Mission Notes vs. Brevard County (Aug. 12-14)

SERIES SCHEDULE ... Thanks to rain outs last week in Brevard, these two teams will play five games over the weekend starting with a 5 pm doubleheader on Friday in Lakeland. Saturday has the two teams playing a single game at 6 pm at Joker Marchant Stadium while the two clubs travel to Brevard for another doubleheader Sunday at 4:05 pm. All of this, on top of a Thursday doubleheader split with Daytona, has Lakeland playing seven games in four days. (Speaking of doubleheaders, the Flying Tigers will also play a twin-bill on Aug. 30 in Lakeland against Dunedin.)

THE FLYING TIGERS (55-59 all, 19-25 2nd half, 6th, 4.5 GB) ... Lakeland split a doubleheader with Daytona on Thursday, trading shutouts with the Cubs. The Flying Tigers won game one 6-0 behind six shutout innings by Mark Sorensen and dropped game two 4-0. The loss in game two was Lakeland’s fourth in the last five games. Lakeland is hitting .248 as a team with a 3.85 earned run average.

THE MANATEES (48-66, 21-23 2nd half, 5th, 2.5 GB) ... Brevard County also played a twin-bill on Thursday, dropping two games to Dunedin, falling 7-6 in nine innings in game one and 9-3 in game two. The losses snapped a four-game win streak by the Manatees. Scooter Gennett leads the Florida State League with 141 base hits (12 more than the second place total) while Kentrail Davis is second with 30 stolen bases and fifth with 67 runs scored. Brevard County is hitting .265 as a team with a league-high 4.75 staff ERA. The Manatees have committed the second most errors in the league and have the second worst fielding percentage of any FSL squad.
 
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS ...

• Friday (8/12) - Brian Stroud (0-2, 9.00) and TBA. Stroud has allowed six earned runs in each of his two starts for Lakeland and went 6.0 innings in both outings while surrendering a combined four homers. He has struck out 10 in the two games while walking just one.
• Saturday (8/13) - Shawn Teufel (3-3, 3.99) is 0-0 in two appearances and one start versus Brevard County. In his last start on July 6 against the Manatees, he allowed four runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings in a no-decision outing. Teufel is 0-2 with a 5.06 earned run average at home this season and 3-1 with a 3.34 ERA away from Joker Machant Stadium
• Sunday (8/14) - Trevor Feeney (7-11, 4.45) and TBA. Feeney is 0-2 with an 8.18 ERA against the Manatees this season. He dropped his last start on July 8 against Brevard County going 6.0 innings while allowing six runs on eight hits. Feeney is 2-5 in the second half after posting a 5-6 mark in the first half. He has 90 strikeouts on the year and needs 10 more to become the 33rd Lakeland pitcher to reach triple digits in punch outs.

THIS SEASON ... The Manatees have taken nine of the 13 games played so far this season between the two clubs, including four straight and six of the last seven. Tony Plagman has 16 hits, including three homers in the series while Avisail Garcia (two homers) and Jordan Lennerton each have 15 hits against Brevard County. Scooter Gennett leads the Manatees with 19 hits in the series while Evan Anundsen has two wins in relief for Brevard County against Lakeland.

WHITHER THE WOOD ... After averaging almost 12 hits (11.86) a game from July 29 to Aug. 6, Lakeland has managed just over six hits (6.25) per outing in the last four games.

LEAVING THE YARD ... With William Bergolla’s three-run homer in game one on Thursday, Lakeland has hit at least one round-tripper in seven of the last nine games.

TAMED AT TEN ... With a double and a home run in game one on Thursday against Daytona, William Bergolla extended his hit streak to ten games going 14-for-36 (.388) with two doubles and two homers dating back to July 26. Unfortunately, that’s where the streak ended as the Lakeland shortstop was held hitless in two at bats in game two.

TURN LEFT AT FIRST ... Tony Plagman has eight base hits in his last eight games with half of those eight hits being doubles. The other half have been singles. With his two doubles in Thursday’s doubleheader, Plagman now has 27 doubles on the season, tying him with Brian Rios for the ninth most doubles in Lakeland single-season history.

DOG DAYS OF AUGUST ... Shawn Roof leads the Flying Tigers with a .394 average in the month of August while William Bergolla has a .353 mark this month. Eric Roof and Jordan Lennerton are also over .300 with .333 and .324 averages, respectively.

HITTIN’ AND GIVIN’ ... The Manatees have hit 92 homers as a team, the second-highest total in the FSL while the Flying Tigers have allowed the fifth most homers of any FSL pitching staff. On the other side of the field, the Lakeland has hit 67 round-trippers, fourth fewest in the league while Brevard County has given up the third most dingers of any league staff.

FILM AT 11 ... With Friday’s doubleheader, Lakeland has just 11 scheduled home dates left in the 2011 season. Following this two-game homestand, the Flying Tigers will be at home on Aug. 17-18 against Tampa and Aug. 19-21 to face Clearwater. The squad then hits the road for eight days before returning to Joker Marchant Stadium for games versus Dunedin on Aug. 30-31. Lakeland concludes the regular season with single home dates on Sept. 2 and 4 against Tampa. The final home game on Sept. 4 will be a special Sunday morning 11:00 start.

LAKELAND IN THE FSL ... Jared Wesson is second with 12 wins ... Kenny Faulk is third with 20 saves ... Tony Plagman is first with 85 runs batted in (nine more than the second place total), is tied for third with 46 extra base hits and is fourth with 199 total bases ... Trevor Feeney is second with 137.2 innings pitched and fourth with 1.83 walks allowed per nine innings ... Jordan Lennerton is second with 86 walks ... Lakeland is second with a .979 fielding percentage ... Corey Jones (2B, .975) and Wade Gaynor (3B, .955) lead their respective positions in fielding percentage. Gaynor leads all third baseman in games played (106), total chances (331), putouts (89), assists (227) and double plays (21).

CROWDED AT THE TOP ... Three teams sit atop the North Division as Clearwater, Dunedin and Tampa all sport identical 25-22 records. Daytona, the first half winner, and Brevard County are tied at 2.5 games back while the Flying Tigers are 4.5 games back.

UP ON THE FARM ... Here’s a look at how some of the former Lakeland players are doing in their advanced careers in the Detroit organization:

• Justin Verlander has a Major League leading 17 wins and is also tops in the Majors with 196 strikeouts. He is third in the American League with a 2.35 ERA
• Duane Below is fifth in the International League (IL) with a 3.13 ERA at Toledo and is third with a .232 opponent’s batting average.
• Ryan Strieby is fifth in the IL with 69 runs batted in for the Mud Hens.
• Justin Henry is eighth in the Eastern League (EL) with a .303 batting average and third with a .405 on-base percentage at Erie.
• Jacob Turner is eighth in the EL with a 3.48 ERA for the SeaWolves.

LAKELAND IN THE ORGANIZATION ... Tony Plagman leads among Detroit minor leaguers with 85 runs batted in and second with 16 home runs ... Jordan Lennerton is fourth among the minor Tigers with 56 runs batted in ... Jared Wesson has an organization best 12 wins ... Kenny Faulk’s 20 saves leads all Detroit minor league pitchers ... Lakeland’s team batting average of .258 is third highest among the six Detroit minor league teams while the staff ERA of 3.85 ranks fourth.