West Michigan clinches playoff spot with a 20 run eruption against the Lugnuts

Scores, news, and notes from around the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Friday, June 13, 2025.

Omaha Storm Chasers 2, Toledo Mud Hens 0 (F/5)(box )

The Storm Chasers used the weather to their advantage Friday night and claimed the weekly series with a five-inning victory over the Mud Hens, 2-0.

Lefty Nick Margevicius was pretty good yet again, but he allowed a run in the first due to his own throwing error. The Storm Chasers pieced together another run on a single, double, and a sacrifice fly in the fourth.

Toledo only had two hits, a Brewer Hicklen double in the second and Gage Workman lined a two-bagger to right in the third. The only other Mud Hens baserunner of the night was Justyn-Henry Malloy, who walked in the fourth.

The rain just got too heavy in the fifth and with more in the forecast, they decided to put this one in the books.

Hicklen: 1-2, 2B

Workman: 1-2. 2 B

Margevicius (L, 3-2): 5.0 IP, 2 R, ER, 7 H, 0 BB, 3 K

Coming Up Next: Down 4-0 in the series, the Hens will try to turn it around on Saturday at 7:05 p.m. ET. They’ll have reinforcements as Matt Vierling and Reese Olson are rehabbing with the Hens this weekend.

Altoona Curve 4, Erie SeaWolves 1 (box )

Erie outhit Altoona, 8-5, but a 1-for-10 day with runners in scoring position led to a 4-1 loss as Altoona evened the series at two games apiece.

The SeaWolves had baserunners in seven of nine innings, often with one or no outs. Fourteen total baserunners on the day and only one of them scored, Jake Holton in the top of the fifth on a Carlos Mendoza infield single.

None of Erie’s eight hits were for extra bases. Jim Jarvis and Carlos Mendoza had multi-hit days, and Max Anderson and Justice Bigbie reached base three teams apiece.

Carlos Pena took the loss after giving up four runs (three earned) on two hits and two walks. He struck out four and has been decent all season, but Pena didn’t have his best stuff Friday night. He balked in the first run of the night and gave up a three-run homer to Kervin Prichardo in the fourth.

The rest of Erie’s pitching staff was solid. Ryan Boyer retired all four batters he faced, Andrew Magno gave two shutout innings and lowered his ERA to 0.95 and Richard Guasch gave up a harmless base knock in the eighth.

Anderson: 1-3, 2 BB

Jarvis: 2-4, K

Bigbie: 1-2, 2 BB, K

Pena (L, 3-4): 3.2 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; 81 pitches (44 strikes)

Coming Up Next: The two sides meet at 6:00 p.m. ET on Saturday night.

West Michigan Whitecaps 20, Lansing Lugnuts 6 (box )

Any time a team scores 13 runs in a single inning, it’s hard to focus on anything but the meltdown. The Whitecaps absolutely destroyed the Lansing Lugnuts on Friday night in the state capitol and secured a first half divisional victory that will assure them a postseason berth.

For two innings it was a contest, as Rayner Castillo gave up solo runs in the first and the second inning. Izaac Pacheco launched his fifth homer of the season in the top of the second, and so it was a 2-1 Lugnuts lead entering a third inning that will be hard to top by any team in pro ball.

The Whitecaps batted around twice in the inning. Izaac Pacheco, John Peck and Seth Stephenson all hit home runs, Peck’s was of the three-run variety, while the other two came with a man on. That only accounts for seven of the 13 runs, though. Kevin McGonigle, Pacheco and Peck all doubled in the inning as well; Peck’s cleared the bases.

Archer Brookman, Andrew Jenkins, McGonigle and Austin Murr all hit singles; only Brookman’s failed to score a run. Max Clark walked twice in the inning, and an error helped extend things without leading directly to any runs.

McGonigle would post a five hit night and is currently hitting .429 with a 1.243 OPS. The Detroit Tigers top prospect is arguably the best prospect in baseball.

Editor’s Note: He is the best prospect in baseball in my opinion.

Castillo gave up another run before departing after four innings of work. Peyton Graham got that run back with a rocket to straightaway center field for his fourth homer of the season. 15-3 Whitecaps.

Joe Adametz succeeded Castillo and quickly gave up three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Beyond that Haden Erbe, Freddy Pacheco, and Marco Jimenez locked it down while their teammates tacked on another five runs before this one was over.

Max Clark tripled in McGonigle after a leadoff walk in the sixth. A Peck ground out brought home Clark. A series of singles scored two in the eighth to make it 19-6, and Izaac Pacheco singled and scored on a ground out from Jenkins in the eighth to complete the bludgeoning.

McGonigle: 5-6, 3 R, 2 RBI, 2B, BB

Izaac Pacheco: 4-6, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2B, 2 HR, 2 K

Peck: 3-7, 2 R, 7 RBI, 2B, HR, K

Stephenson: 2-7, R, 3 RBI, HR

Murr: 4-5, R, RBI, BB, SB

Castillo: 4.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 K

Coming Up Next: It’s a 7:05 p.m. ET start on Saturday. Let the promotions begin.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 10, Palm Beach Cardinals 7 (F/10)(box )

After three straight losses the Flying Tigers got one back against the Cardinals on Friday night.

Lakeland jumped all over Palm Beach starter Jacob Odle in the first, plating four runs. Odle still had three strikeouts in the inning, but two walks and a hit batter balanced the scales of judgement.

Stephen Hrustich and Franyerber Montilla had seeing-eye singles through the right side for RBI base knocks, and another scored on a grounder from Abel Bastidas that was thrown home just late.

Lefty Bailey Horn gave those four runs right back and looked off after a decent rehab outing on Tuesday. Everyone was making good contact off him and he couldn’t seem to locate anything where he wanted. Blair Calvo came in to get the final out of the first and threw a clean second frame.

Odle went 1-2-3 in the second, but that was it from him. Conor Steinbaugh took over in the third and walked the bases loaded after hitting Garrett Pennington to start the inning. With the go-ahead run already in, Palm Beach made another change. Christian Worley induced a pair of flyouts to escape the jam without too much trouble. The first was a sacrifice fly from Enderson Delgado, scoring Cristian Santana to make it 6-4.

Santana homered in the fifth to put Lakeland up three, and that’s where the scoring stopped. Lucas Elissalt threw five shutout frames with three hits, six strikeouts and one walk. There’s a lot to like with Elissalt. His slider moves a ton, and batters can’t lay off his low-90s fastball. He’s still drawing a few too many fouls instead of whiffs on the heater, but this was a good outing, no doubt. If he can find a little more velocity and continue developing his changeup the Tigers could have something there.

Thomas Bruss got the eighth and the game slowed down considerably. His heavy 95-mph fastball wasn’t finding the zone, and he needed a mound visit to re-center himself. A bases-loaded pop out meant no runs, but it was the most stressful inning of the game since the first for Lakeland.

Logan Berrier closed things out, but not without a little drama. A leadoff walk to Luis Pino and an error on Santana put men on second and third with no outs. Johnfrank Salazar doubled them in, and a a wild pitch from Berrier moved Salazar to third. A ground out scored him and sent the game to extras.

Bastidas singled in Santana with one out in the tenth. Jose De La Cruz and Delgado each walked and then Hadeen was hit by a pitch. That forced in one run, and yet another walk to Samuel Gil made it 10-7.

Ignacio Briceno closed things out in style, striking out two to get the save.

Montilla: 2-6, R, RBI, K, SB

Santana: 1-3, 4 R, RBI, HR, 2 BB

Horn: 0.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, BB; 25 pitches (16 strikes)

Elissalt: 5.0 IP, 0 R, 3 H, BB, 6 K

Coming Up Next: A 6:00 p.m. ET start is set for Saturday night.