Cubs Minor League News: Cole Mathis powers Solar Sox past Desert Dogs |
Dustin Riese
· · 3 hours ago
MESA - Another typical day in the desert had the ball flying at Sloan Park, where the Mesa Solar Sox and Glendale Desert Dogs got together to put on an offensive show. Behind a trio of big innings, two coming from Mesa, you had 17 combined runs scored on 21 hits as pitching was an issue from start to finish. The end result was another big win for the Solar Sox as they took down the Desert Dogs 11-6 to kick off another week of competition in style.
Despite their early-season struggles, where wins were tough to come by, Mesa has done a great job battling back and is now sitting at 7-10 on the season. This was one of those days decided by the big as both teams combined for four innings of at least three runs to do most of the damage. Three of those innings came from Mesa as all 10 of their runs came in those three innings, with four coming in the second, ahead of back-to-back three-run innings in the sixth and seventh. Once again, it was the Cubs' dynamic duo providing plenty of offense as the Owen Ayers and Cole Mathis show continued. Usually, Ayers is the one we tend to put the most focus on, but tonight was all about Mathis as he put together by far his best game of the season thus far. Not only did Mathis pick up an RBI single to push the Solar Sox lead to 4-0 in the second, but he added his second hit as part of the Solar Sox three-run seventh inning as he uncorked a 425 foot blast to push the Solar Sox lead to 10-3 and capped off a two-hit and five RBI night as he raised his average to .364 for the season. Ayers was far quieter than he has been; that doesn’t take away from him having another solid game, as that has become the norm all season for this team. With two more hits and three walks, Ayers not only reached base five more times, but has pushed his season average to .425 in the process. One of those hits provided another RBI as he drove home the Solar Sox's final run in the eighth off an RBI single to make things 11-4 before pulling out an 11-6 win. While the Cubs hitters once again put on an impressive showing, their pitching was an issue, as it was Matthew Peters' turn to take the mound. Of the four pitchers currently on the Solar Sox roster, Peters has pitched the fewest innings, as he has often been thrown into tough situations. For the most part, Peters has delivered and has found a way to pitch out of those jams, but on this night, he didn’t have his best stuff, and it came back to bite him. Expected to go at least one inning if not two, Peters didn’t even make it out of his initial inning of work as he finished the day with only 1/3 of an inning thrown. Granted, he only gave up one hit in that inning, but he was charged with three runs as his command was a problem. Peters has had brief command issues throughout this season, but nothing like this one: he walked four in 1/3 of an inning and failed to record a strikeout in the Solar Sox win. Crushed this one to the sun ☀️
Cole Mathis (CHC No. 17) hits a 425 ft blast to score 3 for the Mesa Solar Sox. pic.twitter.com/2iXUTHP6b0
