Cannonballs coming: Mitch Keller bounces back

— Erich Weiss hit a walkoff, two-run double with two outs in the ninth to give Indianapolis (13-11) a 3-2 win over Gwinnett. The Indians got a strong start from Casey Sadler, who’d been struggling badly. Sadler threw five shutout innings, allowing four hits and a walk. He struck out two. Sadler left with a 1-0 lead, but A.J. Schugel gave up two runs in the sixth. Prior to Weiss’ hit, the Indians blew all sorts of scoring opportunities, failing to plate a run in innings in which they had bases loaded and no out, a runner on third and one out, and second and third and one out.

Kevin Newman: 2-4
Austin Meadows: 1-3
Jordan Luplow: 1-2, 3B, BB
Chris Bostick: 0-3
Jacob Stallings: 1-4
Kevin Kramer, Jose Osuna: 0-1 each as pinch hitters
Bo Schultz: 2 IP, H, BB, 2 K
Josh Smoker: IP, K

— Mitch Keller recovered from a bad outing in Altoona’s (13-10) 5-2 win over Erie. Keller threw six shutout innings before giving up two runs in the seventh. He allowed just four hits and two walks, and fanned six, while throwing 58 of 88 pitches for strikes. Altoona got home runs from Jason Martin, his second, and Logan Hill, his third. Martin finished 1-3 with a walk and Hill 2-4. Jesus Liranzo threw a scoreless ninth for the save. In six games as a Pirate, he’s allowed no runs, four hits and a walk in six and two-thirds innings, with 11 Ks.

Cole Tucker: 0-2, 2 BB
Ke’Bryan Hayes: 2-4
Will Craig: 0-2, 2 HBP
Stephen Alemais: 1-3
Christian Kelley: 2-4

— Bradenton (16-11) blanked Dunedin, 2-0. Eduardo Vera needed only 81 pitches to go seven innings. He gave up just three hits, walked none and struck out three. Angel German and Jordan Jess each threw an inning to finish. All the offense in the game came on a two-run home run by Bligh Madris, his fourth longball. He finished 2-3 with a walk.

Adrian Valerio: 1-4
Jared Oliva: 0-3

— West Virginia (15-12) beat Augusta, 8-7, in 15 innings. The Power took a 4-2 lead into the ninth, but Blake Weiman gave up a two-run HR that tied the score. The idiotic runner-on-second rule obviously worked like a charm, helping extend the game for numerous extra innings as the teams focused on self-defeating, one-run strategies. (The game log reads like a compendium of bad baseball.) Kyle Watson finally won it with a walkoff single. Ike Schlabach had a good start, allowing two runs, one earned, in six innings. He gave up five hits and a walk, and struck out five, but hurt his own cause by committing two errors. The Power committed five errors in the game; they’ve averaged two per game and lead the South Atlantic League in errors by nine. Joel Cesar did a good job in extra innings, allowing just two phony (and unearned) runs in four innings on a hit and two walks, with three strikeouts. Of course, he was helped by many misguided bunts. Outfielder Ryan Peurifoy threw a scoreless 15th inning for the win, helped by a runner being thrown out at the plate. West Virginia hitters fanned 21 times in the game. Most of the Power’s offense before the extra-inning foolishness started came from longballs, as Rodolfo Castro hit his third (he also whiffed four times), Chris Sharpe his second and Oneil Cruz his fifth. Cruz, who also drew two intentional walks, is now batting 228/336/467, which is pretty good for a player in full season ball who won’t turn 20 until after the season. He also has a rather disturbing photo at MiLB.com.

Lolo Sanchez: 2-7, 3 runs, 3 Ks
Cal Mitchell: 1-7
Deon Stafford: 1-6, 2B
Mason Martin: 1-4