Savannah Sand Gnats Game Notes

Today: The Gnats, SAL affiliate of the New York Mets, look for their third straight win in game three of a four-game series against the Rome Braves, SAL affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Gnats have won five of their last six games and 10 of 14. If the Gnats win today, they will be .500 for the first time since beating Lexington on April 21 when they were 7-7.



Last Night: The Gnats set season-highs with 12 runs on 16 hits in blowing out the Rome Braves 12-2. CF Darrell Ceciliani was 5-5 with a double, four runs scored and three RBI at the top of the order while Robbie Shields, hitting right behind him, was 3-6 with a double, a triple and five RBI. The five hits and four runs for Ceciliani and five RBI for Shields are all new season highs for Gnats’ batters. The top three hitters in the Savannah order, Ceciliani, Shields and Cory Vaughn combined to go 11-for-17 with three doubles, a triple, five runs scored and 10 RBI.



Now Pitching: RHP Greg Peavey is scheduled to make his eighth start today. Peavey has not allowed an earned run in his last two starts (and only one unearned run) and just one earned run in his last 17 innings over three starts. In his last two starts, he’s held his opponents to seven hits, while striking out 12 without walking a single batter. The Mets drafted Peavey in the 6th round in 2010 out of Oregon State. As a Beaver in 2010, Peavey was an All-Pac-10 Honorable Mention and a two-time conference Player of the Week. Peavey had been drafted twice before: in the 24th round of the 2007 draft out of Hudson’s Bay High School by the New York Yankees and in the 32nd round of the 2009 draft by the Houston Astros. In high school, he was named Washington’s Class 3A baseball Player of the Year in 2007. Peavey had national-level success before high school, helping the Hazel Dell Metro Little League team to the Little League World Series in 2000, and the Hazel Dell Metro teams that won Babe Ruth Championships in 2001 and 2002. The Gnats are 2-5 when Peavey starts and have supported him with 4.14 runs per game.

Standings Update: For the second day in a row, the Gnats moved up a spot in the SAL Southern Division standings, and enter play today in second place, one half game out of first. This is the highest the Gnats have been in the standings since April 8, the morning following Opening Night, when the team was tied for first at 1-0.



Vicious Vaughn: Cory Vaughn leads the SAL in on-base percentage (.473) and is 10th in batting average (.345) and 11th OPS (.936). Vaughn is raking at a .419/.569/.512 (AVG/OBP/SLG) rate in with four doubles in 13 games in May.



Pitching to the Top of the Charts: The Gnats lead the SAL in ERA (3.23) and WHIP (1.26). The Gnats have shut out, or held their opponents to one run nine times in their last 14 games.



May I Have Another? Savannah is 9-4 in May after going 8-14 in April. After a 4.64 ERA in April, Savannah pitchers have a miniscule 0.98 ERA in May. The Gnats scored 3.86 runs per game (85 runs/22 games) in April and are averaging just 3.23 (42 runs/13 games) in April. Robbie Shields is hitting .304/.353/.543 with eight extra-base hits in 12 games in May after hitting .236/.349/.403 with seven extra-base hits in 20 games in April.



Aderlin Road-riguez: Aderlin Rodriguez hit his seventh home run of the year last night and his sixth on the road. In 18 games on the road, he’s collected nine extra-base hits, compared to just four extra-base knocks in 16 games at home. He’s slugging .493 on the road compared to .308 at home with an isolated slugging percentage (SLG-AVG) of .296 on the road and .093 at home.