West Michigan gets No. 50 as McGonigle and Graham homer, while Lakeland wins pitchers’ duel

Scores, news, and notes from the Detroit Tigers’ farm system for Friday, June 27, 2025.

Charlotte Knights 7, Toledo Mud Hens 5 (box )

Scoring five runs in the first two innings usually means a win in baseball, but the Toledo Mud Hens managed to turn a strong start into a 7-5 loss against the Charlotte Knights Friday night.

Both teams scored early and often. All but one of the game’s 12 runs scored while the starters were in. Wilkel Hernandez gave up six (five earned) on eight hits and a walk for Toledo and No. 13 MLB prospect Noah Schultz surrendered five earned runs on as many hits and four walks.

The biggest differences between the two were command and stamina. Schultz only lasted two innings and walked as many as he struck out (4). Hernandez gave up runs in four of five innings, but he ate some punches instead of turning things over to the bullpen for seven frames. He also struck out seven and walked just one.

Tim Elko opened the scoring for Charlotte with an RBI double in the first. Ryan Kredler responded for Toledo in the bottom of the inning, clearing the bases with an RBI double. The Knights tied the game back up in the next frame on a Brooks Baldwin sacrifice fly and a Colson Montgomery RBI single.

Manny Margot tripled to open the bottom of the second, later scoring on an Andy Ibanez single. Justyn-Henry Malloy brought in Hao-Yu Lee, who walked before Ibanez’s base knock. Leading 5-3, Hernandez gave up another run on a thrown-away ball into the outfield. Baddoo managed to salvage the final out of the inning at third, but it was now a one-run game.

Finally, a breather.

Neither team did much offensively until Elko homered in the fifth to give Charlotte the lead, 6-5. An insurance run from Baldwin in the sixth ended the scoring for the day.

Woo-Suk Go gave up that final run in his organizational debut. It’s all fastball and cutter with a 5-mph speed difference (93-88). Go threw a few splitters, including one that went in the dirt and to the backstop, and one curveball, which was put in play.

Alex Lange got the seventh. He walked the leadoff man and then retired the next three batters in order, including two strikeouts. Tyler Owens went 1-2-3 in the eighth, and Drew Sommers did the same in the ninth.

Lee: 0-3, 2 R, BB, K

Jung: 0-1, R, 4 BB, 0 K

Malloy: 2-4, 2B (4), R, RBI, BB

Baddoo: 3-5, K

Hernandez (L, 2-3): 5.0 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, BB, 7 K; 90 pitches (54 strikes)

Coming Up Next: The Hens are down 3-1 in the series. They’ll try again at 7:05 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Erie SeaWolves 6, Somerset Patriots 2 (box )

A planned bullpen day for Erie allowed four SeaWolves to shine in a 6-2 win Friday, moving the series to 3-1 in favor of the Detroit affiliate.

Ryan Boyer, Colin Fields, Andrew Magno and Tim Naughton all threw multiple innings for Erie, with Fields getting the extra inning of work. Fields had trouble after taking over in the third. He gave up a two-run double in the third but worked a fairly clean (one hit) fourth and fifth.

The rest of the staff was unhittable, literally. Magno walked two in the first and Boyer loaded the bases in the sixth, but the Patriots did not record a hit against either of them, nor Naughton, who earned his third save of the year with two perfect innings. Magno’s ERA is down to 0.79 on the year.

Erie’s offense got to work quickly and then fizzled before finishing the night strong. Jim Jarvis opened the game with a double, and Jake Holton drove him in two batters later. The SeaWolves managed just one hit over the next four innings, giving up the lead on the two-run double off Fields mentioned above.

That Somerset lead was relatively short-lived, however, as Eliezer Alfonzo doubled in Chris Meyers and Ben Malgeri to retake the lead in the sixth. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s when Somerset’s starter, Trent Sellers, left the game after recording eight strikeouts through 4.2 innings. Sometimes, it just takes getting to the bullpen for the offense to click.

Meyers homered for an important insurance run in the eighth, and he doubled in two more for good luck in the ninth. Have a day, Chris!

Anderson: 1-5, R, 2 K

Bigbie: 0-4, BB, 2 K

Meyers: 4-5, HR (4), 2 R, 3 RBI, K

Magno: 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K; 44 pitches (22 strikes)

Coming Up Next: Erie can clinch the series tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. ET with a win. Kenny Serwa is slated to start.

West Michigan Whitecaps 8, Lake County Captains 4 (box )

West Michigan didn’t get going until the fourth inning on Friday night, but the Whitecaps used a pair of three-run frames to beat Lake County, 8-4, for win No. 50 on the year.

Four different Whitecaps — Josue Briceno, Peyton Graham, Austin Murr and John Peck — had multi-hit nights, with Graham leading the way. The West Michigan second baseman doubled twice and homered for eight total bases.

The home run came first, making it 3-1 in the top of the fourth, then the first double in the sixth. Graham scored later in the inning on a error. His last hit came in the ninth, but Graham was left stranded at third after advancing a base.

Murr’s homer came just before Graham’s in the fourth, a two-run shot to start the back-to-back. That was the first three-run inning, but West Michigan lost the lead right away.

Kevin McGonigle homered in the fifth to put the Whitecaps back out in front, and Graham’s double and score came in the sixth. Peck and Murr broke things open with back-to-back RBI singles in the seventh, and Patrick Lee walked with the bases loaded for the final West Michigan run of the day.

Lake County scored three off Joe Miller on seven hits and two walks. It’s a bit of a mixed bag for Miller, who is usually better. Things could have been much worse with baserunners on in each of his four innings, but all four of the Captains’ extra-base hits came off Miller.

The bullpen trio of Micah Ashman, Preston Howey and Freddy Pacheco was much better. Howey picked up the win as the first reliever out of the ‘pen. He threw two one-hit frames with a strikeout before turning it over to Pacheco for the seventh.

Howey also benefited from one heck of a home run robbery by center fielder Seth Stephenson.

Pacheco was a little less wild in this one, but still hittable, giving up two singles. A walk loaded the bases with two outs, and a passed ball scored an unearned run. Pacheco notched his third strikeout of the inning to escape the jam without too much harm and stayed in until there were two outs in the eighth. Ashman retired all four batters he faced to secure the win.

Graham: 3-5, 2 2B (12), HR (6), R, RBI

McGonigle: 1-5, HR (7), R, RBI

Briceno: 2-5, R

Clark: 1-4, R, BB, K

Miller: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K; 82 pitches (51 strikes)

Coming Up Next: Hayden Minton gets the start for West Michigan Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 1, Clearwater Threshers 0 (box )

Single-A is not the level most fans expect to see a pitchers’ duel from, but Lakeland got the better of Clearwater, 1-0, on Friday.

Both teams saw eight batters reach base in the contest, but they came about those baserunners in different ways. The Flying Tigers scattered six hits around and walked twice, once to start the game and again to open the sixth. The Threshers only managed two hits off Lakeland’s staff, but some patience led to six walks.

Lakeland’s top of the order — leadoff man Woody Hadeen and designated hitter Samuel Gil behind him — accounted for half the team’s hits, but it was Stephen Hrustich in the No. 5 spot that scored the only run of the game.

Abel Bastidas tapped a ball to the right side after Hrustich doubled. Clearwater second baseman Aroon Escobar made a nice diving stop to keep the ball in the infield, but he threw it away at first, allowing Hrustich to trot home with a free base. The Threshers had their chance to get out of the inning, but an unearned run crossed instead. The official scorer ruled it a single for Bastidas, but one could argue otherwise.

Lucas Elissalt only needed the one run behind another stellar outing. He only gave up one hit, but walks elevated his pitch count and knocked him out of the game one out short of qualifying for the win. Still, Elissalt seems to have figured out Single-A, and call-up talks are probably warranted.

Here are some numbers on Elissalt, but consider that four of his eight walks over the past seven outings came today. The command has been really good. He also holds a 31.4 percent strikeout rate.

At first glance his stuff doesn’t stand out, but he gets a lot of whiffs on his 91-92 mph fourseam fastball because it rides a lot from his relatively low release point. His curveball and slider both get plenty of whiffs too and his changeup is coming along. There’s some projection left for the 20-year-old, and he might get very interesting with a little more gas.

Duque Hebbert took the win after two innings of relief work. He couldn’t quite get through the seventh, but the change was more about getting Ignacio Briceno some lefty-lefty work against a top-100 prospect in Eduardo Tait. Briceno lost the battle, walking Tait and giving up a hit after. But he preserved the shutout and got out of the inning.

Ethan Sloan got through the eighth with just nine pitches, and Moises Rodriguez did the same to close it out in the ninth. Eight of Rodriguez’s nine pitches were between 99.0 and 100.0 mph. The benches cleared after the game, prompted by an exchange between Rodriguez and Escobar, who grounded out back to the mound to end the game.

Montilla: 0-4, 2 K

Hadeen: 2-3, 2B (10), BB, K

Hrustich: 1-4, 2B (5), R

Elissalt: 4.2 IP, H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K; 78 pitches (48 strikes)

Coming Up Next: With the series already locked up, Lakeland can push for its first six-game sweep of the season. The Flying Tigers took the first four against the Threshers on the road in May, and then won five of six the following week against Fort Myers.

Neither team has a scheduled starter listed for Saturday’s 6 p.m. ET game.