Mitchell opens Cal League stay in style

Ronnie Mitchell took a night to rest after his whirlwind promotion to the California League. With two days off under his belt, he came back on fire.

Mitchell blasted two home runs and drove in a career-high five runs in his first Class A Advanced game as Lancaster rallied to take down Lake Elsinore, 13-9, on Thursday.

"Yesterday was kind of hectic," said Mitchell. "I had an early flight at 6:40 [in the morning] and met the guys for a road game at High Desert. I didn't play yesterday. They told me to get some rest and be ready for today."

Rest certainly didn't appear to be an issue for the Houston left-field prospect, who belted a two-run homer to right field in his first trip to the plate in the second inning. Mitchell followed that with another two-run shot in the third.

In the fifth, Mitchell doubled in a run to set a career high in RBIs. The Dallas Baptist University product capped his perfect day at the plate with an eighth-inning walk and scored on Chan Moon's single three batters later.

"I'll get out sooner or later," Mitchell joked, "but honestly, today I had the mind-set that I hadn't played in two days. I just wanted to slow the game down, have some good at-bats, try to get back in rhythm. They left some good pitches up in the zone, and I was able to put some good swings on them."

Mitchell saw action in 72 games for Class A Quad Cities this season, hitting .285/.360/.498 with 13 home runs and 46 RBIs prior to his promotion.

"It's always great to be able to go up another level," he said. "You just try to simplify things as much as you can, get your pitch to hit, not try to do too much. When you do that, usually you have good results. Doing that day in and day out is the goal and the mind-set."

Roberto Pena and Jon Kemmer homered in the victory. Of Lancaster's 16 total hits, 13 went for extra bases, including a season-high nine doubles.

"It's great to be up here with so many great guys in the lineup," Mitchell added. "They all feed off each other. They use the momentum for the next guy who comes up to bat, and having games like this is very fun for the offense."

Daniel Minor picked up the win for the JetHawks after allowing just a hit in the eighth.

Lake Elsinore's Brandon Alger (3-3) was charged with six runs on six hits while walking two in his lone inning of work.