Orioles minor league recap 4/13: Holliday leads Delmarva to big win

It was a mixed bag of outcomes down on the Orioles farm, but the Shorebirds lineup stood out and the Baysox pitching staff was stellar

Triple-A: Nashville Sounds (Brewers) 8, Norfolk Tides 6

Chris Vallimont may be pitching himself back into 40-man consideration based on his early-season results. He started in this game, going four innings and allowing just one run on two hits, one walk, and seven strikeouts. The one run scored on a solo homer.

After Joey Krehbiel tossed his fourth scoreless inning of the season, Ryan Watson came on and things fell apart. Over 2.1 innings the big righty served up seven runs (six earned) on seven hits, two walks, one strikeout, and two home runs. Morgan McSweeney entered midway through the eighth inning to mop up a bit, but didn’t look great, allowing two walks although he did not give up any of his own runs.

Colton Cowser had himself a nice night atop the lineup with two hits, a triple, a walk, two runs scored, and an RBI. Jordan Westburg and Lewin Díaz both hit two-run homers. Hudson Haskin was 2-for-3 with a walk, a run scored, and two stolen bases. Kyle Stowers went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

Double-A: Bowie Baysox 2, Akron RubberDucks (Guardians) 1

All of Bowie’s scoring came in the second inning. César Prieto and Shayne Fontanta singled ahead of John Rhodes, who then doubled to right field to score them both and give the home team a 2-0 lead. The lineup had just two hits the rest of the game, but it would prove to be enough. Heston Kjerstad was 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Coby Mayo took an 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

Luckily, the Baysox pitchers had a great night. Chayce McDermott, one piece in the Trey Mancini deal, tossed five scoreless frames as the starter. He allowed just thee hits and walked two while striking out six. Carlos Tavera nabbed a three-inning hold, allowing one run and striking out three. And Nolan Hoffman earned the save with a clean ninth.

High-A: Hudson Valley Renegades 12 (Yankees), Aberdeen IronBirds 5

It was a rough night overall for the IronBirds. The team used three different pitchers and each of them had struggles. The starter, Daniel Lloyd, gave up four runs and two homers across four innings. Cooper Chandler took the loss by giving up seven runs (five earned) in just two innings. And Carson Carter went two innings as well, but gave up just one run. The group was not helped by the defense, which made three errors behind them.

There were some positives on offense. Jud Fabian was 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI from the leadoff spot. Dylan Beavers hit his first homer of the year. Adam Retzbach had a pair of hits and two RBI. And first baseman Ryan Higgins walked twice and drove in a run.

Low-A: Delmarva Shorebirds 12, Kannapolis Cannon Ballers (White Sox) 2

Delmarva had the most dominant showing of the night, moving to 4-1 on the new season. Every member of the lineup got on base at least once, and some did far better than that. And the pitching staff worked around some early struggles to shut Kannapolis down the rest of the way.

Jackson Holliday started at second base and led the offense. He went 2-for-4 with a double, a triple, a walk, four RBI, and two runs scored. Carter Young did a heck of a job setting the table in front of him with a hit, two walks, two runs scored, and three RBI. Samuel Basallo also had a nice game with three hits, including a double, and two RBI.

Deivy Cruz showed a live but wild arm in his 1.2 innings. The 19-year-old struck out five but also walked three and served up two runs on four hits. Edgar Portes provided needed length, tossing 3.1 hitless innings. Luis Sanchez, Hugo Beltran, and Alejandro Mendez then combined for four more scoreless innings to wrap up the Shorebirds win.

Box Scores

Thursday’s Schedule

• Norfolk: at Nashville, 7:35. SP: Bruce Zimmermann (0-0, 3.86 ERA)
• Bowie: vs Akron, 6:35. SP: Houston Roth (0-0, 4.50 ERA)
• Aberdeen: at Hudson Valley, 6:05, SP: TBD
• Delmarva: vs Kannapolis, 7:05., SP: Juan Nunez (0-0, 10.13 ERA)