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SAL1 Hagerstown Suns

2019 All-Star Game Notes

June 18, 2019 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Hagerstown Suns News Release


The 60th annual South Atlantic League All-Star Game will get underway at Appalachian Power Park this evening, with first pitch set for 7:35 p.m. RHP Grayson Rodriguez of the Delmarva Shorebirds takes the ball for the Northern Division, while the Southern Division sends Charleston's Luis Gil to the slab. Full game notes are attached and below.

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SAL ALL-STAR GAME RETURNS TO CAPITAL CITY: For the first time since 2009, the South Atlantic League All-Star Game will be played in Charleston, West Virginia, at Appalachian Power Park. The 60th annual Midsummer Classic, presented by Segra, features the league's best stars from the Northern and Southern Division. After winning back-to-back games in 2015 and 2016, the Northern Division fell to the Southern squad, 9-5, in last year's Midsummer Classic in Greensboro, N.C., after the 2017 contest ended in a tie. The overall series when the Northern and Southern Divisions have squared off is deadlocked at 18-18-3.

LAST TIME IN CHARLESTON: The Power most recently hosted the league's Midsummer Classic in 2009, just the second time in league history that Charleston, West Virginia, has been the game's host (1989, Watt Powell Park). In the 2009 affair, West Virginia first baseman Calvin Anderson stole the show, claiming the Home Run Derby crown with 13 long balls for his final tally and winning the game in walk-off fashion with a base hit in the ninth inning to soar the Northern roster to an 8-7 triumph. That All-Star match-up featured several unique individuals, including World Series champion Anthony Rizzo, former Rangers Rookie of the Year Martin Perez, closer Pat Venditte, the former Yankees prospect who pitched with both hands (he gave up the game-winner to Anderson), and both the d'Arnaud brothers (Chase and Travis). The Northern Division has won both All-Star games in Charleston, W.Va., notching a 14-4 win in 1989.

NORTHERN ROSTER PACKED WITH POWER: Led by five of the league's top-10 home run hitters, the Northern Division roster seems destined to put on an offensive spectacle this evening. Greensboro's Mason Martin, who is atop the league in homers (18) and RBI (62) headlines the pack, and is joined by fellow Grasshopper Rodolfo Castro, Hickory's Curtis Terry, who has the second-most bombs among active players (15), and Pedro Gonzalez, and Delmarva's Seamus Curran. The Power have four representatives in this year's All-Star Game, including starting catcher Jake Anchia, as well as three pitchers, Dayeison Arias, Clay Chandler and Bryan Pall, all with their first nods. West Virginia sends four members to the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 2017, and the seventh time in Power history.

CASAS, STRONG ARMS LINE SOUTHERN SQUAD: Red Sox top prospect Triston Casas guides the position player arsenal for the Southern Division, while the pitching staff provides a very serviceable group of hurlers, led by starting pitcher Luis Gil. Besides Gil, three of the Lexington Legends' dominant starting staff will take the rubber tonight, with Jonathan Bowlan, Austin Cox and Jon Heasley making up the trio. Other standouts on the bump include Asheville's Alexander Martinez, who leads the league with 14 saves and 30 games played. Tourists' infielder Terrin Vavra also brings consistency to the lineup, as the starting third baseman holds the third-highest league average at .324. The Legends' Michael Gigliotti (.309, 5th), Charleston's Canaan Smith (.309, 7th) and Rome's Logan Brown (.301, 10th), also dot the Southern Roster as some of the top 10 average leaders in the South Atlantic League.

RODRIGUEZ EARNS NOD FOR NORTH: Arguably the league's best pitcher for most of the first half, Delmarva's Grayson Rodriguez was a pretty unanimous decision to get the ball for Power manager David Berg's Northern squad tonight. The Nacogdoches, Texas, native claimed his first six decisions of the season and did not allow more than two runs in each of his first eight outings. The fourth-best prospect in the Orioles system per MLB.com, Rodriguez ignited his campaign with back-to-back career-high 10 strikeout performances against Lexington and Lakewood, and fanned a minimum of five men in each of his 10 first half starts.

ERA LEADER GIL TOES SLAB FOR SOUTHERN: The league's top ERA twirler in the first half, Gil, will oppose Rodriguez as the Southern Division starter Tuesday evening. Sporting a fastball that touches triple digits, Gil was dealt over to the Yankees from Minnesota in March 2018 and immediately worked his way into their top 30 prospect list (13 [MLB.com]/25 [Baseball America] in the 2019 preseason). Six of Gil's 12 starts have been shutout performances in 2019, including a career-best seven-inning, three-hit gem two outings ago at Rome, when he punched out a career-high tying 10 batters.

ANCHIA VIEING FOR DERBY TITLE: The Home Run Derby will commence at 6 p.m., with Anchia representing West Virginia in the pregame slugfest. Martin and Castro from Greensboro, along with Terry from Hickory, comprise the Northern's four contestants, while Asheville's Willie MacIver, Charleston's Brandon Lockridge and Smith and Lexington's Chase Vallot make up the Southern contingent. The Derby will consist of three rounds of three minutes each, with one 30-second timeout afforded to each player per round. The top two sluggers from each division will advance to the second round, and their cumulative totals from the first two rounds will decide who faces off for the Derby crown.

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