Diamonds in the Rough 6.28

3-4 day by the Royals affiliates with plenty of disappointing pitching by some of their top prospects.  HR Roll Call Murray Watts (9) Patrick Leonard (6) Kenny Diekroeger 2(2,3) Henry Moreno (1) Fred Ford (1) Parker Morin (1) Diego Goris (1) 

Pine Tar Press Hitter of the Day Kenny Diekroeger 3-5 2 HR, 5 RBI, BB

Pine Tar Press Pitcher of the Day Yender Caramo 6 IP 7 H 2 ER 0 BB 4 K

New Orleans Zephyrs 12 Omaha Storm Chasers 1

An absolutely brutal start from the former #1 Royals prospect as Mike Montgomery continues to struggle at AAA.  Montgomery gave up 11 hits and 11 runs in just 1.1 innings as the lefty lost on counts he was down in, counts he was up in giving up bloops, line drives and a blast o get the quick hook and put his team to far to make a comeback from.

W: Villanueva (4-3, 4.13) L: Montgomery (3-5, 5.13)

Wilmington Blue Rocks 6 Lynchburg Hillcats 5

A late comeback by the Rocks bailed Jason Adam out of a loss to start the home series versus Lynchburg. Starter Jason Adam continued to fall victim to the longball giving up his 11th and 12th home runs of the season in just his 15th start.  On top of the two solo home runs Adam gave up six other his and 3 more runs in his 6.2 innings.  Jason’s offense which has let him down so many times this season had his back on this evening.  Down 5-2 back to back one out doubles by Roman Hernandez and Kevin David would quickly cut the lead to two runs.  Just a hitter later David would come home with a Geulin Beltre single, Beltre would move into scoring position on a error that allowed Angel Franco to reach.  Another Hillcats errors on Whit Merrifields RBI single would allow Franco to come home and give the Rocks the lead and eventually the win.

Vance Wilson’s thoughts on the new prospects in Wilmington and Jason Adam HR problems

W: Rogers (2-2, 1.93) L: Shreve (4-3, 1.42)
S: Runion (2)

Kane County Cougars 6 Burlington Bees 5

Starter Bryan Brickhouse had a tough 4th inning allowing a walk and four hits including a home run to give up four runs in the inning and finish his night.  The Texas right-hander finished the night allowing six hits, four runs, three walks while striking out four to keep his seasons ERA at 13.97 in his three starts.  The one bright spot so far for Brickhouse is that he continues to miss bats striking out over one per inning.  The offense overcame their pitchers struggles tying the game in the fifth and taking the lead and the win in the eighth with a Julio Aparicio 2 run single.

W: Culver (2-0, 5.27) L: Peters (0-1, 4.15)

Burlington Royals 14 Johnson City Cardinals 2

The struggling Royals offense exploded Thursday night punching out 14 runs on 14 hits.  Of those 14 hits, 5 left the yard including a pair by 2012 4th round pick Kenny Diekroeger.  All nine Burlington players in the starting lineup reached base with only Humberto Arteaga and Bubba Starling not reaching via a hit.  Diekroeger and first baseman Henry Moreno had the biggest impacts on the game each collecting three hits while the pair drove in nine runs, four of those runs came courtesy of Diekroeger’s third inning grand slam.  Third baseman Patrick Leonard had just one hit on the evening but as usual it left the yard, that is six home runs out of ten hits for the 19 year old slugging 2011 5th rounder.

Orem Owlz 5 Idaho Falls Chukars 3

Back to back 2 run innings from Orem did in the Chukars Thursday evening.  Starter Spencer Patton gave up all four runs allowed in that time giving up 5 hits and a pair of walks before being lifted for reliever David Middenorf.  The Chukars would try a late rally scoring a pair of runs in the top of the ninth but would come up short.

W: Santiago (1-1, 6.23) L: Patton (0-1, 5.00)
S: Morin (1)