The BlueClaws won the best of three first-round series against Hickory in impressive fashion on Saturday night. Jonathan Pettibone struck out a career high nine in seven innings, alowing just one hit (with two outs in the sixth). Sebastian Valle got the ‘Claws on the board in the first with a two-run homer. Lakewood tacked on an additional run in the first on a Jeremy Barnes RBI single, then added another in the 4th and two more in the 7th. Luke Wertz pitched the final two innings to complete the 6-0 shutout.
The Championship series gets underway tonight at 7:05 at Greenville (Red Sox). It’s a rematch of last year’s championship series. Trevor May and Julio Rodriguez get the call for the first two games on the road. The series will return to Lakewood on Thursday for Game 3 and, if necessary, Games 4 and 5 on Friday and Saturday. Lakewood’s roatation through the rest of the series will feature Brody Colvin in Game 3, followed by Pettibone in Game 4, and May coming back for Game 5.
Phuture Phillies 
go blue claws! i like the idea of our prospects getting used to winning early! also belated congrats to GCL PHILS!
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Valle leveled off and barrelled a no doubt about it line drive two run home run to the brum in left in the first to give the BlueClaws the lead which seemed to deflate Hickory early. Pettibone’s fastball was sitting at 93-94 in the early innings and was sitting at 90-91 in the 6th and 7th innings except for a couple of fastballs way out of the zone at 93. He got through the later innings with an effective slider and change up.
Schoenberger played a strong game at SS and at the plate Saturday night. Lefthanded he stayed on a loopy curve ball and lined a rbi single to right. Then after fouling off an attemped sac. bunt righthanded he scalded a ball just inside the third base line for an rbi double. He fielded all three ground ball outs hit his way cleanly showing a submarine release on two of the charging slower hoppers up the middle to increase velocity and accuracy on his throws and ended the game by jumping up to catch a line drive and throwing to first to double off the runner. He is tied for first in rbi’s with five after the first round of the playoffs.
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Tonight’s game should be an excellent test for the Lakewood bats. Greenville pitcher Drake Britton is an under the radar top of the line prospect, one of the fastese lefties in all the minor leagues. He faced Lakewood before and beat them handily. At the time, Lakewood play-by-play man (Greg Giamborese) stated Britton was the best pitcher, by far, the ‘Claws faced this year and was impressed. I think the ‘Claws deeper pitching holds up and they win the series.
http://www.soxprospects.com/players/britton-drake.htm
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The Lakewood pitching staff is just awesome, with some guys getting a lot better as the season progressed. If Cosart shows up heathly at start of ST, the 2011 Clearwater team will have a truly dominant staff, almost one for the ages. Cosart, with the end of the year Colvin, May, Pettibone, and Shreve is an all-great, all youthful-prospect rotation. Then you have Julio Rodriguez in the mix somewhere, as well. Just Wow!
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I’d like to see the Lakewood staff do what it does and remind everyone how great pitching usually wins in baseball. The C Water staff next year will be pretty potent. Aumont will have to move up to Reading to keep starting because there won’t be any room at CWater for him in the rotation. I’m also still waiting to hear what’s up with Nick Hernandez (and Matt Way) because he was lights out to start the season but he never recovered his location this year and they shut him down. Reading could have Hyatt, Sanchez, Aumont, JC Ramirez, and Zeid which wouldn’t be bad prospect wise. A rotation of Cosart, May, Colvin, Pettibone, and Shreve could be amazing with good health. Too many starters?? Now that’s a good problem to have! Lets go Claws, win the championship.
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ive been waiting to talk about clearwater rotation next year..i was thinking aumont, may, colvin, pettibone, and rodriguez…with cosart(because of being shut down) shreve, hernandez, biddle and maybe a pettis…maybe after a month or two move cosart to clearwater and aumont to reading if they both deserve it…readingcould be ramierez, hyatt, zied, way and sanchez…what do u think? go claws…sorry i went off on a tangent but already excited bout next year!
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ah isnt Cosart pitching in the instructional league? I dont see the point of keeping him in low A. Its also probably time to make Aumont a closer.
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I believe Cosart and Nick Hernandez both are on track to pitch in the fall instructional league since both are healthy. I think they are actually both with the Lakewood team right now and participating in practice/bullpen sessions, but not actually going to play in the series (although this is like second/third-hand information from reading other Phillies sites) so maybe someone who follows Lakewood more closely could confirm or deny that.
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