SAL1 Charleston Dirty Birds

West Virginia Power: Game Notes (August 23)

Published on August 23, 2018 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston Dirty Birds News Release


West Virginia begins a four-game series in Rome, Georgia, tonight against the Rome Braves, with first pitch from State Mutual Stadium set for 7:00 p.m. LHP Oddy Nunez (0-0, 2.37 ERA) takes the hill for the Power.

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RIVERDOGS CLAIM FINALE IN EXTRAS: Trailing 2-0 in the eighth inning, West Virginia stormed back to tie the game and force extra innings, but the Charleston RiverDogs capitalized on its 10th-inning run to snag a 3-2 win in the series finale over the Power Tuesday evening at Appalachian Power Park. In the eighth, Connor Kaiser led off the inning with a walk before Calvin Mitchell singled him over to third. After Carlos Espinal replaced Austin DeCarr on the mound, Espinal fanned the first two batters he faced before Rafelin Lorenzo poked an RBI single to right to make it a one-run game. In the ninth, Lolo Sanchez began the inning with a base hit, but Espinal then retired the next two batters in order. Mitchell came through though, smacking the game-tying double to left-center to knot the contest at two. Elvis Escobar came on for the 10th inning and ended up allowing the placed on runner to score, while West Virginia could not replicate that effort in the bottom of the frame against Daniel Alvarez. In the loss, Hunter Stratton spun another quality start, working six innings and ceding two runs on five hits with five strikeouts to two walks. The Power's bullpen was stellar from the seventh to the ninth, firing three perfect innings on the arms of John Pomeroy, Logan Stoelke and Beau Sulser, who combined to fan five batters over their three innings of relief duty.

STRATTON STRUTTING HIS STUFF: Stratton tossed his fourth career quality start Tuesday evening, and his second consecutive after holding down the Rome Braves over a career-high seven frames August 11 in Rome. The Walters State (TN) Community College product has hurled at least five innings in each of his last six starts while allowing two earned runs or less. In that span, Stratton is sporting a 2.65 ERA (10 ER/34 IP). With his five punch outs Tuesday, Stratton passed Travis MacGregor and Max Kranick for the team lead among current hurlers in strikeouts with 75.

MULTI-HIT MITCHELL: Mitchell's ninth-inning two-bagger that tied the game at two ended up being the Power's only extra-base hit of the evening. The Rancho Bernardo (CA) High School product also recorded his 28th multi-hit game of the season, second-best on the team to Oneil Cruz, who possesses 30 multi-hit games. Mitchell had a very potent series against the Charleston RiverDogs, going 6-for-15 (.400) with a home run and three runs batted in.

EXTRA, EXTRA: The Power played their 13th extra innings game under the new MiLB format this season. Of their 13 contests that did not conclude in regulation, nine of them have ended after one extra frame. West Virginia's six extra-inning victories (6-7) are tied with Greensboro and Hickory for fifth-most in the South Atlantic League, while their seven losses are tied with Augusta and Charleston for third-most. The Power still holds the longest extra-innings game in Minor League Baseball this season with their 15-inning, 4:44 affair against the Augusta GreenJackets May 3.

SWIPING SANCHEZ: Sanchez stole two bases Tuesday night, upping his team-best total to 27. Sanchez swiped two bags in a game for the ninth time in his career. The Dominican native's 27 stolen bases are fourth-best in the league (Kirvin Moesquit, 44, Delmarva; Yonny Hernandez, 38, Hickory and Bubba Thompson, 28, Hickory) and fifth-highest in the Pirates organization (Alfredo Reyes, 34; Double-A Altoona). In 198 career Minor League games, Sanchez has 45 stolen bases in 72 tries (63%). The last Power player to record more than 27 stolen bases was Reyes (28) in 2016.

STEALING THE LIMELIGHT: Stoelke had quite the impressive South Atlantic League debut with West Virginia Tuesday evening. The Pirates' ninth-round pick in 2018 dominated the three batters he faced, striking out David Metzgar and Carlos Vidal on called strikes before inducing a weak ground out from Oswaldo Cabrera that he handled himself. Stoelke needed just 15 pitches (11 for strikes) to get through his lone inning of work.

DEAR JOHN: Pomeroy has been dominant since joining West Virginia August 8 from the Black Bears. In four relief appearances, he has not allowed a hit while tallying seven strikeouts to just one walk. Pomeroy has not given up a run in his last nine outings, dating back to July 27 when he was in the New York-Penn League. The 23-year-old is in his first season back since undergoing Tommy John surgery in early April 2017 after suffering a torn UCL at the end of 2016.

PLAYOFF PUSH: With West Virginia's loss Tuesday and Kannapolis' twin bill sweep over Greensboro, the Power fell to 3.5 games back of the Intimidators in the race for the South Atlantic League's Northern Division Wild Card spot.

POWER POINTS: The Power is 25-16 when their starter goes six innings or more in a game... West Virginia is 15-23 in one-run games this season... Luke Mangieri has hit safely in all five games he has played in since coming to the Power... Over his last seven appearances, Sulser has ceded one run over 11.2 innings (0.77 ERA) with 19 strikeouts.

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South Atlantic League Stories from August 23, 2018


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