Matt Morris Report: Dovydas Neverauskas turns things around

Bradenton was off.

-- Indianapolis scored a run in the 8th to tie its game with Louisville, then won, 2-1, on a two-out, walk-off single in the 9th by Gorkys Hernandez.  The hit capped a 3-4 day for Hernandez.  Pedro Florimon was 2-4 and Alen Hanson 1-4.  Elias Diaz was 0-4, dropping his average to .203.  Wilfredo Boscan allowed one run on five hits and three walks in six innings.  He struck out four.  Deolis Guerra retired all six batters he faced, fanning three.  John Holdzkom showed some signs of turning things around, throwing 12 of 15 pitches for strikes in a perfect 9th.  He struck out one.

-- Altoona blew a three-run lead in the 9th but still beat Akron, 6-5, in ten innings.  Starter Chad Kuhl allowed two runs on five hits and two walks in six innings.  He struck out four.  John Kuchno followed with two scoreless innings, but gave up three in the 9th on a series of groundball hits.  Altoona got a run on a wild pitch in the top of the 10th and Kuchno threw a scoreless bottom half.  Josh Bell was 2-4, raising his average to .352, but his ISO is only .099.  Willy Garcia was 2-5.  Max Moroff was 0-4 but still scored twice.

-- After struggling through his first three starts, Dovydas Neverauskas (pictured) threw five scoreless innings as West Virginia shut out Hagerstown, 4-0.  Neverauskas gave up just two hits, one on a bad-hop grounder and the other on an error that was incorrectly scored a hit.  He walked two and fanned three.  Yeudy Garcia struck out three in three scoreless innings of relief, and Montana DuRapau fanned two in a perfect 9th.  Seven Power hitters had one hit apiece, including Michael Suchy's first HR.  Individual notes:

Neverauskas -- He no longer throws 95, as he once did.  Possibly that's due to him having to get through more innings as a starter.  In this game he sat at 89-91, not missing many bats but allowing almost nothing to be hit in the air.  He gets good extension and throws downhill.  His command faltered briefly a few times, but mostly it was good, which was an about-face from his first few starts.

Garcia -- He throws mostly 91-93 and is quick to the plate.  He got a lot of swings and misses just with the fastball and showed a decent slider.

Jordan Luplow -- After looking thoroughly befuddled against mediocre pitching last night, he looked much better against more mediocre pitching tonight.  (The Power hitters teed off on the Suns' starter for the first couple innings, but several hard-hit balls were caught.)  Luplow had only a groundball single, but he hit two long drives to right that were caught.

Pablo Reyes -- He continued to show surprising pop, lining a double over the left fielder's head.  He made a nice catch on a pop fly well down the right field line.

Suchy -- His HR was a line drive that cleared the fence in center.  He's built like a linebacker and has obvious raw power, but he hasn't made enough hard contact.

Taylor Gushue -- He had an RBI single in the first on a grounder up the middle, but still didn't seem to be picking up pitches well.  He caught the only base stealer with a good, accurate throw.

Cole Tucker didn't play.  He may have had a stiff neck or something from a minor pileup when he was thrown out stealing yesterday.  He looked fine before the game.