI single — — his second lead-changing hit of the game — — before Christopher Pujols, Gordon, and DeJesus would extend the Otters’ lead with a sac fly, a two-out RBI double, and a two-out RBI single, respectively.

Tyler Spring worked around two, two-out hits to pitch a scoreless eighth, before Reid Bukowski came on in the ninth to finish the game with a 1–2–3 inning in his Otters debut.

DeJesus finished the night going 4–5 with 3 RBIs. Gordon and Phillips also logged multi-hit performances, each driving in multiple runs.

The Otters conclude their three-game series against the Crushers with a doubleheader Thursday night. First pitch is at 5:05 p.m.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• Lake Erie continues to struggle at the plate, but they at least got a homer in a second straight game (C Karl Ellison, grand slam in the 2nd inning). They showed good discipline at the plate with 9 walks, including 3 by LF Steven Kraft.
• The Crushers committed 4 errors in the field, including two by 2B General McArthur.
• Otters SS Andy DeJesus raised his batting average to .450 with a 4-for-5 night with 3 RBIs. C Dakota Phillips raised his OPS to 1.080 despite having no extra-base hits to his credit. He has done hit by hitting singles regularly and drawing walks in every game he’s been a part of.
• Keep your eyes on Otters sidearmer Reid Bukowski, who made his first appearance yesterday in the night and shut down the opposition.

No news game recaps or news release on either side of this contest, I’m very surprised. Only the Miners acknowledged the win on instagram.

Frontier League Journal Game Notes:

• It was 7–0 before the Jackals put some runs on the board, loading the bases before C Jason Agresti doubled home two runs, CF Demetrius Moorer produced one more with a sac fly and 2B Justin Wylie singled home the last run of the inning and the game for the home team.
• Miners starter Max Herrmann was making his first appearance of the season and he struck out none, but threw 64% of his pitches for strikes and limited the traffic on the bases over five innings. Their four relievers shut down the opposition to end the game.
• His counterpart for the Jackals, John Hayes, struggled for his second consecutive start, walking a whooping 7 batters and allowing the same number of runs. His ERA now stands at 12.38. Just as with the Miners relievers, none of their bullpen arms have allowed an earned run this season.
• Miners 1B Audy Ciriaco had a great night at the plate: double, home run and two walks. CF and leadoff man Nilo Rijo continued his hot pace with two singles, a walk and a stolen bas.