Cole Roederer – Pic by Micah Manuel

The heat and humidity of summer is beginning to take its toll on me. After going to Beloit four nights in a row, I’m ready for a break. It’s been fun photographing the team and doing a couple of interviews for some articles next week, but the weather is draining me. With nothing on the docket after Monday’s game, other than the draft here at home, I am going to be glad not to have to deal with this crazy weather for a while.

Let’s get to today’s action.

They were only three games tonight as the Iowa Cubs were rained out. Tennessee had a rain delay, but South Bend and Beloit played straight the rain tonight. Iowa will play a doubleheader tomorrow.

Rising Prospect of the Day

Jefferson Rojas has not skipped a beat after Moises Ballesteros and Felix Stevens left. Tonight, Rojas, hitting from the number three spot, went one for four with three RBI, a walk, and two runs. That was half of Myrtle Beach’s run total in their 6-3 win over Charleston. Juan Mora also had two hits and two RBI while Miguel Pabon had two hits. 

Starting Pitcher of the Day

This goes out to Nick Hull of Myrtle Beach. The Grand Canyon product went six innings and only allowed three base runners. He gave up two hits and a walk while striking out seven. He did not allow any runs as he easily dominated the RiverDogs. Hull threw 80 pitches, 49 for strikes. And he got five ground outs to fly out on the day.

As for South Bend, they had to play in a drizzle of light rain that was just enough to be annoying and have to move under the dugout roof for me to take pictures. The Cubs got on the board in the second inning on a Yohendrick Pinango home run. I got that picture just as he hit the ball in the rain.

Some misplays in the bottom of that inning resulted in a Beloit sending several guys to the plate that they probably would not have. As a result, a three run homer put Beloit up 3 to 1 and they would tack on one more that inning to make it 4 to 1.

But that was not the end of the game at South Bend fought back. An Ed Howard (he went 3-for-5 on the night) single made it 4-2 but Beloit tacked on another one in the bottom of the inning to make it 5 to 2. Every time South Bend answered, Beloit countered. 

Beloit took a bigger lead in the seventh 6 to 3. A second Yohendrick Pinango homer brought the score to 6-4. South Bend scored again in the top of the ninth to pull within one, but the game ended with the bases loaded on a fly out to left field.

Dinger of the Day

Grand Slams usually get the Dinger of the Day and this one did today.

A Crazy Game

When I get home from Beloit, I was tired and I kept checking Gameday and a couple Twitter feeds  from my friends to see what was happening in the Tennessee game. The third inning through the seventh inning was just like watching a pinball game. A Cole Roederer home run was part of a six-run fourth for Tennessee only to see Chattanooga score 4 to pull within one in the bottom of the inning. Each team scored two in the fifth and then Chattanooga tacked on one in the sixth and two more in the seventh to take a 10 to 8 lead.

Hitter of the Day

Cole Roederer then smacked his second homer in the top of the eighth to give Tennessee a lead. So, let’s see. 4 + 3 = 7. Yes, Cole had 7 RBI on the night!!! Those final three runs held up as Tennessee won 11-10 as Danis Correa nailed the save.

Baserunner of the Day

This is from the aforementioned crazy game and it’s a crazy game and PCA displayed some crazy energy when he scored.