Game Notes (July 24)
July 24, 2019 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston Dirty Birds News Release
The Power continues their three-game series with the Hickory Crawdads Wednesday evening at L.P. Frans Stadium, with first pitch set for 7 p.m. RHP Evan Johnson (0-1, 4.15 ERA) makes his second start for West Virginia, while Hickory opposes with LHP Grant Wolfram (4-2, 4.94 ERA).
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SWEET DEALS AGAIN IN WALK-OFF LOSS : Devin Sweet spun a quality start and Bobby Honeyman smashed his seventh home run of the season, but the Hickory Crawdads rallied in the eighth and ninth innings to walk it off on a Melvin Novoa RBI single and hand the Power a 5-4 loss Tuesday night at L.P. Frans Stadium. The Crawdads struck first against Sweet in the opening frame, as Novoa laced a two-run, two-out single to give Hickory a 2-0 lead. In the second, Josh Jung smacked a run-scoring single to push the lead to 3-0. West Virginia responded in the fourth, with Julio Rodriguez igniting the offense with a leadoff double to right-center. The next batter, Honeyman, snuck a ball just over the right-field fence to slim the deficit to one. Austin Shenton followed that up with a double before moving to third on passed ball by Novoa. Abdiel Mendoza struck out Onil Pena, but Jake Anchia busted out of his 2-for-31 slump with a run-scoring double to left, plating Shenton to tie the game at three. Mike Salvatore popped up to second for the second out, but Charlie McConnell came through in the clutch, stinging a single to left that brought in Anchia to vault the Power ahead 4-3. Meanwhile, Sweet found his rhythm in the middle innings, retiring nine straight from the third through the fifth innings before working his way through the sixth unscathed. Reeves Martin turned in a scoreless seventh, but Novoa got to him in the eighth, blasting a solo home run to knot the game at four. In the ninth, Elias Espino walked the first batter he faced, induced two hard-hit lineouts to left, and then issued a free pass to Jonathan Ornelas. Novoa fought through the at-bat to its 10th pitch, and then deposited a single to left, scoring Miguel Aparicio to win it.
GOING STREAKING : Thanks to his fourth-inning homer that brought the Power back within one, Honeyman extended his hitting streak to 18 games, the longest active streak on the team. In this span, the infielder is averaging .351 (27-for-77) with two home runs, 13 RBI and 11 runs scored, and has only struck out eight times. In fact, Honeyman has only fanned eight times over his last 22 games, stretching across 96 at-bats (8%). Honeyman is in the midst of his third hitting streak of eight games or more this season (May 13-20 and May 24-June 2 with identical .344 averages). The Stony Brook product is one of two batters with a hitting streak of 18 games or more this year (Jarred Kelenic, 18 games, April 11-May 2). He now has the third-longest hitting streak in the South Atlantic League this season (Ian Dawkins, 20 games, Kannapolis and Gilbert Lara, 19 games, Hagerstown), as well as the longest active stretch. Honeyman also collected his 10th multi-RBI game of the season, second-most on the team (Ryan Ramiz, 11). The 23-year-old's 13 hits across the Power's most recent seven-game homestand are the most that any Power player has had in a single homestand this year, surpassing Kelenic's 12 from April 11-17.
THE SWEETEST CENTURY MARK : Sweet fired another dominant start Tuesday night, racking up eight strikeouts over six innings of work to pick up his fourth career quality start, and his third in his last four outings. With his eight punchouts, Sweet reached the 100-strikeout plateau for the first time in his MiLB career, as he totaled just 24 punchouts in 19.1 innings in 2018. The Greensboro, North Carolina, native is the 13th pitcher in the South Atlantic League to accomplish this feat, as well as the fourth West Virginia pitcher (Ryne Inman, 115; Steven Moyers, 110 and Clay Chandler, 104). The Power has never had four pitchers hit the 100-strikeout mark in the same season in team history (2005-present). Since converting to a starter June 16, Sweet is 2-2 with a 2.68 ERA, the ninth-best qualified ERA in the SAL in that span, along with 47 strikeouts in 50 innings of work.
BY THE SLIMMEST OF MARGINS : The Power dropped their 12th one-run decision Tuesday evening, moving their record in one-run games to 22-12 (.647), the second-best winning percentage in the league (Delmarva, .677). West Virginia's 34 one-run games are tied with Kannapolis for the fifth-most games played in the league (Rome, 43), though the Power does have the most wins of any team.
A BROKEN PEN : The West Virginia bullpen has been abysmal over the last seven games, picking up five blown saves after the Power had only flubbed seven opportunities in their first 95 contests. Across this seven-game slide, West Virginia's relief corps has a 7.39 ERA (23 ER/28.0 IP) and has allowed 38 hits and nine walks compared to 27 strikeouts.
POWER POINTS : McConnell has not committed an error in 50 consecutive games (May 15 at Charleston)... Shenton has reached base safely in 26 of his first 28 professional games, including six of seven with West Virginia... Pena has two hits in his last 23 at-bats with 14 strikeouts... Matt Sanders has hit safely in six of his first seven games with West Virginia, boasting a .333 (10-for-30) clip with a home run and four RBI... Honeyman's long ball is the Power's 85th of the season, third-most in the South Atlantic League (Greensboro, 103 and Hickory, 115)... West Virginia went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position Tuesday, stranding five men on base... Martin blew his third save since joining the Power.
South Atlantic League Stories from July 24, 2019
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