Hot Start a Historic One for 2011 Pelicans
April 19, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans News Release
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - The whirlwind first ten games for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans as a Texas Rangers affiliate have taken them from the warmth of Opening Day at BB&T Coastal Field to Maryland, to Virginia, and home again. Those ten games have also taken this year's edition of Myrtle Beach's hometown team into the record books and have given Grand Strand baseball fans something to be excited about.
Through the first ten games of the 2011 season, the Pelicans have a 7-3 record, best for a Myrtle Beach club since 2005, that has placed them a half-game off the pace in the Carolina League's Southern Division. Sparked by a league-leading offense spearheaded by reigning Carolina League Player of the Week Mike Olt, the Pelicans are riding a current four-game winning streak that began with three wins over the Lynchburg Hillcats, a team that includes 11 former Pelicans as the new Class A Advanced affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Pelicans cruised to a sweep in that three-game set in Lynchburg by a combined score of 26-8, winning each game by at least five runs. The Pelicans have only been above .500 after ten games one time in the last five years, a 6-4 mark in 2007, and went a combined 22-28 in their first ten contests from 2006-10.
Named the Carolina League's first Player of the Week for 2011 on Monday, third baseman Olt has kicked off his first full professional season on an absolute tear, batting .405 through his first ten games in the circuit. The University of Connecticut product boasts three home runs, five doubles, nine runs scored, ten runs batted in, and 29 total bases so far this season. Olt is at or near the top in most offensive categories in the league including doubles (1st), runs(1st), walks (1st, 8), extra-base hits (1st, 8), total bases (2nd), on-base percentage (2nd, .511), average (3rd), hits (3rd, 15), RBIs (4th), and slugging percentage (4th, .784). Olt is joined in the top ten in league batting average by outfielders Ryan Strausborger (4th, .349) and Travis Adair (8th, .343). Strausborger is even with Olt's 15 hits in third place in the circuit. Entering Tuesday night's middle game with the Winston-Salem Dash at BB&T Coastal Field, Myrtle Beach's offense is leading the league as a unit with a .268 team batting average. Last season, the Pelicans finished last in the Carolina League in team batting average at .238.
Player of the Week Olt and his fellow Rangers prospects in the Pelicans' lineup over the weekend painted the starkest portrait of contrast between last year's team and this year's in their sweep of the Hillcats. The Pelicans batted .261 as a team in the series with eleven extra base hits including four home runs and had single-inning outbursts of four (9th, Friday), six (3rd, Sunday), and seven runs (9th, Saturday) in each of the weekend's games. Myrtle Beach had half as many hits with runners in scoring position in the ninth inning alone on Saturday (three) as Lynchburg had all season to that point (six).
The Pelicans started the 2011 season on the right foot as well with two wins in three games against the Wilmington Blue Rocks, a team that hasn't lost since departing Myrtle Beach. The Birds carried a lead to the ninth inning in their only loss of the season's first series, as well, before dropping an extra-innings affair to Wilmington by a score of 7-6 in 11 on Saturday, April 9. The Pelicans followed that series with two losses in three games at Frederick but lost both of those contests by a combined three runs with a 2-0 defeat on Wednesday, April 13 and a 6-5 loss a night later in which Myrtle Beach came within an eyelash of scoring the game's tying run in the top of the ninth inning.
While the Pelicans' offense has impressed, entering the 2011 season, the hype for a Pelicans team that was expected to be loaded with talent from the Rangers' system was most heavily centered the club's prospect-laden starting pitching rotation. Myrtle Beach's starting five has not disappointed. The Pelicans' season-opening rotation of Neil Ramirez, who has since been promoted to Triple-A Round Rock, Robbie Erlin, Barret Loux, Robbie Ross, and Joe Wieland, has posted a collective ERA of 2.11. Erlin, Loux, and Ross have each picked up victories with the only loss charged to a starter this year going on the tab of Wieland. Ironically, the right-hander's performance in his lone defeat was one of the Pelicans' best this year. Wieland allowed a run two batters into the Birds' 2-0 Wednesday defeat at Frederick and didn't blink the rest of the way, striking out eight, walking only one, and allowing just four hits over five innings.
Erlin and Ross have been outstanding as well. The two southpaw Robbies have combined to allow just four runs, all charged to Erlin with three coming in his first outing, on 12 hits over 21 combined innings. Erlin surrendered his only run and hit in his second start of the season on a solo homer to Adam Milligan leading off the bottom of the third inning in his win at Lynchburg on Friday night. He has struck out 13 batters against just two walks this year. Ross has yet to allow a tally this year, earned or otherwise, striking out 11 against five walks and allowing just six hits in eleven innings pitched. The lefty from Nicholasville, Kentucky also earned a win over the Braves' affiliate in Lynchburg over the weekend, getting the victory in Sunday's 8-2 finale.
On Monday night at BB&T Coastal Field, the Pelicans picked up their seventh win of the year in dramatic fashion when Travis Adair threw out Winston-Salem's Andy Wilkins at the plate for the game's final out as Wilkins tried to score the tying run. The 2-1 victory marked the Pelicans' third win in a one-run game this season. The victory moved the Pelicans alone into second place in the Southern Division, one half-game behind 7-2 Salem who routed Lynchburg 16-5 on Monday night, sending the Hillcats to their eighth straight loss. Wilmington owns the Carolina League's best record, following up their 1-2 start at Myrtle Beach with a seven-game winning streak to move to 8-2.
The Pelicans continue their three-game series with the Dash on Tuesday night. The middle game marks the first edition of the Pelicans' Team Tuesday Poster Series with posters of reigning Carolina League Player of the Week Mike Olt going to the first 1,000 fans in attendance. Wednesday's series finale will be the Pelicans' first Wiener Wednesday of the year with $1 hot dogs all night long. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the BB&T Coastal Field Box office, the Tickets page at MyrtleBeachPelicans.com, or by calling (843)918-6000 or (877)918-TIXX.
Carolina League Stories from April 19, 2011
- Salem Pounds Nine More Extra-Base Hits, Wins Fourth Straight - Salem Red Sox
- Wilmington's Streak Stops At Seven - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Five Is The Magic Number For Pelicans - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Sloppy Eighth Inning Costs Dash - Winston-Salem Dash
- Kinston Bangs Out 17 Hits, Beats Wilmington 7-3 - Kinston Indians
- Hillcats Fall Again - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Rocks Offering Free Tickets to Promote Fight against Childhood Obesity - Wilmington Blue Rocks
- Hot Start a Historic One for 2011 Pelicans - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- Lynchburg Hillcats Game Notes - Lynchburg Hillcats
- Winston-Salem Dash Game Notes - Winston-Salem Dash
- "Got Friends"" Festival Scheduled at BB&T Ballpark - Winston-Salem Dash
- Frederick and Potomac Rained Out - Frederick Keys
- Pelicans Game Notes - Myrtle Beach Pelicans
- K-Tribe Begins Eight Game Homestand on Wednesday - Kinston Indians
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