Shelby to Kentucky: Former MLB OF and Lexington native John Shelby has joined the Wild Health Genomes coaching staff. A former first round draft pick of the Orioles in 1977, he played 11 years in MLB and won two World Championships. Shelby’s youngest son, Jaren, is a member of the Genomes and a former player at the University of Kentucky.

 

Staten Island Gets Win: Staten Island won its first game as a franchise with a 4-1 decision over Lexington on May 3. Trailing 1-0 in the fifth, the FerryHawks used a sac fly from Rymer Liriano and a two-run single by Brandon Wagner to take a 3-1 lead.  Staten Island added an insurance run in the eighth when Ben Ruta doubled to score Kelsie Whitmore for the 4-1 final.

 

Good Weeks: Kentucky’s Riley Mahan had a great week, hitting .500 (12-24) with four doubles, 24 total bases, seven RBI and just one strikeout… Charleston’s Scott Kelly hit .435 last week (10-23)… Chris Shaw of the Wild Health Genomes exactly matched Kelly’s numbers at .435… Jack Reinheimer of Gastonia finished the week with six extra-base hits, including three homers and 11 RBI… He had six RBI and two home runs at York on 5/5 and then had a homer and five RBI on 5/8 at Staten Island.

 

Milestones: Long Island 2B Vladimir Frias hit a two-run single on Sunday against Lancaster to mark the 1,000th hit of his professional career… Southern Maryland’s Daryl Thompson extended his ALPB career record with his 76th win on Sunday in a 9-7 decision over the Wild Health Genomes… York’s OF Melky Mesa hit two home runs last week to move into third place on the Revs’ all-time homer list with 60… York’s Jim Fuller earned his 31st career save on 5/9 to move into a tie for third in team history with R.J. Rodriguez.

 

Longest At-Bat Of The Week:  High Point’s Tyler Ladendorf flew out after 11 pitches from York’s Jorge Martinez on Sunday, May 8.

 

Streaks: Long Island’s Sam Travis had his 13-game hitting streak snapped on May 8 in the second game of a doubleheader with Lancaster… The longest active hitting streaks belong to the Wild Health Genomes Riley Mahan who has hit in 11 straight and Long Island’s Johnni Turbo, also at 11… Mahan is riding a seven-game streak of multiple hits… He has collected two hits in each of Kentucky’s last seven games… Joseph Rosa of Gastonia continues his on-base streak at all 15 games this season… Chris Shaw of Kentucky has also reached base in all 15 games he has played.

 

Pitching Gems: High Point’s Justin Nicolino, Gastonia’s Sam Bordner and Charleston’s Jose Mesa, Jr. are the only ALPB pitchers to thus far achieve three wins this season… Kentucky’s Tim Peterson has made eight appearances, each one lasting one inning, and has allowed just two hits and struck out 10 while not allowing a single run or a walk… Charleston pitchers have struck out 10 or more hitters in five straight games… Lexington pitchers only walked two Dirty Bird hitters in their three-game weekend series… Four CWV pitchers held Lexington to just one hit in a 2-0 win on 5/7… Gastonia two-hit Staten Island in Game 1 on May 8... High Point’s 16 strikeouts of Kentucky on Opening Night remains the league-high.

 

Batting Masters: Lancaster owns the league’s highest single-game batting with a .467 mark (21-45) in its win vs. York on 4/29... Kentucky has collected 10 or more hits in six of its last seven games and multiple doubles in four of its last five games... The Genomes have hit at least one double in 11 straight games and all but two games this season… Gastonia has received five or more walks in all but three games this season… High Point had a five-game streak from April 30-May 5 in which it hit multiple homers in each game.

 

Steal Alert: Gastonia led the league with 159 stolen bases in 2021 and the Honey Hunters are off and running again in ’22 with 41 stolen bases in 50 attempts… Southern Maryland is second this year with 26 thefts and just two caught stealings.

 

Single Game Standouts: Ronald Pena struck out the side to earn his third save of the year in Gastonia’s 3-1 win at York on May 3… J.C. Perez had three hits, a homer and four RBI to lead Charleston to a 9-6 win over the Wild Health Genomes on May 3… Carlos Franco hit two home runs and drove in four runs in York’s 12-7 loss to Gastonia on May 5. In the same game, Jack Reinheimer had two homers and six RBI for the Honey Hunters… Staten Island starter and former Braves Julio Teheran pitched six innings, allowing a single run while striking out a season-high 10 Gastonia hitters on Sunday, May 8 but came away with a no-decision as Staten Island fell to Gastonia 4-1 in nine innings in the opening game of the twinbill.

 

Rain outs: The weather just about wiped out the entire league schedule on Friday, May 6… The only game played saw So. Maryland defeat Kentucky 8-2 as Zach Collier had a home run and four RBI on a double and a three-run homer… The rain led to four weekend doubleheaders and all were sweeps… Charleston and Long Island swept at home while Gastonia and High Point posted road sweeps.

 

Playing Pepper: North teams are 28-44 thus far while South teams have combined to go 47-31… Long Island continues to lead the ALPB in team batting average at .288 while High Point’s 2.51 ERA is tops in the league. 

 

Look at The Hawk: Courtney Hawkins is off to another great start with Lexington. Now in his fourth year in the Atlantic League, the Legends’ OF leads the league with eight home runs and 25 RBI… Hawkins’ .377 batting average is third in the league and he’s second with a slugging percentage of .803, second with an OPS of 1.269,  second with 23 hits, second with 18 runs and second with 49 total bases.

 

Winning Streaks: Gastonia’s 10-game winning streak was snapped on 5/4 by York, 5-4 in 10 innings. The Honey Hunters bounced back with an 11-run third inning the next day in beating the Revs 12-7. The Honey Hunters sent 14 batters to the plate and collected eight consecutive hits… Southern Maryland’s winning streak hit 11 games with a 10-inning win over Lancaster on 5/5. Braxton Lee’s bunt towards third was fielded but nobody covered first and Jared Walker was able to score from first for the 6-5 win… But the franchise-record 12-game winning streak for the Blue Crabs was snapped on Saturday, 5/7, as Kentucky scored a 7-2 win at Wild Health Field.