Coulter sets record in first Double-A start

There were times when the next step up the ladder seemed like it was another offseason and another Spring Training away for Clint Coulter. When that reward finally came, he made sure to put his stamp on it.

The Brewers prospect reached base four times and scored a team-record four runs in his first Double-A start Saturday as Biloxi beat Pensacola, 7-2, at MGM Park.

"I was starting to think maybe I'd never get called up [midseason] throughout all my Minor League seasons," Coulter said. "Maybe I'd start in a different place every year and move up the following year. It was a new feeling for me, getting called up midseason. I'd never had that happened and I was excited."

Coulter's only previous in-season jump came in 2013, when he went from the Rookie-level Arizona League to the Pioneer League. But moving from a complex team to Rookie ball doesn't carry quite the gravitas as a promotion out of Class A Advanced, as Coulter noticed.

"I think the biggest difference is just every guy throughout both lineups is solid," he said. "They're all experienced guys. They've all put their time in in the Minor Leagues, especially the pitchers. These aren't first-year guys or college draftees, high picks or anything. These are, a lot of them, guys who have been in the mix."

The 2012 first-round pick found his way aboard the painful way in his first trip to the plate, getting plunked by Blue Wahoos starter El'Hajj Muhammad leading off the third inning. With that out of the way, Coulter walked in the fourth, singled to left field in the sixth and singled again to left in the eighth.

"I didn't think it could get any hotter than the Florida State League, and I get here and get on base four times, running around," he said, laughing. "I was tired, but it was fun."

The outfielder touched home after each plate appearance, scoring four runs to match a personal best set on Aug. 19 of his debut season in 2012 in the Arizona League. It also was a first for a Shuckers player.

"I didn't even know that," he said. "That's funny. It probably doesn't hurt that it's only the second year of the franchise, but, yeah, that's pretty cool."

Coulter batted .220/.285/.333 in 87 games with Class A Advanced Brevard County but played some of his best ball toward the end of his tenure there. The 23-year-old slashed .263/.315/.375 in 23 games in June, his best month of the season.

"I just kind of started out slow at the beginning of the year and ended up with that injury," said Coulter, who missed three weeks in May with a right oblique injury. "I came back, started a little slow, too, and then everything started feeling good. I had some tough luck there the last few weeks before I got called up, but I still felt pretty good. Hopefully, it carries into here. I can keep it rolling and get ready for next year."

While he's in new surroundings, Coulter already felt a bit like he was home in Biloxi.

"It's cool to come up to a team that you already know with a lot of familiar faces, guys who I've played with in the past," he said. "In Spring Training, too, I was with them all spring and ended up getting sent down the last few days. It was nice to see the boys again."

Angel Ortega doubled twice behind Coulter in the Shuckers lineup. Reliever Tristan Archer matched Ortega's game-high two RBIs with a two-run single in the sixth that scored Coulter and Ortega.

Brewers No. 5 prospect Luis Ortiz, acquired in the deal that sent catcher Jonathan Lucroy to Texas last week, struck out three and allowed one hit over three scoreless innings in his organizational debut.