Jose Miranda and Alex Kirilloff lead the Miracle. Prelander Berroa and Tyler Palm lead the E-Twins. Congratulations to Elizabethton on winning the Appalachian League Championship!
FORT MYERS 3, PALM BEACH 1 IN PALM BEACH
Jose Miranda hit a two-run homer in the third to put the Miracle up 2-0. The Cardinals got one back in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly, but got no closer. Fort Myers got a sacrifice fly of its own in the sixth for an insurance run.
Alex Kirilloff was 5-for-5. Shane Carrier was 3-for-3 with two doubles. Miranda was 2-for-5 with a two-run homer.
Clark Beeker pitched 4.1 innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks, striking out four. Alex Phillips pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit and striking out two. Hector Lujan pitched a scoreless inning, giving up two hits. Adam Bray pitched a scoreless inning, giving up one hit.
Fort Myers wins the best-of-three series 2-0. They will play the winner of the Clearwater/Daytona series, which is tied 1-1.
CEDAR RAPIDS AT BELOIT
Rained out.
ELIZABETHTON 2, PRINCETON 1 IN ELIZABETHTON
Osmy Gregorio's RBI single in the third to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. delivered an RBI double in the fourth to tie it 1-1. In the eighth, Gilberto Celestino came through with another RBI double in the eighth to put the Twins up 2-1. Princeton went down in order in the ninth.
Celestino was 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.
Prelander Berroa pitched five innings, giving up one run on four hits and a walk and striking out four. Tyler Palm pitched four shutout innings, giving up two hits and striking out one.
Elizabethton wins the best-of-three series 2-0 and wins the Appalachian League Championship!
TODAY'S TILT
6:00 Cedar Rapids (Jhoan Duran) at Beloit
The coach(?) on the right is extremely thrilled with the championship.
Is that an odd pitching strategy for Elizabethton? Your starter goes 5 innings, then you ride the reliever for the remaining 4 in a one-run game with the championship on the line? Or was this a "Starter/Primary" kind of thing?
I don't know a lot of details about their strategy, so I'll tell you the things I can. Berroa spent most of the season in the GCL. He was a starter, but he had not thrown more than five innings in a game all season. Palm was a starter all season but had only thrown more than five innings once all season. milb.com doesn't give pitch counts in rookie ball for some reason, so I don't know what those might have been. But it's not unusual starters in rookie ball to only go four or five innings.
It's more the 4 innings of relief I'm wondering about. You'd figure with so much on the line, you'd be a lot more tempted to dig into your bullpen. Unless that would just make things worse?
I'm just guessing, but Palm, though normally a starter, probably wasn't going to start in this series (just a best-of-three), so he was available for the bullpen. And when he was pitching well, they probably saw no reason to take him out, knowing he could handle pitching four innings.
I mean, hey, it worked. I just think I'd have an itchier trigger finger in that situation.
6th: 2 out double, then strikeout
7th: lead off hit, erased by double play.
8th: 3 up, 3 down
9th: 3 up, 3 down
All right then.
The photo is adorable!
when did Greekhouse (far left in the photo) become a coach for E-town?
not in uniform? that's a trainer or something
powerlifting coach?