Avalanche Continues its Roll

AAA: Albequerque 11, Round Rock 0 (Sat); Albuquerque 7, Round Rock 6 (Sun)
On Saturday, both Matt Albers and Mike Gallo were rocked, while Isotopes starter Jeff Fulchino mowed the Express down like a lineup of Ausmuses and Everetts. On Sunday, an error by LF Eric Bruntlett opened the door for four unearned runs as the Express blew a late 5-3 lead. Cody Ransom was 3-4 with a home run for the Express. Taylor Buchholz was marginally effective over five inning of work.

AA: Midland 2, Corpus Christi 1 (Sat); Midland 8, Corpus Christi 7 (Sun)
A pair of heart-wrenching defeats for the Hooks, who have fallen 3.5 games out of first place in the second half race. On Saturday, the RockHounds were able to muster a two-run homer off Troy Patton, but Kevin Olsen threw a complete-game four-hitter to make it stand up. Hunter Pence drove in the Hooks' only run with a double. On Sunday, the Hooks rallied from three runs down to tie the game in the eighth inning, only to lose it in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single. The ever-clutch Marc Saccamanno tied the game in the eighth with a three-run home run and drove in a total of five runs on the night. Tike Redman was 3-4 with a home run.

High A: Salem 7, Winston-Salem 0 (Sat); Salem 7, Winston-Salem 1 (Sun)
The Avalanche has now won twelve games in a row. Jimmy Barthmaier continued his emergence on Saturday night with nine strikeouts over seven shutout innings. The offense supported him with 15 hits, including three from Edwin Maysonet, who also hit his eighth home run. Barthmaier has now won the last six times he has toed the rubber and shut WS out for the second straight start. He is now 5-0 in August with a 1.15 ERA. Rory Shortell followed up nicely on Sunday, allowing only one run over seven innings. Frankie Caraballo homered, and the Avalanche pounded out ten hits, including a pair of doubles from Beau Torbert.

Low A: West Virginia 3, Lexington 1 (Sat); West Virginia 4, Lexington 0 (Sun)
Brian Bogusevic continues his slow but steady climb back up the ranks of the Astros pitching depth chart, this time allowing six hits and two runs over five innings (with six K's). Two hits for Eli Iorg. Another meager offensive output on Sunday for the Legends, except for Iorg (again) who was 2-4 with a triple.

Short Season A: Tri-City 5, Vermont 3 (Sat); Sunday - Rained Out
Bud Norris was spectacular on Saturday in just his third start of the season, allowing only two hits and striking out 13 batters over five innings. Casey Hudspeth backed him up with four good relief innings. Greg Buchanan was 3-5 with his second home run to lead the offensive attack.

Rookie: Greenville 4, Kingsport 1 (Sat); Greenville 6, Kingsport 0 (Sun)
Very good start from big lefty Thomas Vessella on Saturday. 2B Ronald Ramirez was the hitting start with three hits, including his third home run of the season. Sergio Severino was the star on Sunday, striking out eight over six shutout innings to win his sixth game and drop his ERA to 2.90. Sergio has now struck out 59 batters in his last 34.2 innings of work and 80 in 53.1 innings overall on the season.

Zobrist/Talbot Watch: Mitch Talbot pitches tonight against the Birmingham Barons. Ben Zobrist was 1-5 on Sunday hitting in the leadoff spot and 2-5 with a double on Sunday batting eighth. BZ now has a six-game hitting streak and has hits in nine of his last ten games, though he has still registered only four multi-hit games in 25 games and still has a surprising four walks in 93 ABs. Aubrey Huff registered yet another DNP on Saturday with LHP Zach Duke on the mound and went 2-4 with a pair of singles and two RBI on Sunday.