Welcome back to FirstEnergy Park for the second half of this homestand. After Lakewood split four games with Kannapolis, they welcome in Hickory for four. The two teams split four games in North Carolina last weekend.

Game notes here…audio here.

LWD-Heitor Correa (0-1)
HIC-Martin Perez (1-2)

Life in the Minors…Hickory played a double-header last night in Lake County (they won both games) and arrived at the Shore this morning at 7 am, giving them about five and a half hours to rest before the bus to the ballpark.

The Venezuelan Gator…Hickory’s Martin Perez received this nickname when he signed with the Rangers two years ago. He is ranked 6th in the Rangers system by Baseball America.

2:36: There will be about 400 dogs here today for Bark in the Park, one of my favorite promotions.

2:38: Correa makes his second start since 2007. He spent his first two seasons with the GCL Phillies (06-07) at age 16-17.

3:59: About 75 and clear skies…getting set to go.

4:15: A pickoff of David Paisano, who had a leadoff single, aids Correa in a scoreless first.

4:28: Sebastian Valle, a 2-out RBI single…1-0 Lakewood.

4:49: Wasted opportunity for Lakewood…Collier at 3rd after a walk, steal and groundout but gets stranded 90-feet away.

5:02: Quick innings for both Perez and Correa. Like what I see so far from Correa, good jump on his fast ball..looks really relaxed. He’s warming to start the fourth in a 1-0 game.

5:08: They go down 1-2-3 to Correa, two strikeouts too…In his first home start I’m just really impressed with how composed Correa looks infront of a great crowd for the first time in his career. We’ll see how he does in the fifth.

5:29: Two Lakewood errors, but mainly one by Troy Hanzawa, extend an inning and David Paisano responds with a 2-run triple…always works that way…2-1 Hickory bottom 5.

5:45: See you an error, raise you an error…Lakewood gets a run on a groundout by Castro and another on an E6…that scored Castro and Garcia, who was on 2nd, tried to score on the bobbled groundball, but was thrown out at home. Either way…3-2 Lakewood.

5:59: Justin De Fratus, he of the 24 K, 0 BB stat line, comes in for Correa (6 IP, 2 R, 0 ER, 3 H, 6 K, 1 BB).

6:18: After a good seventh inning…De Fratus allows back-to-back RBI doubles in the 8th (West, Bolden), and Hickory now leads 4-3 to the bottom of the 8th.

6:33: Tie game! Travis d’Arnaud goes deep…4-4.

6:38: De Fratus gets through the 9th…Mattair coming up.

6:47: Lakewood got Troy Hanzawa on after an error with 2 outs but he was left at first…onto the 10th…Lakewood 3-0 in extra-innings this season.

6:58: Fascinating situation…BJ Rosenberg hits the first batter in the 10th…He hits the 2nd batter…Hector Ortiz (HIC manager) convinces umps to talk, they say it he pulled the bat back from the zone before he got hit, so he gets first…Dusty Wathan convinces the umps the opposite…He wins the argument.

6:59: Paisano, who was on first, steals second as Ogata strikes out.

7:00: Erik Morrison an RBI double to give HIC a 5-4 lead.

7:07: 1-2-3 in the 10th for Lakewood…HIC wins 5-4. Box here.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 1:38 pm and is filed under 2009 BlueClaws, Live Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.