Porter Hodge – Picture by Stephanie Lynn

To be quite frank, it was weird being home for the night after being at the ballpark twice this week. I had one eye on the draft and the other on the MiLB slate of games. I did spend most of the night watching Myrtle Beach as I wanted to get some more looks of my guy, Porter Hodge, whom I profiled yesterday morning.

Hodge looked great with 5 scoreless frames, he mixed his pitches well, and his slider is looking like it could be something as he throws it more and gets a better feel for it. Hodge only allowed 2 hits and struck out six thus earning him Starting Pitcher of the Day honors. Hodge ended the month with a 1.56 ERA which will put him on Sunday’s monthly All-Star team. That’s a pretty good start for the year for the 21-year-old.

In addition, Hodge also gets the Web Gem of the Day!

It was a strange one as the ball deflected off of Hodge to first baseman BJ Murray who then flipped it to Hodge who hustled over to cover first for the final out of the inning.

As for the Hitter of the Day, both Pete Crow-Armstrong and Bryce Ball had identical stat lines at 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and a HR. So, we decided to go with both in our first tie of the year. Don’t worry, there will be more.

Things were a bit tougher when it came to Reliever of the Day. Luis Rodriguez put together a nice 3 inning run again and lowered his season ERA to 0.84. He struck out 5 but also walked three. He is going to be today’s runner up.

South Bend’s Nicholas Padilla, who has yet to allow a run this year, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for South Bend and struck out everyone to earn the Reliever of the Day Award for today.

Make sure and check out all of our players of the day for April right here!