Cannonballs coming: Big days for Tyler Eppler and Bradenton offense

Cody Bolton’s debut with West Virginia got washed out.

— Tyler Eppler threw six shutout innings as Indianapolis (24-20) beat Louisville, 4-0. Eppler allowed seven runs his last time out, but in this game he gave up just four hits, walked none and fanned nine. Max Moroff went 3-4, Eric Wood hit two doubles and Jordan Luplow went 2-4 with a double.

Kevin Newman: 1-4
Kevin Kramer: 0-4 (5-for-42 in last ten games)
Josh Smoker: 1.2 IP

— Altoona’s (21-21) anemic offense continued to sputter in a 5-2 loss to Bowie. The Bowie starter, Lucas Long, is an overage non-prospect who came in with below-average numbers, but the Curve did little beyond killing the few remaining blades of grass in the Bowie infield. Amid a long succession of weak grounders, the Curve had only six hits, including Ke’Bryan Hayes’ second home run off a reliever in the 9th. Cole Tucker was 2-4.

Dario Agrazal started for Altoona and lasted only four innings. Agrazal was throwing in the mid-90s last year, but in this game he threw 90-93. Unlike Pedro Vasquez in the previous game, he moved the ball around, but his command was just fair and he got into some deep counts. He also threw a slider and change, neither of which is a swing-and-miss pitch, so he struggled to put hitters away. As is the rule with the Pirates, Agrazal started off throwing mostly fastballs and got hit hard early, although the only damage was a laser off the right field foul pole in the first. He was more effective once he started going to his secondary pitches early in the count, but he eventually got hit around for three runs in the fourth. He finished with four runs allowed, three earned, on six hits and two walks. He struck out just one.

Jason Martin: 0-4
Will Craig: 1-4
Stephen Alemais: 0-2

— Bradenton (25-20) broke out for 18 hits in a 12-3 thrashing of Jupiter. Jared Oliva led the offense, going 4-5 with his fifth home run, two steals, three runs and three RBIs. He’s now batting 342/412/632 in May. Jason Delay was 3-5 with two doubles, and Tyler Gaffney had two triples and three RBIs. Luis Escobar gave up two runs on four hits over six innings. He walked three and struck out six.

Adrian Valerio: 2-4
Lucas Tancas: 2-4, 2B