It was a beautiful spring day for baseball on Saturday, but the Atlanta Braves affiliates didn’t have a ton of fun as they dropped three of four games. Hurston Waldrep struggled down in Mississippi, but there were still a handful of exciting performances. Owen Murphy and Adam Maier both made their second starts of the season, and both put up solid performances.
(7-7) Gwinnett Stripers 6, (9-5) Omaha Storm Chasers 13
- JP Martinez, CF: 1-3, BB, HBP, .347/.429/.592
- Luke Waddell, SS: 1-4, RBI, .229/.288/.333
- Luke Williams, LF: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, .244/.304/.439
- Brian Moran, SP: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 3.52 ERA
- Daysbel Hernandez, RP: 2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 4.50 ERA
Omaha’s continued offensive dominance was too much for Gwinnett once again, and the loss on Saturday ensures the Stripers will lose the series. Gwinnett found themselves down 6-0 before even making a scratch in the run column, with Brian Moran struggling in his role as an opener and allowing two runs in the first inning. Daniel Martinez, fresh up from Rome, came in to provide some bulk but struggled with his control and only threw 38 of his 78 pitches for strikes. He allowed three runs through three innings of work, but the Stripers bats found life in the top of the fifth inning. Sebastian Rivero led off in the inning with a base hit and Gwinnett went off to the races, striking together six hits in the inning. A David Fletcher double opened up the scoring by chasing home Rivero and JP Martinez, and Leury Garcia’s double saw the Striper’s deficit cut to three runs with still just one out in the inning. Luke Waddell drove home Garcia with an RBI single, and Luke Williams provided the big blast of the inning as he took an 0-2 pitch and deposited on the berm in left-center field for a game-tying home run.
Gwinnett had new life in the inning, but they ultimately only put up any fuss at the plate in that fifth inning with no other runs scored in the game. Omaha immediately stormed back out in front by responding with four runs in the bottom of the fifth and the Stripers never really provided a serious threat to come back. Gwinnett struggled on defense committing four errors, and allowed seven walks in the game. JP Martinez hasn’t yet found the power after hitting home runs in his first two games, but has been Gwinnett’s most consistent offensive threat. He has hit safely now in 11 of his 12 games played.
(3-5) Mississippi Braves 1, (4-4) Biloxi Shuckers 6
- Nacho Alvarez, SS: 1-3, BB, SB, .269/.441/.308
- Drake Baldwin, C: 1-4, .250/.276/.250
- Cody Milligan, CF: 1-4, .280/.367/.360
- Hurston Waldrep, SP: 4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 12.86 ERA
Mississippi’s offense couldn’t muster a challenge to the Shuckers, who took a first inning lead and never looked back on their way to victory. Hurston Waldrep has struggled in both of his starts this season, and although he did walk four batters in the game it was mostly early contact that forced runs home. Waldrep allowed three hits and three runs through his first 1 1⁄3 innings, but over his final three Biloxi managed only one more hit. He grinded through a rough outing to keep the game manageable while he was on the mound, but the support from the offense wasn’t coming and he ultimately took the loss.
Mississippi did have chances to make an impact offensively as they had nine hits in the game, but they went just 1-7 with runners in scoring position and didn’t have an extra base hit in the game. The Braves as a whole have by far the least power production in the league this season with a team ISO of .036. Nacho Alvarez had been quiet this series and failed to reach base in his prior two games, but he drew a walk and had a base hit in this game and has been by far the team’s biggest bright spot offensively. Alvarez’s eight walks leads the Southern League and his .441 on base percentage ranks sixth. He has been running with a bit more frequency early this season as well, and is 3 for 3 on stolen base attempts adding his third in this game. Bryson Horne drove in the Braves lone run, singling to bring home Tyler Tolve in the second inning.
on Valley Renegades 3
- Kevin Kilpatrick Jr., CF: 1-3, BB, .333/.455/.389
- Sabin Ceballos, 3B: 2-4, 2B, .250/.400/.300
- Ambioris Tavarez, SS: 1-4, 2B, .136/.174/.182
- Owen Murphy, SP: 5.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K, 0.75 ERA
- Jared Johnson, RP: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Owen Murphy had another solid outing for Rome, but his position players let him and the rest of the pitching staff down with four errors and no runs scored in a loss. Murphy wasn’t at his best with three walks across 5 1⁄3 innings, though these walks all came later in the outing and his earliest struggle was from the bats of the Renegades. An RBI triple in the top of the first inning accounted for the first run against Murphy, but after this he hit a groove and rattled off six straight strikeouts of Hudson Valley. The Renegades didn’t get another baserunner until a fourth inning base hit, and Murphy would get out of the inning unscathed and still holding that one run lead. A walk in the fifth inning didn’t hurt Murphy, but the defense did in the sixth leading to an unearned run against him. First Stephen Paolini allowed a one out base hit to get past him in left field, allowing the runner to advance two bases on the error and set up Hudson Valley in a dangerous spot. Murphy walked the next batter and was pulled from the game for Samuel Strickland. Strickland forced a grounder over to shortstop on the first pitch he threw, but the potential inning-ending double play ball took a hop that Ambioris Tavarez couldn’t play and the ball bounced off of his leg and into the outfield to score an unearned run. Strickland ultimately escaped the inning with no further damage, but was himself hurt by errors in the eighth inning. Sabin Ceballos was shifted far off of third base, and on a stolen base attempt Dawson Dimon put the throw too far down the line and chucked it into left field allowing the runner to come home and score the final Hudson Valley run.
It is never good to have as many errors as hits, but the Rome offense can lay claim to that feat along with 14 strikeouts in this game. Ambioris Tavarez has been brutal at the plate to start the season, but in the second inning he was the player who provided Rome’s only extra base hit in the game. Tavarez got a fastball out over the plate and crushed it, hitting it off of the right center field wall for a two out double. He would not score, and later in the game added to his strikeout total with two more bringing him to 13 in 23 games. Justin Janas had the best game offensively, being the only player with multiple hits to his name. Kevin Kilpatrick Jr. is the only player in the lineup with an OPS over .800, but his struggled at the top of the lineup really set the tone for the rest of the offense. He did draw a walk to extend his on base streak to five to start the year, but he struck out in his other three plate appearances.
(4-4) Augusta GreenJackets 6, (4-4) Kannapolis Cannon Ballers 0
- Isaiah Drake, CF: 0-4, BB, .080/.172/.080
- Diego Benitez, DH: 0-3, BB, RBI, .273/.360/.364
- Kade Kern, RF: 3-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI, .235/.300/.471
- Adam Maier, SP: 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 2.00 ERA
- Mitch Farris, RP: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K, 3.52 ERA
We do have one good game (from the Braves perspective) to talk about, and that is the dominance of Adam Maier and the Augusta GreenJackets. Maier has been brilliant in two starts for the GreenJackets, and now has eight consecutive scoreless innings under his belt with 11 strikeouts to only one walk. Maier racked up six strikeouts across five scoreless innings in this one, but it was his staff mate Mitch Farris who had the more ridiculous outing. Farris struck out seven batters over four innings of work, getting 15 whiffs on just 27 swings from Cannon Ballers hitters. This adds on to his performance in his first game of the season when he had 13 whiffs on 33 swings. Farris is an older prospect who should be ready for High-A by this point, but has been an intriguing grab for the Braves in the fourth round last season. Back to Maier, it was fair to assume he would struggle with rust early in the season, but generally he has seemed to be well-prepared to handle his job through two starts. In the opener Columbia managed to get good wood on his fastball in the first inning, but since then he has been forcing weak contact and strikeouts and overall seems to be in a good place for someone who hasn’t pitched competitively in two years.
Kade Kern finally did it, breaking through with a solo home run in the third inning. This marked the first long ball for the lower three levels this season, as through the 19 games coming into action Saturday no player had managed to go deep. Kern gave the GreenJackets a lead in the third inning with that and they led the rest of the way and puled up six runs. Kern was in the middle of a couple of these rallies, including driving home a run on a base hit in the fifth inning and having a double in the ninth that put two runners in scoring position where a groundout would score the sixth run of the game. Leiker Figueroa had a triple and notched two hits in the game, his first multi-hit game of the season. The 19 year old Figueroa had three awful games to start the season with seven strikeouts in ten at bats, but has been a contributor this series with four hits and only two strikeouts over his past three games. Isaiah Drake has not managed to be a contributor, however, as he added a four strikeout game to his register and now has 14 strikeouts in 29 plate appearances in 2024.
