Sports stats

SAL1 Charleston Dirty Birds

West Virginia Power: Game Notes (April 20)

April 20, 2018 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston Dirty Birds News Release


West Virginia continues its four-game series with Asheville tonight at 7:05 p.m. at Appalachian Power Park. RHP Gavin Wallace (1-0, 4.91 ERA) is on the mound.

MACGREGOR, MITCHELL HEADLINE 3-0 SHUTOUT: Travis MacGregor was brilliant in his second start at Appalachian Power Park in 2018, blanking the Asheville Tourists over six innings and allowing just three hits and two walks while striking out six batters. MacGregor permitted just six balls to leave the infield over his outing, four of which were routine fly outs. Ike Schlabach worked a scoreless seventh with a pair of strikeouts, and Adam Oller spun two perfect frames to earn his first save of the season. Calvin Mitchell provided all the offense in Thursday's series opener, crushing a three-run homer to right field off Asheville starter Garrett Schilling, who took the loss after going 5.2 innings and surrendering all three runs on five hits with eight strikeouts.

HANGING ZEROS: West Virginia's three-pitcher shutout was the first shutout the Power tossed since a rain-shortened, five-inning affair on September 2, 2017, at Delmarva, when Luis Escobar hurled a complete-game, one-hit effort in a 6-0 West Virginia win. Escobar was also a part of the Power's last nine-inning shutout victory on July 17, 2017, a 4-0 blanking of the Greensboro Grasshoppers at Appalachian Power Park. West Virginia twirled six shutouts in 2017.

HOME COOKING: MacGregor turned in his second consecutive strong effort inside West Virginia's friendly confines on Thursday with his six-inning mystification of Asheville's sluggers. On top of his Low-A debut on April 6, where he baffled Greenville's lineup over 5.1 innings and set down a career-best 12 batters, the 2016 second-rounder now boasts a 0.79 ERA (1 ER/11.1 IP) at Appalachian Power Park in 2018 with 18 strikeouts, while opposing sluggers are posting a paltry .171 average against the right-hander. West Virginia will play 14 of its next 17 games at Appalachian Power Park.

RELIEF IS A GOOD THING: Schlabach and Oller's three sterling frames on Thursday continued West Virginia's recent hot streak from its relief corps. Over the last eight games dating back to the series finale against Lakewood on April 11, Power relievers have tossed 36.1 innings and surrendered just nine earned runs while racking up 43 strikeouts, good for a 2.23 ERA in that span. This accrual of performances has brought the bullpen's season ERA down to 3.51 from 5.56, a difference of 2.05. Power relievers have held the first batters they have faced in an appearance to a 5-for-26 (.192) clip thus far, with seven strikeouts.

A QUALITY ROTATION: The Power rotation has come on strong over its last four games, with their last three starters, who had the opportunity to do so, turning in quality starts, while Evan Piechota spun a defacto quality outing after relieving Sergio Cubilete in the first inning when he was struck by a line drive on April 17 against the RiverDogs. Counting Piechota's six-inning relief gem, West Virginia's rotation has gone 3-0 over its last four contests with a 0.75 ERA (2 ER/24 IP), giving up 13 hits and four walks while collecting 26 strikeouts. MacGregor's season ERA of 0.73 leads all Pirates farmhands and is fifth-best in the South Atlantic League, while Piechota's 1.29 mark ranks seventh.

MASHING MITCHELL: Mitchell's three-run bomb in the third inning upped his total to three on the season, tied with Oneil Cruz and Mason Martin for the most on the Power, while all three West Virginia sluggers sit atop the Pirates organizational leaderboard in dingers along with Altoona's Will Craig. Mitchell leads the entire Pirates system with 10 RBI and is currently riding a five-game hitting streak and seven-game on-base streak, with the latter dating back to April 12 when the Power opened up their road schedule in Hickory. The 2017 second-round selection's .604 slugging percentage sits at fifth amongst other SAL sluggers, with Hagerstown's Juan Soto leading that category (.800).

THE PITCHING MATCHUP: RHP Gavin Wallace (1-0, 4.91 ERA) will look to carry the torch on Friday as the Fairfield product toes the rubber against Asheville right-hander Will Gaddis (0-0, 4.22 ERA). Wallace defeated the Hickory Crawdads behind a six-inning effort on April 13 in his last start, allowing three runs and striking out five in the win. Gaddis was saddled with a five-inning no-decision on April 14 against Columbia while picking up three strikeouts.

POWER POINTS: West Virginia's DHs are batting a combined 7-for-45 (.156) on the year following Kyle Watson's 1-for-3 effort... The Power are 4-0 when their starter lasts six innings... West Virginia has won the last three games that Oller has appeared in... Rodolfo Castro is hitless in his last eight at-bats after an 0-for-4 showing on Thursday.

ON THE AIR: West Virginia Power games can be heard on The Jock 1300 & 1340 AM in the Kanawha Valley, online at wvpower.com and on the TuneIn Radio App. David Kahn and John Kocsis will handle play-by-play duties in 2018.

Check out the Charleston Dirty Birds Statistics



South Atlantic League Stories from April 20, 2018


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Charleston Dirty Birds Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central