Sports

Minor League roundup, 5/27

Published

7 months ago

May 29, 2025

Just a trio of games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Tuesday, as Low-A San Jose and the ACL Giants both had the day off. Let’s dive into the action.

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

News

Some pretty interesting news! During Wednesday’s game — which will be covered tomorrow, as it’s currently ongoing — AAA Sacramento started Marco Luciano at first base for the first time in his career. This could be an indictment of his development curve in the outfield, but I think it’s more likely that the Giants are intrigued by how well he’s been swinging the bat, and first base is an area of need in the Majors.

AAA Sacramento (25-27)

Sacramento River Cats lost to the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres) 9-5
Box score

The biggest news in Sacramento was that first baseman Jerar Encarnación restarted his rehab assignment. Encarnación, who is eligible to come off the 60-Day IL, is expected to join the Giants within the next few days if everything goes well with his rehab. And on Tuesday, everything went well with his rehab.

The powerful right-hander had a dynamic day, hitting 1-2 with a home run, a walk, and a stolen base, before being replaced halfway through the game. He also committed an error at first.

That swing sure will look nice back in San Francisco!

A fantastic day for third baseman/first baseman Devin Mann, who hit a perfect 2-2 with a double, 2 walks, and a hit by pitch. Mann, a 28-year old who was recently signed to a Minor League deal, would seem to have taken David Villar’s place as the emergency corner infield depth, though Luciano’s move to first base might be changing that.

And excitingly, right fielder Wade Meckler (No. 13 CPL) made his return to Sacramento! Meckler was injured in the 2nd game of the season, and was sidelined for more than a month and a half. He started a rehab assignment in the ACL a little over a week ago, and on Tuesday he was back in Sacramento’s lineup. We didn’t get to see Meckler’s preternatural contact skills, but we did see his control of the zone, as he went 0-2 with 2 strikeouts but also drew 3 walks. The lefty also committed an error in the grass.

A funny start for RHP Carson Seymour (No. 21 CPL). He showed some power by hitting 99, and was comfortably into the 97s even on his final pitches of the night. That’s exciting! But the rest of the performance was quite poor. The righty went 5 innings and allowed 6 hits — including 2 home runs — while also walking 4 batters and striking out just 4. That tagged him for 8 runs, 6 of which were earned.

After an awesome start to the year, Seymour has really started to hit some obstacles, especially when it comes to limiting free passes. Take a look at his splits:

First 4 starts: 18 innings, 10 hits, 5 walks, 2 earned runs, 22 strikeouts
Next 7 starts: 34.2 innings, 35 hits, 22 walks, 23 earned runs, 37 strikeouts

Certainly something to work on for Seymour, though the raw stuff is still very exciting. He has a 4.27 ERA and a 4.67 FIP on the year.

A nice outing for RHP Sean Hjelle, who tossed 2 scoreless frames with 3 hits and 1 strikeout. It’s a tough path back to the bigs for Hjelle, given that Tristan Beck is pitching well in San Francisco and Justin Verlander is set to return from the IL before long, but the extremely tall righty is staying ready, with a 3.18 ERA, a 2.68 FIP, and 30 strikeouts to 9 walks in 28.1 innings this year.

AA Richmond (13-33)

Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals) 3-2 (11 innings)
Box score

Ahhh, the Manfred Man. It makes for some silly baseball. This was a scoreless baseball game after 9 innings, but both teams scored a pair of runs in the 10th inning, before the Senators added the winning run in the 11th. And thanks to some poor defense, neither team allowed an earned run in this game!

The star was the starter, LHP Joe Whitman (No. 9 CPL). After a slow start to the year, Whitman has come alive lately. Following last week’s start in which he struck out 11 batters in just 5 innings, the 2023 compensation round pick went 7 brilliant innings in this one, allowing just 4 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 5 and giving up no runs.

Ready to see just how much Whitman has improved so far this year? Check it out:

4 April starts: 14.1 innings, 13 hits, 6 walks, 12 earned runs, 8 strikeouts
5 May starts: 29 innings, 18 hits, 10 walks, 5 earned runs, 31 strikeouts

4 of those 5 runs came in 1 start, and 4 of the 10 walks came during last week’s 11-strikeout explosion, when it was pouring rain and a loss of control was to be expected.

Either way, Whitman is starting to put together a high class season. Among the 44 pitchers in the Eastern League with at least 30 innings pitched this season, he ranks 21st in ERA (3.53), 10th in FIP (3.35), 12th in strikeouts per 9 innings (10.2), and 27th in walks per 9 innings (3.3). Not bad for a player in just their 2nd full season, who had a rough start to the year.

RHP Evan Gates also had an awesome game, giving up 2 hits (both singles) in 2 scoreless frames, while striking out 3 batters. Gates, an undrafted free agent from 2021, has quietly been having an awesome season, with a 3.32 ERA, a 3.26 FIP, and a spectacular 27 strikeouts to 4 walks in 21.2 innings. This is his 4th straight year seeing time in Richmond, and last year he spent a fair amount of time in Sacramento but with poor results. I’ll be curious to see if he gets back there soon.

Not a lot doing on offense at all. First baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) had a fine, if uneventful day, hitting 1-4 with a double and an intentional walk, which gives him an .874 OPS and a 154 wRC+. Second baseman Diego Velasquez (No. 16 CPL) hit 0-2 but drew 2 walks and was hit by a pitch. The young switch-hitter is sitting on a .715 OPS and a 115 wRC+.

High-A Eugene (24-22)

Eugene Emeralds beat the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 8-3
Box score

After a little bump in the road, right fielder James Tibbs III (No. 3 CPL) is certainly off and running again. Last year’s 1st-round pick, known more for his hit tool than his power, once again put the barrel of the bat on the ball, hitting 1-4 with a 2-run home run, a walk, and 2 strikeouts.

With the gorgeous swing, Tibbs now has 8 homers on the year, which is only 1 off the lead in the organization (held by Marco Luciano), and 2 off the lead if you count San Francisco (where Heliot Ramos and Wilmer Flores both have 10).

Tibbs began his debut full season by doing a lot of damage, and then the extra-base knocks entirely avoided him. But now they’re back. It’s been a funny 3-act season for him so far:

First 16 games: 16-57, 2 home runs, 0 triples, 4 doubles, 13 walks, 9 strikeouts
Next 14 games: 5-50, 1 home run, 0 triples, 0 doubles, 12 walks, 10 strikeouts
Last 11 games: 13-40, 5 home runs, 1 triple, 3 doubles, 6 walks, 12 strikeouts

Look at that power! The 22-year old is now up to an .833 OPS and a 132 wRC+, with a strikeout rate exactly half of what it was during his stint in Eugene last year, and an isolated power mark that’s more than doubled. Talk about making rookie adjustments!

Center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL) had another nice game, hitting 2-5 with a triple, 3 runs batted in, and a strikeout, boosting his OPS to .904 and his wRC+ to 145. I wonder if we’ll see Davidson and Tibbs in Richmond sometime this summer?

Shortstop Zane Zielinski, who got the aggressive debut assignment in High-A, hit 2-5 and stole a pair of bases. Zielinski has had basically no power this year, but he’s sporting a .254 average and a .357 on-base percentage, and has 12 stolen bases in 15 attempts in 38 games. Not too shabby for someone who skipped 2 levels!

But the game was won on the mound where RHPs Josh Bostick (No. 27 CPL) and Austin Strickland were absolutely dynamic. Bostick hasn’t had the year he was hoping for, but you wouldn’t know it if you only watched on Tuesday. He mowed down batters for 5 strong innings, giving up just 1 hit (which was admittedly a home run), while walking 2 and hitting a batter, all while striking out 9. He technically gave up 3 runs, but since they all occurred following an error, he has a donut in the earned runs column, which lowered his ERA to 4.50, albeit with a 5.84 FIP. Like I said: not the year he was hoping for, but games like this can turn it around in a hurry.

As for Strickland, he was beyond dominant. He pitched 3 shutout innings in which he allowed just 3 baserunners — a single and 2 hit batters — and secured 7 of his 9 outs by way of the strikeout. My goodness. It hasn’t been a great year for the 2023 8th-round pick, who came to the Giants in the Joey Bart trade, but he’s certainly starting to figure things out. In his last 3 appearances, he’s given up just 1 hit in 7.2 innings, with 12 strikeouts (though he’s both walked and hit 4 batters during that time).

Home run tracker

AAA Jerar Encarnación (1)
High-A James Tibbs III (8)

Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: vs. El Paso, 12:05 p.m. PT (SP: Mason Black)
Richmond: vs. Harrisburg, 3:35 p.m. PT (SP: Nick Sinacola)
Eugene: at Tri-City, 6:30 p.m. PT (SP: Cesar Perdomo)
San Jose: vs. Inland Empire, 1:00 p.m. PT (SP: Niko Mazza)

Sports

Emerald Acres Volleyball Tournament | MyRadioLink.com

Published

3 hours ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Emerald Acres Volleyball Tournament | MyRadioLink.com

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Former Illini basketball sharpshooter Luke Goode engaged to Illinois volleyball star Kayla Burbage

Published

3 hours ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

Love is in the air for two of Champaign’s top athletes in recent years. Former Illini men’s basketball wing Luke Goode popped the question to Illinois volleyball middle blocker Kayla Burbage, the couple shared via Instagram on Wednesday.

“Proverbs 18:22: ‘He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord,’” Goode wrote. “Going into the New Years as future Mr. and Mrs. Goode!”

Goode spent the first three years of his college career in Champaign, graduating from the Gies School of Business in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in finance. After his sophomore season was cut short due to a foot injury, Goode bounced back as a junior, playing in all 38 games for the 2024 Elite Eight team. That season, the 6-foot-7 sharpshooter averaged 5.7 points and shot 38.9% from three on just over four attempts per game.

Last season, Goode spent his final year of eligibility playing for his home state Indiana Hoosiers before turning pro. He is currently suiting up for the South Bay Lakers in the NBA G League. In 11 games so far as a rookie, Goode is putting up 7.6 points and 3.0 rebounds in just above 20 minutes per game.

Burbage just finished up her final season of college volleyball. After spending her freshman campaign at Missouri, Burbage decided to make the move to Champaign. As a sophomore and junior, Burbage played in every match on Illinois’ schedule: 60 total. A shoulder injury sidelined the 6-foot-4 North Carolina native for her senior season, but she returned for a graduate year in 2025. In her final season at Huff Hall, Burbage ranked second in total blocks (82.0) for the Illini and had the fifth-most kills on the team (98).

@sahil_mittal24

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Hawkeyes Knock Down Nebraska – Iowa Hawkeyes Athletics

Published

3 hours ago

January 2, 2026

Your Sports Nation

IOWA CITY, Iowa – No. 14 Iowa (12-2, 3-0) defeated No. 20 Nebraska (12-2, 1-2) on New Years Day inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena, 86-76.

Sophomore Chit-Chat Wright dominated the day for the Hawkeyes with a career-high 24 points, three assists, and two steals. Senior Hannah Stuelke followed with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and four assists to notch her third double-double of the season.

The Huskers came out to a fast-paced 8-0 run to start the game. Stuelke got the scoring started for Iowa by getting to the line, sinking both free-throws. Three minutes into gameplay, the Hawkeyes began to capitalize on Nebraska miscues. Sophomore Ava Heiden led a 7-0 run for Iowa to bring the gap to 9-12 with 4:46 left in the quarter. The Huskers contained a narrow 21-18 lead headed into the second quarter.

Wright drained a three-pointer to start the second period, tying up the score for the first time on the day. The Hawkeyes went on to gain nine points on seven forced Husker turnovers in the half. Heiden led the quarter with eight points going 4-for-4 on field goals. A combined 26 points, shooting 66.7 percent in the quarter, left Iowa behind 44-45 at half.

The Hawkeyes came out of the locker room with an 8-2 run to put them in front. Iowa forced four Husker turnovers in the first three minutes of the third quarter, capitalizing five points off of them. Stuelke continued to be a difference maker for Iowa with seven points and two rebounds. This momentum pushed Iowa up 64-61 heading into the fourth.

In the final quarter, the Hawkeyes continued their defensive pursuit, forcing five more turnovers, adding to their total of 18 on the day. Senior Taylor McCabe hit a three-point basket at 4:32 to power Iowa to the end. The Hawkeyes pushed out a 15-6 run to secure a Hawkeye victory.

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Dallas Pulse set to make history in season opener at Comerica Center

Published

5 hours ago

January 2, 2026

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North Texas’ first women’s professional volleyball team will officially launch its inaugural season on Saturday, Jan. 10.

DALLAS — For North Texas volleyball fans, Saturday’s season opener represents more than just a first serve, it’s the beginning of something the region has been waiting for.

The Dallas Pulse, the region’s first women’s professional volleyball team, will open its inaugural season Saturday, Jan. 10, hosting the Indiana franchise at Comerica Center in Frisco.

The matchup marks the first Major League Volleyball game played by a Dallas-based team and is a milestone moment for the metroplex.

The Pulse will play 14 home matches during the 2026 Major League Volleyball season, giving local fans a consistent opportunity to support a women’s pro team built in their own backyard.

Saturday, Jan. 10 – Indy
Thursday, Jan. 15 – San Diego
Thursday, Feb. 5 – Omaha
Sunday, Feb. 8 – Grand Rapids
Thursday, Feb. 19 – Indy
Sunday, Feb. 22 – Grand Rapids
Friday, Feb. 27 – Orlando
Friday, March 13 – Columbus
Sunday, March 15 – Atlanta
Saturday, March 21 – San Diego
Thursday, March 26 – Atlanta
Friday, April 17 – Columbus
Friday, May 1 – Omaha
Sunday, May 3 – Orlando

Leading the team into its first season is head coach Shannon Winzer, who was named to the role in September. The January debut places Dallas at the center of the league’s early growth as women’s professional volleyball continues to gain momentum nationwide.

The timing feels right for North Texas. The region has long been a volleyball hotbed, producing elite athletes through nationally recognized club programs, championship high school teams and top-tier collegiate programs. Until now, many of those players, and the fans who followed them, had no local professional team to rally behind.

Dallas Pulse leadership told WFAA that they hope to change that.

Season ticket deposits are currently open, and the Pulse holds the No. 1 overall pick in the Major League Volleyball Draft scheduled for Nov. 24, giving the team a chance to add a cornerstone player ahead of its debut season.

Major League Volleyball is also preparing for future growth, announcing plans to add expansion teams in Washington, D.C. and Northern California in 2027.

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Iola outside hitter takes top honor on Texas 2A all-state volleyball team | APG State News

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6 hours ago

January 2, 2026

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Tritons Set for Preseason North American Challenge

Published

7 hours ago

January 2, 2026

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LONG BEACH, Calif. — UC San Diego men’s volleyball will prepare for the upcoming season with four exhibitions this weekend as part of the North American Challenge. The event will be hosted by Long Beach State on Friday and Sunday at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.

The Tritons will play two Canadian sides, Alberta and Calagry. They will play each team once on both days of the challenge.

SCHEDULE

Friday, Jan. 2

2 PM – vs Calgary

4:30 PM – vs Alberta

Sunday, Jan. 4

12:30 PM – vs Alberta

3 PM – vs Calgary

Live stats for all four matches will be available HERE. Fans interested in attending matches can purchase tickets through Long Beach State HERE.

UP NEXT
The Tritons open the 2026 season at home next Tuesday, Jan. 6. Jessup will visit LionTree Arena for a match that begins at 7 PM.

About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West in NCAA Division I. The 24-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 39 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world’s preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in NCAA Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.