AAA – Oeltjen, Rowland-Smith, Spence:-All on fire
Trent Oeltjen (pictured) is certainly making his presence felt at Salt Lake. After a bit of a slow start he’s finally found form. Take today for example. Not only did he go 3-4 but hit back to back home runs in the 4th and 6th innings for the Bees. They were Trent’s 6th and 7th home runs for the season.
Josh Spence bounced back after his disappointing outing earlier in the week. He threw scoreless 8th and 9th innings including 3 Ks and a 1-2-3 9th. His line was 2IP, 2H, 0R, 0BB, 3K, 3.44ERA.
RRS came on in the 7th with 2 on, 2 out after Pawtucket had given up 2 runs. No problem for Ryan – he struck out the next hitter and his day was done. His ERA is down to a miniscule 0.66.
Aussies Earn Madness All-Great West Conference Honors – Sam Street, Alex Howe
Sam Street
NEWARK, New Jersey – College Sports Madness announced on Monday that University of Texas-Pan American baseball junior pitcher Sam Street is the Madness Great West Conference Pitcher of the Year as well as a Madness All-Great West Conference First Team selection. Joining him on the first team are junior infielder Alberto Morales and junior outfielder Alex Howe, while senior pitcher Dusten Knight and senior infielders Riley Goulding and Will Klausing are on the second team, as chosen by the staff of CollegeSportsMadness.com.
Alex Howe
The Great West Conference (GWC) will announce postseason awards, as voted on by the head coaches, Monday night.
Street leads the GWC in wins and innings pitched, and ranks second in ERA and strikeouts. Overall, he is 9-3 with a 2.45 ERA. In 16 games (14 starts), he has pitched seven complete games, including three shutouts. He has not allowed an earned run in five of his complete games. Street has pitched 106.1 innings so far, the eighth most by any Broncs pitcher during a season in program history. He is 7.1 innings away from tying Jesse Trinidad (1976) for the No. 2 spot (113.2). Street has struck out 91 batters and is five away from entering the top 10 in a single season in program history. He has allowed just 85 hits and 26 walks for a WHIP of 1.04. Opponents are hitting.219 against Street. He is a four-time GWC Pitcher of the Week and two-time Madness GWC Player of the Week honoree.
Source UPTA
Moylan keeps it loose in Isotopes bullpen
Isotopes reliever Peter Moylan has been effective on the mound a good veteran presence for Albuquerque’s bullpen.
Credits: Courtesy of the Albuquerque Isotopes
By Christopher Jackson/Examiner.com
It took them 26 games but Albuquerque Isotopes fans finally noticed something Tuesday night.
They started chanting “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!” while reliever Peter Moylan was busy throwing a scoreless ninth inning to preserve a 7-3 victory over the Colorado Springs.
As they had done for outfielder and fellow Australian native Trent Oeltjen the last two years, the fans showed their support for their team’s current Aussie.
“The more and more guys that get over here, obviously the more Australians you get, the more welcomed you are,” Moylan said with a smile. “Obviously you’re proud to be an Australian and it’s great to be fired up with the ‘Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!’ chant.”
While the fans were keeping things light, Moylan often has a similar role in the Albuquerque bullpen. At 34, he is the oldest member of the group, and with 260.2 Major League innings to his credit he is also the most experienced.
“He’s really good in the clubhouse,” manager Lorenzo Bundy. “All those years of major-league experience he has, just being able to talk to some of the younger guys here has value other than taking the ball whenever we ask him to.”
Moylan might seem like a fun, free-wheeling personality but he brings more than just that to the table.
“I want to be there for the guys to support them but I’m also there for the guys when they’re doing something wrong,” Moylan said. “I’m going to let them know when it’s something they’re not supposed to do. What you find at this level is you ask a guy, ‘Would you do that in the big leagues?’ They say, ‘No, I’d never do that in the big leagues.’ ‘Then why would you do that here?’
“I feel that’s my role as well. We’ve got a lot of guys here that are going to be in the big leagues. It’s my job to let them know how it’s going to be and get them ready as much as possible.”
Moylan has gone 2-1 with a 4.05 ERA and one save in 15 games this year. He has a 2.79 ERA in eight May appearances.
“ERA for a reliever is a tough stat,” Moylan said. “I always look at inherited runners scored. That’s my main one. It’s also how the ball is coming out of my hand.”
As Moylan’s numbers improve the chatter is starting to rise that he could become an option for the Dodgers’ struggling bullpen. Moylan said he does have an opt-out clause in his contract for June 1 if he is not added to the major-league roster.
“Honestly I really haven’t thought about it much,” Moylan said. “It’s there but it doesn’t mean I have to use it. At this time you see a lot of guys out there looking for jobs. Having a job (at Triple-A) is almost as good.”
Moylan only threw 42 combined innings in the Majors and Minors in 2011-12 due to Tommy John surgery and other various injuries. He said he has learned quite a bit about baseball and himself during the downtime.
“I think you appreciate the game more,” Moylan said. “Yes, obviously, it teaches you how to do things in a certain situation. I think for me it’s more just being able to come back after almost two years off. I just want to show I can compete at this level.”
Moylan showed that competitive desire Tuesday. He came in for the eighth inning after Ryan Wheeler hit a three-run homer. His inning went strikeout, single, flyout and walk before Tommy Manzella hit a single through the left side. Tyler Colvin came charging around third base and tried to score but he was thrown out at home plate by left fielder Tony Gwynn Jr.
“For me personally, me facing right-handed hitters and getting them out is what I have to do,” said Moylan, who struck out the side in the ninth. “To give up a hit to a right-hander on a slider is especially frustrating. Tony came up with a great throw. To save a run like that, I was fired up. I’m older now but I’ve still got the fire.”
A – No Joy for Hussey
Unable to reproduce the success he had with the Tin Caps
John Hussey can’t take a trick at the moment it seems.
Yesterday he came on in the 16th inning with his team, the Lake Elsinore Storm, having just taken a 9-8 lead. The first batter he faced put him out over LF to once again tie the game.
With the score still tied at 9 all John came back out to pitch the 17th, they were probably pretty much out of arms by then so even though John threw the day before he was needed to do another inning. Unfortunately a 2RBI home run finished the game with John wearing the loss, taking his record to 0-2.
His line was 1.1IP, 3H, 3R, 2HR, 1BB, 1K.
Blackley – Steady as she goes in Astro’s Win
Travis Blackley worked a perfect seventh in his customary slow paced methodical manner in Houston’s 3-1 win over the Royals today and was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk in the eighth to Chris Getz.
ln his 17th appearance for the Astros Travis recorded his 7th Hold, striking out 2 in his 1-2-3 7th inning.
Astros are off tomorrow then have a 3 game series against Travis’ former club the A’s. That should be interesting for him.
Independent Leagues – Justin Erasmus; signed, released, signed again!
Dan Vaughan tells the story of Justin Erasmus‘ shaky start to Independent Ball in his 4X4 article on his blog Sportsdandotcom.
Justin Erasmus has found a home after being released by the independent Grand Prairie Air Hogs of the American Association. Erasmus was signed by the Air Hogs on May 5th and had little time to unpack his bags before being released on May 15th. His stay on the street lasted a few hours as that same day the Brisbane Bandits reliever was picked up by another “Indy” league the Frontier League. The stay in the Grand Prairie right between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas was a short one but the move a bit longer as Erasmus is now with the Joliet Slammers#.
Erasmus was born in South Africa and grew up in Brisbane has been one of the more interesting ABL stories from a background perspective. In affiliated ball last season with the Boston Red Sox club the Greenville Drive in the South Atlantic League Erasmus was 1-3 with a 9.24 ERA in 26 games. In 2011 the righty worked 40.2 IP with a 1.11 ERA out of the pen for Greenville. Back in the pen for the Slammers in 2013 Erasmus has gotten off to a good start working an inning over the weekend on May 18th. In that game he picked up his first save of the season in a 6-3 win over Traverse City.
Dan also talks about Ryan Battaglia, David Kandilas and Andrew Russell. Well worth a read.
# Dan explains their name:- We finish with a fun note on the week. The Joliet Slammers are named after? Well if you had a jail you had it right! The Slammer name comes from the Joliet Correctional Facility which also has a baseball team and also was the home of fictitious character Joliet Jake from the movie the Blues Brothers. Jake and Elwood have to be proud of the Slammers!
AA – Beresford, Russell, Welch
A promotion to AAA can’t be far off for James
James Beresford is on an 8 game hitting streak after going 2-5 yesterday for New Britain. He scored a run and an RBI and is hitting .343.
A promotion to AAA would seem to be appropriate considering his age, experience and recent performances.
Just saying.
Andrew Russell picked up his 2nd win yesterday despite actually blowing the save.
He came on in the 8th with Mississippi leading Jacksonville 3-2 and allowed a run on 2 hits to tie the game. His team then scored the go ahead run in the bottom 8th and maintained the lead to give him the win.
As they say:- A Win is a Win.
Stefan Welch came off the bench going 0-1 and a walk as his slump continues at Altoona. He is hitting .145.
AAA – Moylan, Oeltjen
Peter Moylan would have been pleased with his work yesterday, throwing 2 scoreless innings for Albuquerque in their 7-3 win over Colorado Springs. Colorado had just scored 3 runs in the 8th when Peter was brought to stop the onslaught. There were none on following the bases clearing home run that prompted the call to the bullpen and despite allowing 2 hits no runs scored with Pete getting some defensive help with a great throw to nail the runner at the plate from Tony Gwinn at LF.
In the 9th he struck out all three in a 1-2-3 inning. His ERA is 4.05.
Trent Oeltjen made a major contribution to Salt Lake’s 10-3 win over Memphis with a total of 3RBI including a 2 run double and a sac fly.
College Watch – Pioneers land Australian infielder
Miles Community College head baseball coach Jeff Brabant has announced the commitment for the 2013-2014 season from Michael Gahan- Lismore, New South Wales, Australia.
Michael Gahan- 6’0- 185- P/IF Lismore, New South Wales, Australia/St. John’s College Woodlawn
Gahan is the son of Anthony and Emma Gahan. He prepped at St. John’s College Woodlawn where he participated in basketball and was awarded the Mitchell Medal for the baseball player of the year.
During the summer months, Gahan played for the Surfers Paradise club team along side current Pioneer Myles Wesener(Banora Point, AU), and for head coach Peter Yates. Surfers Paradise competes in the Greater Brisbane Baseball Major League A Grade.
In his junior season, Michael hit .408 with 10 RBI’s, scoring 10 runs and stealing 5 bases.
He has also played for the Marist Brothers Baseball Club, the Far North Coast Timberjacks and has also been a representative of the Australian National Team three times. While at MCC, Gahan plans on working towards his degree in Sports Management. Why Michael chose Miles Community College, “I chose Miles Community College because of the reputation of the baseball program. I like the small community and want to gain further education in my goal of becoming a professional baseball player”.
Coach Brabant on Gahan: “”We are excited to have another Aussie in our program, especially one from the same program as Wesener. ‘Mick’ will be a difference maker for us and as a SS will fill some big shoes in the history of our program. We feel that Mick will excel offensively as well and should find himself in the upper half of our lineup. Mick will fit well in our program and help us continue our successful ways”.
Blackley gets 6th Hold as Astros blow 3-0 lead
An injury to starter Bud Norris brought Travis Blackley to the mound in the 7th inning and whilst he was able to get his 6th Hold he did contribute to two Royal’s runs as the Astros blew a 3-0 lead to lose to Kansas City 7-3.
His line for today was 0.2 IP, 2H, 2R, 1K. Today’s outing raised his ERA to 4.60.
