Chicago Cubs Minor League Wrap: September 1

There’a a rain-shortened schedule tonight.

Iowa Cubs

The game was cancelled because of rain. It will not be made up.

Tennessee Smokies

The Tennessee Smokies lost to the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Reds), 10-6 in ten innings.

Thomas Hatch started and allowed four runs on five hits over 5.2 innings. Three of those runs scored in the first inning. Hatch walked two and struck out a season-high ten batters. He did hit one batter.

Pensacola jumped on reliever Jordan Minch for four runs in the top of the tenth. Minch pitched just the one inning and three of the four runs were earned. He allowed two hits and he walked three batters. Minch did not have a strikeout. Hatch was also 1 for 2 with an RBI double at the plate.

Catcher P.J. Higgins hit for the cycle tonight, going a perfect 4 for 4 with a double, triple and a solo home run in the fourth inning. It was Higgins fourth home run of the season and first with the Smokies. Higgins had three runs batted in and he scored twice. He also walked once.

It was the first cycle for the Smokies since 2005 when they were a Diamondbacks affiliate.

Right fielder Wynton Bernard was 2 for 5 and scored twice.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The first game of a doubleheader between the Myrtle Beach Pelicans and the Frederick Keys was suspended by rain after five innings. Neither team had scored and both teams had only one hit.

Game two was cancelled and will not be made up.

South Bend Cubs

This won’t come as any surprise by now, but their game at Great Lakes was cancelled and will not be made up

Eugene Emeralds

The Eugene Emeralds were tarnished by the Boise Hawks (Rockies), 6-4.

Starter Riley Thompson had a no-hitter through four innings, but he gave up the no-hitter and the lead when he gave up three runs on three hits in the fifth. The final line on Thompson was three runs on three hits over five innings. He walked two and struck out seven.

Stephen Ridings pitched the bottom of the eighth and took the loss after he was knocked around for three runs on three hits. He struck out one and walked one intentionally.

The Ems scored all three runs in the fourth inning and two of them came on the first professional home run by second baseman Levi Jordan. Jordan went 1 for 4.

Third baseman Jake Slaughter went 2 for 4 with a double.

Shortstop Luis Vazquez was 2 for 3 with a walk and a stolen base.

The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes beat the Hillsboro Hops, 3-1 in 11 innings, so the Volcanoes are now tied with the Ems for the final playoff spot in the Northwest League with just two games to play. However, Eugene does hold the tiebreaker so they remain in control of their own destiny.

AZL Cubs

AZL Cubs 1 lost to the AZL Dodgers, 6-5. The Dodgers won the Arizona League Championship series, two games to one.

Starter Jesus Tejada was staked to a 3-0 lead when the Cubs scored three times before even recording an out in the bottom of the first. But Tejada and the Cubs couldn’t hold the lead. He exited in the fifth inning with runners on first and second and the Cubs leading 3-2. But Chi-Feng Lee gave up a two-run triple to the first batter he faced and the Dodgers led for good after that.

The final line on Tejada was four runs, one earned, on four hits over 4.2 innings. Tejada walked three and struck out two.

Lee allowed one run on two hits over 1.1 innings. Lee walked one and struck out two.

The Cubs got the tying run to third base with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, but center fielder Dalton Hurd struck out to end the game and the season. Hurd went 2 for 4 with a double and one run scored in this game.

Catcher Alexander Guerra had a three-run double in the first inning. He was 1 for 4.