8/15/16 Recap: Alvarez puts on Olympic performance and Zangari pours on the power

Charlotte 8, Gwinnett 4
Jerry Sands launched his third home run in his past five games to lead the Knights to a half game out of first place. Starter Kameron Loe went 5.2 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits and four walks. Loe earned to win thanks to a barrage of offensive support. Leury Garcia went 3-4 with a home run and a walk and Jake Peter went 2-4 with a double and a stolen base.
The Charlotte bullpen was excellent in relief, as Will Lamb tossed 2.2 scoreless innings and Matt Purke finished the game with a 1-2-3 innings and two strikeouts.
Chris Volstad will get the start on Wednesday and has the opportunity to guide the Knights into first place in the International League Southern Division with a win.
Chattanooga 5, Birmingham 2
Former Olympian Eddy Alvarez was the recipient of a fun prank on Tuesday night. His teammates arranged that the Olympic theme song be played before each one of his at bats. Alvarez loved it and responded with a perfect 5-5 night with a double. Alvarez’s big night boosted his batting line for the month of August to .420/.524/.580. Rehabbing Brett Lawrie added two hits in the losing effort, as the Barons went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
Nolan Sanburn got the start and pitched well, only allowing one run over four innings. Matt Cooper bounced back from a poor appearance and tossed two scoreless innings with two strikeouts.
The Barons will try to rebound as the start a new series against the Jackson Generals on Wednesday. The Barons starter is TBA at this time.
Myrtle Beach 5, Winston-Salem 1
Mason Robbins had three hits and the Dash clung to a 1-0 lead until the Myrtle Beach Pelicans scored five runs in an ugly 7th inning. Winston-Salem starter Thad Lowry was cruising along until the aforementioned 7th, and he ended his night with six innings, four runs (three earned), six hits, one walk, and four strikeouts.
Robin Leyer will get the start on Wednesday as the Dash hope to even the series.
Great Falls 7, Ogden 6
The Voyagers survived a 9th inning rally from the Ogden Raptors and made a winner out of starter Yosmer Solorzano. Solorzano allowed three runs over six innings and stuck out eight batters while walking none. Solorzano’s ERA has ballooned since a hot start to the season, but his K/BB rate is still an excellent 48/13 over 54 innings this season. Reliever Fernando Gallegos tossed two perfect innings to create a bridge to the 9th, when Lane Hobbs entered and flirted with disaster before finally closing the game.
A 2015 6th round draft pick out of high school, Corey Zangari has been a polarizing prospect. He debuted with the Arizona League White Sox and grabbed our attention with an impressive .323/.356/.492 and was ranked at #12 in the FutureSox 2016 pre-season rankings. The Sox rushed him to Kannapolis to start 2016 and he struggled badly, striking out in over 40% of his at bats there. He was demoted to the much more age appropriate Great Falls, where recently he has flourished. Zangari put his elite power tool on display on Tuesday night and he blasted two home runs to give him 14 home runs over just 102 games this season. Zangari is hitting .378/.410/.757 over ten games in August but most importantly for him, he has just struck out six times over 37 at bats during that span.
Alec Hansen will look to continue his dominance of the Pioneer League as he gets the start in a continuation of the series with Odgen on Wednesday.
AZL Athletics 6, AZL White Sox 4
Starter Luis Ledo had an excellent start spoiled by a leaky bullpen and some poor defense as the AZL Sox allowed the A’s to rally past them. Ledo, a veteran of the Dominican Summer League, struck out eight and only allowed one hit over six shutout innings. Ledo now has a 1.13 ERA over his first 40 innings stateside.
Amado Nunez went 0-4 and is still hitting over .300, but he committed four errors at shortstop Tuesday night. First baseman Franklin Reyes doubled in four at bats and Luis Curbelo went 1-4 as well.
DSL White Sox 4, DSL Padres 2
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