Picture by Todd Johnson

Yesterday was fun getting to go see South Bend play in the Quad cities. Weather permitting I’ll be back there again tomorrow. Tonight, it was good to get back in the swing of things and watch baseball from the comfort of my nice warm chair rather than sitting in 52° temperatures .

The night started off great as Iowa won a day game as Caleb Kilian went four innings throwing 72 pitches, 45 for strikes. He struck out four, walked two, and gave up three hits. Kilian wound up as an honorable mention for Starting Pitcher of the Day. Still, you have to believe every start and every inning progression is an inning closer to Chicago at some point in June or July. Currently, Killian has a 1.72 ERA for the year over 15.2 innings.

The Myrtle Beach Pelicans celebrated having MiLB.TV back with a doubleheader sweep of the Columbia Fireflies. José Miguel Gonzalez pitched three scoreless Innings in relief and struck out four and he would earn our honorable mention Reliever of the day. Pete Crow Armstrong, also of Myrtle Beach, would go 4-for-7 and got honorable mention for Hitter of the Day.

Web Gem of the Day

Before we get to today’s big awards, let’s break out a new feature for our Player of the Day series. Today, we’re going to go with the web gem of the day. Cam Sanders made a nice one on a comeback liner hit right to him, but Jacob Wetzel of Myrtle Beach made a diving catch to end the game for the Pelicans.

Hitter of the Day

The Hitter of the Day was pretty easy to pick as James Triantos went 5-for-6 with three RBIs and raised his average from .222 to . 283. That is one heck of a day and he is just now locked in. This might be a thing for a while.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Here’s a quote for you that sums up today’s award.

Best stuff we’ve seen from Luke Little so far this year. Hitters look lost up there after 3 innings. 6 strikeouts…1 automatic strikeout

Jimmy Nelligan

Reliever of the Day

This was the toughest award of the day but we are going with Eric Stout who struck out 3 in the ninth for Iowa to clinch the win and earn the save.

Guys Heating Up with Warmer Temps

Keep an eye on Chris Morel, Nelson Velazquez, Alexander Canario, and Juan Mora who have been very good this week. The first three have been punishing baseballs over the fence and I don’t expect them to stop anytime soon. Canario is really heating up. Like Triantos, Canario’s average is trending up quickly and is now .250. As for Mora, he came up last weekend and he picked up where he left off in the ACL last year, just hitting and walking. Hitting and walking.