THE FLYING TIGERS (7-5, second place, 1/2 GB) ... Winners of two in a row and six of the last seven, Lakeland is now a half game behind Clearwater in the North Division. The Flying Tigers swept two more games from Brevard County at home on Sunday and Tuesday (Monday was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on June 17) to improve to 5-0 against the Manatees. Tuesday’s heros included newcomer Daniel Fields who tripled with the bases loaded in the first inning while Kody Kaiser had three hits including a pair of doubles. Rawley Bishop is tops on the team with a .314 average while Bryan Pounds is second at .282 and Alden Carrithers third with a .276 mark. As a team, Lakeland is batting .210 with a 2.60 ERA.
CLEARWATER (8-5, 1st place) ... The Threshers have dropped two of their last three including a 3-0 shutout at the hands of Tampa on Tuesday. Matt Rizzotti leads Clearwater with a .351 average (9th in the FSL) while Steve Susdorf is at .333 on the season. Other with hot bats in limited duty include Fidel Hernandez (.379, 8 GP), Korby Mintken (.450, 7 GP), and Joel Naughton (.320, 7 GP). Clearwater is batting .270 with a 2.25 ERA.
SHARK BITES ... Fidel Hernandez is 7x14 (.500) in his last four games ... Korby Mintken has seven hits in 10 at bats (.700) the last three games ... Despite going 0x3 on Tuesday, Steve Susdorf is batting .476 (10x21) in his last seven games.
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS ...
WEDNESDAY (H) - Brayan Villarreal (1-1, 2.89) ... Struck out eight in 4.0 IP loss vs. Tampa in 2010 debut. Followed that with nine strikeouts in 5.1 innings in second outing against Clearwater on 4/15 retiring 13 straight before walking a batter. He allowed one hit and one earned run in that game. His 17 strikeouts is second among Detroit minor league pitchers.
THURSDAY (A) - Adam Wilk (0-2, 4.82) ... Worked 4.0 innings in his first outing allowing a pair of runs on four hits on 4/11 vs Tampa and six runs (three earned) in 5.1 innings in his second outing on 4/16 at Clearwater.
FRIDAY - (H) - Charlie Furbush (1-1, 4.22) ... Has struck out seven in each of his two outings this season, but had two different outcomes. In his first outing on 4/12, he held Brevard County to four hits in 5.2 shutout innings, but gave up five earned runs on seven hits in a 5.0 inning loss at Clearwater on 4/17.
THE SERIES ... The Threshers took two of the three games played on April 15-17 holding the Flying Tigers to four runs and eight hits in each game. Lakeland took the opener 4-1 behind a nine strikeout performance by Brayan Villarreal.
BRAVO, OLIVEROS ... Reliever Lester Oliveros is a perfect five for five in save opportunities in his last five outings and is tied for the league lead. Going one inning in each of the five appearances, Oliveros has allowed five hits, and one run, but has struck out eight and walked none. He now has 34 career saves in his five seasons and is 0-0 with a 1.50 ERA on the 2010 season.
THE ONLY CERTAIN IS CHANGE ... Lakeland manager Andy Barkett has yet to repeat a starting lineup through 12 games this season. Four different players have batted in the lead-off slot while the only player that seems locked into a slot is Gustavo Nunez who had hit in the two-hole in each of his 11 games played.
PITCHING DUELS? ... The Flying Tigers enter this series ranked second in the FSL with a 2.60 team ERA while the Threshers are third with a 2.72 mark. Clearwater leads the FSL with 105 strikeouts and Lakeland is second with 98. Opponents are hitting .213 against Clearwater and .230 against Lakeland.
GRAB THE EARLY LEAD ... Lakeland is 7-0 when scoring first and 6-0 when leading after five innings, but 1-4 when trailing.
FLYING HIGH ... Rawley Bishop has hits in four straight games and six of his last seven with four multi-hit games. He is hitting .435 (10x23) during that streak ... Kody Kaiser, who has four multi-hit games this season, is hitting .345 (10x29) in his last seven games, including a 3x5 effort with two doubles on Tuesday ... Gustavo Nunez, who also has four multi-hit games, is batting .350 (7x20) his last five games ... Pitchers Ramon Garcia, Matt Hoffman, Anthony Shawler and Tyler Stohr all have yet to allow a run.
FORMER FLYING TIGERS UP ON THE FARM ... Brennan Boesch leads the organization with a .360 average while Danny Worth (.349) and Brent Dlugach (.345) are second and third, respectively. All three play for Toledo. Audy Ciriaco (hand injury) was activated from the disabled list for Erie, but Santo De Leon was cut to make room on the AA Erie roster.
ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS: Detroit (7-7, 2nd, dropped two straight and 4-6 last ten games) ... Toledo (8-5, tied for first, 7-3 last ten games) ... Erie (4-8, 5th, winners of four straight) ... Lakeland (5-5, tied for 2nd, lost two straight) ... West Michigan (5-8, 6th, losers of three straight).
BLASTS FROM THE PAST ... Many ex-Flying Tigers are extending their pro careers in independent baseball leagues, including: Chad Linder, who has signed with the Shreveport-Bossier Captains of the American Association; Several ex-Lakelanders have signed with Atlantic League teams: Randy Leek is in his fourth season while is in his third year with the Long Island Ducks; Nook Logan, who is back in baseball after taking a year off, now plays for the Newark Bears; Kody Kirkland is with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs; Jordan Newton is with the New Jersey Jackals and Alex Trezza is with the Worcester Tornadoes of the Can-Am League; Justin Justice is with the Fargo-Moorhead Red Hawks while Chris Homer pitches for the Lake County Fielders in the Northern League.
THAT’S A LOTTA BASEBALL ... Kannapolis downed Rome 3-2 in a 20-inning contest last night in the South Atlantic League. The score was tied 2-2 in the 7th and stayed that way until Kannapolis scored with two out in the top of the 20th. The two teams left a combined 23 runners on base and used a total of ten pitchers. The game took just 4:41 to play compared to the 6:06 it took for Lakeland to defeat Daytona in 20 innings back on 6/29/08.
UPCOMING PROMOTIONS ... The ZOOperstars will entertain the crowd on Saturday, April 24 with fireworks to follow the game.
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Views expressed in “Mission Notes” are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lakeland Flying Tigers.
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