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July 3: Zach Plesac, Juan Hillman Combine For Pitching Gem, Defeating Baysox 5-3

July 3, 2021

RubberDucks 5 (31-21) - Baysox 3 (30-21) WP: Juan Hillman (6-2) LP: Grayson Rodriguez (3-1) Save: Juan Mota (3) Summary On a beautiful Saturday night in Akron on the day before the 4th of July, the Akron RubberDucks looked to gain the series win against the Bowie Baysox. With Cleveland

RubberDucks 5 (31-21) - Baysox 3 (30-21)

WP: Juan Hillman (6-2) LP: Grayson Rodriguez (3-1) Save: Juan Mota (3)

Summary

On a beautiful Saturday night in Akron on the day before the 4th of July, the Akron RubberDucks looked to gain the series win against the Bowie Baysox. With Cleveland Indians Pitcher Zach Plesac making his second rehab start with the RubberDucks, they would use a dominant pitching performance from him and Juan Hillman to get a 5-3 victory over Bowie, get the series win with their 4th of this six-game series and officially pass them in the standings, now having a 0.5 game lead over them.

Turning Point

With a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, Daniel Schneeman, a call up from Lake County (High-A) on June 28, continued his dominating start to his tenure in Akron as he hit a line drive to left field that just cleared the left field wall for his second home run in three games and gave Akron a 5-2 lead, which ended up being a much needed insurance run as Bowie got a run in the ninth inning to make it 5-2.

Mound Presence

Zach Plesac would be making his second rehab start for the RubberDucks Saturday night and would be on strict assignment to only pitch three innings. After giving up a leadoff home run to Cadyn Grenier, Plesac was solid from thereon out as he allowed just one hit after that, struck out four and walked one on 43 pitches in three innings.

“I tried to go top zone heater to start the game and see where my heater was playing,” Plesac said. “There’s real hitters in the box. They have a good lineup. I’ve heard good things about them. Something like that happens and intensity has to come from the get-go. I learned that today.”

Plesac also talked about how he felt satisfied after his performance during the three innings.

“Man, I feel good,” he said. “I feel ready. Every pitch felt good. I think I got an out on every pitch or at least a swing and a miss today.

Juan Hillman would be the long reliever for Plesac and had arguably his best outing of the season. He went 5 innings, struck out seven batters, and allowed three hits, one of those being a home run in his final inning.

Duck Tales

It only took two pitches for Bowie to get on the board as Cadyn Grenier took a 94-mph fastball from Plesac 400 feet to right field into the Akron bullpen to give the Baysox the 1-0 advantage.

On the mound for the Baysox would be their number 2 prospect and 19th in all of baseball according to the MLB Pipeline, Grayson Rodriguez. The Ducks seemed to be eager to hit because for the first Akron batters, they all made contact on either the first or second pitch. After two men got on, Oscar Gonzalez hit a rbi-groundout to 2nd base that scored Andruw Monasterio from third to tie it at, giving him 39 for the season and tying for 2nd in the Eastern League for Rbi’s. Daniel Schneeman would continue his hot start to his Double-A tenure as he hit a rbi-single in the inning to give the Ducks a 2-1 lead, his 5th rbi in 4 games.

The Lake County Captain’s 2021 call-ups continued to shine in the first few innings as Jonathan Engelman hit his third home run of the season in the second inning. That was also his second home run against Rodriguez this season, his first coming on an inside-the-park home run on June 20, a game which Akron won 3-2. The next run wouldn’t come until the bottom of the seventh when Andruw Monatserio hit a sacrifice fly to score pinch runner Mike Rivera and extend Akron’s lead to 3.

Each team would swap home runs in the eighth inning. For Bowie, Chris Hudgins would hit a rocket 431 feet to left field for his sixth homer of the year. Daniel Schneeman would have Akron’s answer in the bottom half when he hit a line drive that just cleared the right field wall as Schneeman once again adds to his hot tenure, making the game 5-2.

Notebook

Oscar Gonzalez’s league leading 17 game hit streak, the second longest in franchise history behind Tyler Krieger’s 24 game hit streak in 2018, came to an end as Gonzalez went 0-4 in the game. Will Benson added to his impressive series as he went 2-3. Benson is 12-33 during this homestand with three doubles, two triples, a home run and 8 rbi’s. Daniel Schneeman has been on an absolute tear ever since joining the RubberDucks on June 28. In this series, he’s gone 6-for-14 with a double, two home runs, six rbi’s and two walks. Time of Game: 2:33 … Attendance: 5603

On the Pond

The RubberDucks and Baysox will play for the sixth and final time of this series Sunday Night on the 4th of July. First Pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. There will be Imagine Dragons fireworks after the game as well. Tanner Tully is on the mound for Akron and Bowie’s pitcher has yet to be announced. The game broadcasted is on 640 WHLO AM, the WHLO iHeartRadio channel, and the TuneIn Radio App, and available on MiLB.TV. The pitching matchup has yet to be announced.