Cubs Minor League News: AFL Edition |
Don't look now, but the hottest team in the Arizona Fall League is the Mesa Solar Sox, as they continued to go to work against the Scottsdale Scorpions on Tuesday. Anchored by several big bats, including Jonathon Long and Moises Ballesteros, the Solar Sox have become one of the best offensive teams in the league while improving to 5-2.
Looking to push their winning streak to three games and keep pace with Glendale atop the league, it was the Solar Sox offense that continued to shoulder the load again, using both a five and six-run inning to break things wide open as they took care of the Scorpions 15-2 for their third straight win. This was a game littered with big hits from several players, but there was one Cub who had his best game of the season thus far. It may have taken him a week to put forth a big game, but SS Ben Cowles finally delivered at the plate, and it came after grabbing his first hit in the game prior. Cowles paced the Solar Sox offense with three hits in the game, two of which were doubles while driving in three runs for his first three RBIs of the season. Throw in the two hits from Ballesteros, and it is starting to become another day at the office type of run for him as he falls out of bed and picks up hits at this point. Ironically, the Solar Sox actually found themselves trailing 2-0 in this one as Scottsdale pushed home a pair of second-inning runs, one coming off the Drew Gilbert homer to grab the lead. From there, it was all Mesa, as they closed out the game with 15 unanswered runs, and their offense continued to steal the show. The first of those runs came on a pair of Daniel Susac RBIs as he connected for a solo shot in the second before adding a third-inning sacrifice fly to tie things up. It was in the fourth inning when the Solar Sox took the lead for good as the Cowles double started what was a five-run third inning and put the Solar Sox on top 3-2. Tre Morgan delivered the big blow in that inning as his Grand Slam made things 7-2 as part of his six RBI night. Leading 8-2 in the sixth, the Solar Sox offense went back to work once again, scoring six more times to break things open 14-2. Cowles played a part in that massive inning as he delivered his second RBI double of the game to bring home two and push the lead to 10-2. A wild pitch led to another run, with David Mershon picking a single ahead of the two-run Morgan double as the Solar Sox built their lead to 14-2. Leading 15-2 in the ninth, the Solar Sox went back to their pen and called on Chicago Cubs (Tennessee Smokies) reliever Sam Thoreson to finish things off. Coming off a rough first outing on the mound, Thoreson got back to doing what he does best, as his ability to locate his fastball to set up his breaking ball gave the Scorpion hitters fits. He walked one and struck out one in his inning of work, but with no runs and no hits allowed, it will go down as a successful relief appearance for him.
