Strong defense, pitching lead Danville Braves to shutout of Pulaski Mariners

Jordan Kreke began hustling around first base in the fifth inning as his fly ball hit to left centerfield began to fall toward the two Pulaski fielders converging on what would have been the first out of the inning.

“I thought it’d be camped under and everything, a simple fly ball,” Kreke said, “but you never know what happens, so you have to be hustling to second base.”

Pulaski centerfielder Jarrett Burgess dropped the routine fly ball, allowing Kreke to stand at second with no outs. Kreke made the Mariners pay for the error by coming around to score the D-Braves’ first run. On defense, the Braves’ third baseman made a fantastic diving stop to his right to rob Steven Baron of a sure base hit in the seventh inning.

Those plays, plus another solid outing from Danville’s starting pitching staff, helped the Braves to a 3-0 victory over Pulaski on a Friday night when Bill “Tiny” Setliff was honored with his own bobblehead.

Chris Masters (4-4), making his first start since taking a road loss to Bristol and the rehabbing Freddy Garcia on Aug. 1, mixed up his pitches and kept the Pulaski hitters off-balanced. The southpaw struck out nine Mariners — including five straight between the fourth and fifth innings — and did not walk a batter.

Masters has issued a paltry four walks in 46 2/3 innings this year and increased his strikeout total to 56.

“Overall, we were working quick and that is what I want to do – just working quick and getting ahead (in the count),” Masters said.

“It was good,” Masters said of getting run support. “That’s the one thing, I wanted to make sure I worked on is not to worry about the offense, because I knew the guys would take care of it, no matter what. Making sure I did my job of keeping us in the game at all times, not worrying about what they are going to do.”

The Braves (30-14) almost blew a golden opportunity to break the game open in the seventh inning. After Kreke and Matt Weaver reached base, Jordan Merry struck out the next two batters. Cory Harrilchak responded with a two-out, two-strike base hit to centerfield that scored both Kreke and Weaver to give the D-Braves all the room they would need for the win.

“It gave us some breathing room,” Braves manager Paul Runge said. “You don’t want to enter the last inning or two with just a one-run lead. You always want to add on in those situations, and we had a perfect opportunity there with nobody out … and the first two guys strike out, it puts a little bit of heat on the next guy, and Cory hung in there with a tough at bat.”

L.V. Ware went 2-for-4 and drove in Kreke for the game-winning run in the fifth. Riann Spanjer-Furstenburg and Osman Marval had the other two D-Braves’ hits.

John Housey (1-1) got the hard-luck loss for the Mariners (17-24). Making his third start of the season, the lanky right-hander pitched six solid innings and scattered three hits and four walks. He struck out six, but was victimized by the error that accounted for his lone run allowed.

Jordan Merry was tagged by the D-Braves for two runs in the seventh inning and finished with four strikeouts in two innings of work.

Pulaski shortstop Gabriel Noriega had two of the Mariners’ four base hits

“The pitching and defense have been going hand-in-hand lately,” Runge said, “and when you’ve got those two things going and you’re doing some things well fundamentally on offense, you’re going to give yourself a chance and that’s what we’ve been doing as of late.”

Braves ink first-round selection

The Braves agreed to terms Thursday with Mike Minor, the seventh overall selection is this year’s Major League Baseball draft, giving the southpaw the largest signing bonus in organization history.

The 21-year-old out of Vanderbilt University got a $2.42 million bonus, becoming the 13th player out of the 32 first-round selections to sign.

Minor went 6-6 with a 3.90 ERA during his junior season at Vandy. The summer prior, Minor went 3-0 with a 0.75 ERA in five starts with the United States national team, leading him to being named Baseball America’s summer player of the year.

Top men of Minor League in town

Pat O’Conner, president and CEO of Minor League Baseball, visited Danville for the first time to take in the D-Braves’ game against Pulaski. He was joined by Tim Brunswick, executive director of operations of Minor League Baseball, who threw out the first pitch. Lee Landers, president of the Appalachian League, was also on hand for bobblehead night.

On tap

Danville faces Pulaski in the second game of the three-game set as Tyler Stovall gets the ball for the D-Braves. Right-hander Taylor Lewis will make his Appy League debut for Pulaski.