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August 3, 2012

Three-game series stands between Rays and Mercer Cup victory

By JONATHAN GREENE Princeton Times

PRINCETON — Heading into their Friday night contest with Bluefield last week, Princeton's goal of regaining the Mercer Cup looked dim.

The Blue Jays were coming off a 9-2 win Thursday night and were holding a 4-2 series advantage.

Things weren't looking much better as Bluefield took a 6-3 lead after three innings, but Princeton was determined to turn their fortunes around.

The Rays belted out six runs led by Brandon Martin's bases-clearing triple to regain the lead and eventually win the game.

Princeton carried that momentum into their series final with an impressive 8-2 victory to tie the Mercer Cup at 4 apiece.

The two teams will close out their annual showdown Aug. 7-9 at Hunnicutt in a best-of-three set.

Bluefield won the series last year after the Rays held the trophy the two previous years. In the overall standings, the Baby Birds have the cup 11 times while Princeton has captured it eight times.

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OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS: Typically, pitching has been the key for Princeton in past years and offense has been hard to come by.

That hasn't been the case this year with the Rays pitching being near the bottom in several pitching categories including ERA, hits, runs and home runs given up.

Princeton's 4.53 ERA ranks eighth in the 10-team league. They've allowed the second most hits (357) and the fourth most runs (203). They are the worst in home runs allowed with 36.

Yet when it comes to their bats, the Rays are near the top in batting average, hits, doubles, triples and RBIs.

They rank second in doubles (80), triples (18) and RBIs (200) and fourth in average (.264) and hits (355).

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NEAR THE TOP: Despite one bad outing, Blake Snell continues to be near the top in several Appalachian League pitching categories.

The lanky lefty is tied for first with four wins and sits tied for the strikeout lead with 46 whiffs. Snell is second in ERA (1.79).

In the batter's box, outfielder Ariel Soriano is tenth in batting average. The Dominican Republic native is batting .305 on the year.

William Argo is tied for fifth in doubles (11) and sits tied for fourth in steals (9) while Brandon Martin's four triples puts him tied for second in the league.

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