The lone winner in the organization Friday night, the WooSox and Michael Sansone were hit around by the Rail Riders (Yankees AAA) to start and needed some late offense to bring them home, where Tommy Kahnle again slammed the door in the ninth. That late offense was an eighth-inning leadoff triple by Allan Castro and subsequent knock by Jason Delay. Allan Castro may be hitting just over .200, but on Friday, he was the driving force in the win.
Franklin Arias had yet another multi-hit game. So, too, did Miguel Bleis, who’s recovering okay but not great after some early struggles. And Caden Rose, the 24-year-old outfielder out of Alabama, had three hits, but still, the team stranded ten runners and the Rumble Ponies (Mets AA) ended up walking Portland off in extras. This was despite Portland outhitting Binghamton 11-6.
Shea Sprague got taken for a ride in the fourth inning, as Asheville (Astros High-A) scored six runs against the Drive. Despite scoring four runs in the bottom of the first including Mason White hitting his ninth home run of the season, after that early defensive melt down, Greenville never got closer than 3 runs down after the fourth and, even when they put more offense on the board, it was only in response to Asheville also putting some runs up earlier in the inning.
Salem and Hickory (Rangers A) traded fourth-inning runs, the RidgeYaks’ coming off the bat of a home run from Skylar King. Jose Bello let walks get the best of him to start the fifth and Salem found themselves down by three runs, and then answered with two of their own. Still a winnable game… until Harry Blum let five runs cross in the eighth and Salem simply couldn’t answer.
