Sunday 9-9-12 Minor-League Updates

[mace]

After winning Game 1 of the California League playoffs Saturday night, 5-4, Bakersfield leads 4-2 in the third inning of Game 2. It's the semifinal round, best of 5.

Danny Vicioso hit a 2-run HR for the Blaze in a 4-run second inning. Tim Crabbe has the ball.

[mace]

Blaze lead 8-4 after eight. Safe to say, the game should be a little more secure, considering that Bakersfield has outhit Modesto 17-4. Dominic D'Anna has three. Vicioso and Ryan Wright both have two with a HR.

Tim Crabbe went 6.2 innings. Brackman got one out and walked two. Michael Dennhardt worked a scoreless top of the eighth.

[mace]

Dennhardt closes and Bakersfield wins 8-5 to go up 2 games to 0. If the Blaze win tomorrow night in Modesto, they'll advance to the California League finals.

[lollipopcurve]

Good for the Blaze. It's not a high profile group out there, and Bakersfield is a Siberia, so being the only affiliate to make a postseason run has to count as some kind of vindication. Would be great to see them get to the finals.

[mace]

Ostensibly, you'd think this club would be an extension of the group that tore it up at Dayton last year; but that's not really the case. The mainstays of that gang were the likes of Hamilton, Torreyes, Lutz, Barnhart, Vidal, Corcino, Josh Smith, Daniel Renken, Kyle Lotzkar and Drew Hayes. There are a few holdovers who have contributed quite a bit: Smith, Renken, Stalin Gerson (who pitches tonight), Theo Bowe, Juan Duran, Dominic D'Anna, Jamie Walczak, Daniel Wolford, et al. Chad Rogers was there the whole first half, anchoring the rotation when the Blaze qualified for the playoffs. But most of the big guns are long gone. So, hats off to these guys.