Powerful Evening

Last night was an enjoyable evening at the Muni with the West Virginia Power in town against the Hagerstown Suns.
The Power's visits have become a far bigger deal to me with the Power now being affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The evening got off to a slow start with some rain showers and a brief delay of the contest due to wet stuff,but the game was able to be played,despite a track that horse racing aficionados would describe as muddy.

I attended the game with my brother and had a excellent time catching up on things.
We pretty much had the stadium to ourselves as our unofficial pre-game attendance count was around 125 and a count of the seventh inning came to 52,when you exclude the players and baseball employees sitting behind home plate.
Between the rain and two popular promotional nights covering the next two games,this was to be expected,so one couldn't be surprised by the low turnout.
The Suns website has Friday as being a near sellout,so that is good news for the ticket sellers.
West Virginia used their alternate player hat that put a new twist on the old Charleston Charlies (AAA team) logo and they looked quite sharp as shown above.
The hat looked far better than those tan or cocoa ones with the electrical looking P on them.
Those aren't good at all...

On to the Power as many of these players I was seeing for the first time.
I was anxious to see Jarek Cunningham,who missed 2009 with knee surgery after an excellent abbreviated 2008 after signing.
The first thing that struck me was that Cunningham didn't look his advertised 6'1,he looked smaller than that and the other was that he played second base instead of shortstop or third.
Cunningham looked fair enough in turning two double plays there and perhaps the Pirates are looking at Cunningham as a possible second base alternative with only Altoona's Josh Harrison even a possible prospect in the system at the position.

First baseman Aaron Baker was ridden the entire game by a fan that I would bet money was the same person from this incident two years ago with Lakewood's Karl Bolt.
I cannot say that with certainty,but the fan sounded similar and was sitting in the same area,so it seems likely.
The best part was Baker's long homer to right field in the seventh inning that shut this guy up for about a minute before he started in again on Baker again by calling him "Sharon".
The guy was relentless,but used no profanity or got personal with Baker and as he kept things clean,he was well within his rights to do so.
Even if he was obnoxious......

Third round selection Evan Chambers smacked four hits and stole a base,although he was caught stealing once.
For a small,stocky player,Chambers has some speed and some pop,but his plate discipline needs lots of work.
Third baseeman Jesus Brito made a throwing error,which was his 11th,but I liked his swing and Brito strikes me as a high reward player,the tools are there,but needs tons of refinement.
Rogelios Noris looked larger than recorded,but didn't drive the ball in his two hits,so not sure about his power potential off one evening.
Nate Baker got the start and was pounded by the Suns for five runs (three earned) in just over two innings of work.
Baker was line drived twice in his outing,so he was being hit hard by Hagerstown.
No word on how hard he was throwing.

The Power rallied from a 5-1 deficit with 12 runs during the sixth-eighth innings for a 13-9 win over the Suns.
All and all,a pretty nice night at the ballpark considering the weather.
The series continues tonight with Kyle McPherson starting for the Power.

Photo Credit-West Virginia Power