Luke Little – Picture by Larry Kave/Myrtle Beach Pelicans

Tonight was about as good as it gets!

All four affiliates were involved in exciting games.

Let’s get right to the awards

Dinger of the Day.

Kevin Made almost blasted a home run to the moon. For this amazing homerun, Made will get the Dinger of the Day. It was a mammoth shot!

The day began with the Tennessee Smokies finishing yesterday’s suspended game. The Smokies gave up four runs in the first inning that was played today, which was the fifth in the game. They would come back in the seventh inning and score 10 runs to take the lead. That was punctuated by a three-run jack from Canario. They would go on to win 11 to 7.

Web Gem of the Day

In the nightcap, the Smokies also won highlighted by the Defensive Gem of the Day by Cam Balego.

South Bend continued building up their stats against Peoria this week. Pete Crow-Armstrong started things off with a double and then later came around to score as South Bend put the game away in the first inning scoring six runs. Kohl Franklin came out and dealt tonight. He went five innings and threw a nice 69 stress free pitches and he struck out six. Unfortunately for Kohl, he did not win pitcher of the day, but he is today’s runner-up. And it was a most encouraging start. Here is some video of him whiffing four guys in a row.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Luke Little was fantastic for Myrtle Beach tonight. He was throwing in the mid-to-upper 90s and he did his usual three inning start. The Cubs are trying to build that arm back up after missing almost all of 2021. Little did not allow a hit on the night and he struck out six batters in what was his best start of the year. For that, he is today’s Starting Pitcher of the Day.

Hitter of the Day

Figuring out who the Hitter of the Day was was a little bit rougher. Six South Bend players had two or more hits and four Smokies did in the opening game. Yohendrick Pinango had a three hit night for South Bend as did Pablo Aliendo. Alexander Canario went 2-for-7 in a doubleheader. BUt those two hits drove in 4 RBI as they were both dingers. Canario, though, gets the runner up today.

Tennessee’s Yonathan Perlaza went 4-for-7 between the two games and drove in three and he is going to be today’s Hitter of the Day. I’m pretty happy that Perlaza gets it because he went through a little slump about a week ago and he seems to have come out the other side.

Reliever of the Day

When it comes to the reliever of the night, Max Bain is getting his first reliever award. Now that he’s moved to the bullpen, Bain came in tonight in a tough spot in the fifth inning after Biloxi just scored five runs. Bain got out of the inning and wound up going 2.1 innings to keep the Smokies within reach. He left the game after the top of the seventh and then the Smokies scored 10 runs making him the winning pitcher.