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SAL1 Kannapolis Cannon Ballers

Game Notes: Kannapolis Intimidators (White Sox) at Hagerstown Suns (Nationals) -- July 25, 2014

July 25, 2014 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers News Release


KANNAPOLIS INTIMIDATORS at HAGERSTOWN SUNS

47-53, 18-15 (Chicago White Sox) 66-38, 22-12 (Washington Nationals)

Friday, July 25, 2014 - 7:05 p.m.

Municipal Stadium - Hagerstown, Md.

2nd Half Game #34 (101 of 137)

LH Andre Wheeler (1-2, 3.27) vs. RH Lucas Giolito (5-2, 2.54)

Today's Preview: The Intimidators (A, White Sox) and Suns (A, Nationals) play the series rubber match on Friday after Kannapolis took the series opener on Wendesday and Hagerstown won a 13-inning marathon on Thursday the split the first two games. Southpaw Andre Wheeler makes his third start against Hagerstown with fellow lefty Jordan Guerrero expected to piggy-back the start. The Suns will counter with Washington's top prospect Lucas Giolito, who makes his second start against Kannapolis in a rematch of a May 11 game in which he faced off against Wheeler.

Sally League Standings: Kannapolis (18-15) slipped into fourth in the SAL Northern Division 2nd Half Standings with Thursday's loss, falling 3.5 games back Greensboro and Hagerstown (both 22-12), which are tied atop the division. Hickory (19-15) moved into third ahead of Kannapolis.

Intimidating Starter: Andre Wheeler, 22, makes his 11th start and 22nd appearance when he faces the Suns for the fourth time this season and his third start against Hagerstown. He has not taken a decision against Hagerstown, posting a 4.09 ERA (5 ER/11 IP) in three games. The former Texas Tech Red Raider has not allowed an earned run in his last two outings (6.0 IP). He struck out a career-high nine batters over just 4.0 innings in his last start on July 12 against Asheville. Wheeler last earned a win on July 1, tossing 5.0 innings against Delmarva, allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits. He is 1-2 with a 3.71 ERA (18 ER/43.2 IP) in 10 starts compared to 0-0 with a 2.42 ERA in 11 relief appearances. Much like how he struggled in April and flourished in May, Wheeler saw his ERA spike to 5.40 in June but he's 1-2 with a 2.08 ERA in four games (two starts) in July. The White Sox selected Wheeler in the 15th round of last June's draft, and he pitched nine games with Bristol before joining Kannapolis in late July 2013.

Hagerstown Hurler: Nationals top prospect Lucas Giolito, who turned 20 last week, makes his 16th start of the season and second against Kannapolis. Washington's top pick in the June 2012 First-Year Player Draft (16th overall) pitched the MLB All-Star Futures Game for the U.S. team. He would rank third in the SAL with a 2.54 ERA but he is just over 10 innings shy of qualifying (71 IP). In his lone start against the Intimidators, Giolito tossed 6.0 scoreless innings of 1-hit baseball and striking out a then-season-high seven batters in a no decision. The former Harvard-Westlake High School stand out from Santa Monica, Calif., has won three of his last four games, however his 3.31 ERA in July is the highest of any month this season. Giolito, who committed to UCLA before signing with the Nationals, opened the season going 2-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 10 First Half starts. He is now 3-1 with a 3.38 ERA in five starts in the second half. The Nationals drafted Giolito despite a looming need to have "Tommy John" surgery, which he underwent in 2012 after one appearance in his professional debut with the GCL Nationals. Last season, he went 1-1 with a 2.78 ERA in eight starts in the GCL before joining Short-A Auburn Doubledays, where he went 1-0 with a 0.64 ERA in three starts.

About Last Night: Hagerstown 3B John Wooten drove in four of the Suns' five runs, including the game winner with a base hit in the bottom of the 13th inning to drop the Intimidators, 5-4, on Thursday. Wooten, who finished the game 2-4 with a pair of sac-flies and a pair of run-scoring hits, drove a Brad Salgado offering to right-center field with one out in the bottom of the 13th to score Narciso Mesa from third base. Mesa and Wilmer Difo led off the 13th with base hits to set up the winning run. Salgado (2-1) worked three scoreless relief innings in the 10th, 11th, and 12th before giving up the winning run with one out in the 13th and suffering his first loss with Kannapolis this season. Andrew Cooper (7-2), the fifth Suns pitcher who faced only the final batter of the top of the 13th, logged the win. With the Suns up 4-3 since the fifth inning, T.J. Williams tied the game in the top of the eighth with a 1-out solo home run (7), eventually forcing extra innings.

Extra! Extra!: The Intimidators dropped Thursday's extra-inning affair in 13 frames, 5-4, to Hagerstown. Kannapolis is now 2-9 in extra-inning games this season, including a 1-7 mark on the road and 0-3 against Hagerstown. The Suns and Intimidators played a 10-inning game (in the second game of a doubleheader on May 11) that Hagerstown claimed, 3-2, and the Suns claimed a 2-1 win in 11 innings the next day on May 12. Additionally, Kannapolis is now 7-15 in games decided in the final at-bats, including three walk-off losses to Hagerstown - all in extra-innings.

Go Long: Thursday night's 13-inning game lasted 3 hours and 44 minutes, the fifth longest game of the season for the Intimidators by time. It was the fourth time this season Kannapolis played at least 13 innings and the first since July 12 when the Intimidators played their longest game of 2014, a 15-inning marathon against Asheville that lasted 5 hours and 11 minutes in a 7-5 loss to the Tourists. The only non-extra-inning game longer than last night's contest that Kannapolis has played this season came June 19 at Charleston, a 10-7 loss to the RiverDogs that lasted 3 hours and 45 miunutes.

Electric Engel: Adam Engel collected two more hits on Thursday, extending his hitting streak to a career-best 11 games by going 2-5 with a double. He is batting .380 (19-50) in his last 11 games since July 11. Engel is the fourth Intimidators player with a double-digit hitting streak this season and first since Brett Austin hit safely in 10 straight games from June 24-July 8. Engel's previous career-long hitting streak was nine games last season with Advanced Rookie Great Falls.

Morris On The Mark: Jacob Morris waited until the 10th inning but extended his own hitting streak to a season-best seven games on Thursday, going 1-6 with an extra-inning base knock. Morris is batting .433 (13-30) with five doubles, a home run, and three RBI during the stretch (since July 16) and two games shy of equaling his career-long hitting streak of nine games with Great Falls where he hit .457 (16-35) from August 3-11, 2013.

I'm Coming Home: Ben Brewster tossed 3.0 scoreless frames in his return to Maryland. The left-hander took over in the seventh and faced the minimum nine batters over three innings, giving up a single but rolling the runner into a double play in the seventh. He struck out three batters to match a career high. The White Sox selected Brewster, a Baltimore native, in the 15th round of the June 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Maryland.

Game-Tying T.J.: First baseman T.J. Williams has had a knack for coming up with a crucial home run for the Intimidators, including last night's game-tying blast in the eighth inning, his seventh of the season. In addition to Williams' walk-off home run on June 28 to beat Charleston, he now has three of the team's six game-tying home runs in 2014. Kannapolis is 5-2 when he homers.

Road Broadcasts: This week's games in Hagerstown and Lakewood will be broadcast on the Kannapolis Intimidators Baseball Network available at IntimidatorsBaseball.com & on the TuneIn Radio App with Josh Feldman, now in his fourth season as the Voice of the Intimidators.




South Atlantic League Stories from July 25, 2014


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