Danville Braves lose to Elizabethton Twins, 4-2

Brett Oberholtzer saw his scoreless inning streak snapped at 15 when Josmil Pinto smacked a two-run double in the first inning of the Danville Braves’ 4-2 loss to the Elizabethton Twins on Wednesday at Dan Daniel Park, which snapped the team’s season-high five-game winning streak.

The lefty, making his team-high fifth start of the season, had not allowed multiple earned runs in a single start this season and entered the game with a 0.82 ERA, the second-best mark in the league. He’s not the only starter who has excelled for the D-Braves (14-8) lately, and the pitching staff’s enhanced play has directly corresponded with Danville’s recent winning streak.

“Our pitching is starting to come forward,” D-Braves manager Paul Runge said recently.

D-Braves starting pitching went the first 16 games of the season without recording a win, but the rotation has ratcheted up the production of late. The starting staff was 5-0 with a combined 1.14 ERA in the last six games before Wednesday night’s game against Elizabethton (18-4). The starters pitched 39 1-3 innings in that span, allowing only seven runs, five of them earned, on 29 hits and seven walks, and the rotation also recorded 38 strikeouts for a ratio of nearly a strikeout per inning.

“We liked our pitching coming into the start of the season,” Runge said. “We got off to a little bit of a slow start, we had a tendency to walk a few guys more than we would like to see, but our pitchers have really, especially our starting pitchers, have really knuckled down and are really pounding the strike zone. We’re having some quick, easy innings.”

D-Braves starters entered Wednesday’s game with 109 strikeouts in 102 innings and a combined 3.44 ERA this season. The D-Braves pitching staff on the whole owned a 3.39 ERA, the second-best mark in the Appalachian League, and was tops in the league with 202 strikeouts.

“I think we’ve been pitching well all year,” Oberholtzer said last week, before allowing four earned runs on eight hits while striking out one and walking none in six innings Wednesday. The outing raised his ERA to 1.93 this season. “Our walks had just been killing us as a pitching staff collectively. … When you throw strikes good things are going to happen.”

Julio Teheran hurled his third consecutive quality start and picked up his first win in five starts Monday, pitching a dominant eight innings of one-run ball against the Burlington Royals. The righty struck out eight and walked one while lowering his ERA to 2.08 this season.

Chris Masters also won his most recent start, just his second of the season, and owns a 1.62 ERA in four appearances. He’s posted a ridiculous 28 strikeouts and one walk in 16 2-3 innings this season.

“I feel that everyone just keeps each other calm by working hard and challenging everyone,” Masters said after his most recent victory. “The pitchers that pitched before, Tehran and Oberholtzer, made such a clear way to find ways to get outs, just learning from them made it a lot easier of how to execute a plan.”

Matt Crim has won both of his starts this season despite posting a 4.24 ERA and has recorded 16 strikeouts to only four walks in 17 innings.

Tyler Stovall owns a 2.70 ERA after four starts, all of which turned into Danville victories.

“Life is a whole lot easier in the game of baseball when you’re throwing strikes and you’re getting quick, easy outs,” Runge said.

Too little, too late

Elizabethton jumped to a quick three-run lead and the Danville Braves saw their season-high five-game winning streak snapped, falling 4-2 to the Twins on a rainy Wednesday night at Dan Daniel Park.

Twins righty Tom Stuifbergen recorded the second complete game in the Appalachian League this season by limiting the D-Braves to two runs on six hits while tossing eight shutout innings. He struck out seven and walked one.

Josmil Pinto smacked a two-run double in the first inning, Derek McCallum knocked in a run with a base hit in the second and Michael Gonzales lifted a sacrifice fly in the sixth to score Tobias Streich, who led off the inning with a double.

Cory Harrilchak went 3-for-4 with a run-scoring triple to lead Danville and snap the shutout in the ninth inning. Kuyaunnis Miles grounded out to first to score Harrilchak.

Hello, goodbye

The Danville Braves added infielder Matt Weaver to the active roster before Wednesday’s game.

Weaver was Atlanta’s ninth-round pick in this year’s draft. He played in 11 games with the Gulf Coast League Braves prior to the promotion, hitting .136 (3-for-22) with a triple and two RBIs. Weaver is a native of Browns Mill, N.J., and attended Burlington (N.J.) Community College. He will wear No. 11.

Also, infielder Tyler Barnett, a 21st-round pick in 2008, was released by the Braves organization. Barnett was batting .125 (1-for-8) in six games with Danville this season.