Connor Wietgrefe kept sending Gwinnett hitters back to the dugout without a hit, while the Indianapolis offense kept giving him more room to work. By the time his six hitless innings were complete, a commanding lead had become an avalanche on the way to a 15-0 Indians victory Thursday at Gwinnett Field.
Wietgrefe struck out seven and walked two, earning the win with six scoreless innings. He allowed only those two walks — one in the third and another in the fourth — and finished his outing by striking out Luke Williams and Jim Jarvis around a groundout in the sixth.
The offense had made the assignment comfortable almost immediately.
Mitch Jebb opened the game with an infield single, and Enmanuel Valdez added another hit after Duce Gourson struck out. Jhostynxon Garcia then punished a pitch over the heart of the plate, sending a towering drive deep to left for a three-run homer. The ball was well gone, and Indianapolis had all the scoring it would need before Gwinnett came to bat.
Garcia finished 2-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs. His ninth homer established the direction of the game; his run-scoring single in the sixth helped turn it into a rout.
Indianapolis kept applying pressure against Drue Hackenberg, scoring in four consecutive innings from the third through the sixth. Jebb doubled in the third and came home when Valdez drove a sharp fly ball off the base of the center-field wall, cruising into second with an RBI double.
Nick Cimillo doubled and scored on Gourson’s two-out single in the fourth. In the fifth, Robert Hassell III singled, and Mike Jarvis drove him home with a double to center. Tyler Callihan followed with a liner down the right-field line that stayed fair and disappeared for his 10th home run, extending the lead to 8-0.
Hackenberg’s night ended there after eight earned runs in five innings. Against Ricky Vanasco in the sixth, the Indians removed whatever suspense remained.
Gourson walked, Valdez doubled and Garcia singled home a run. A Hassell walk loaded the bases before Jarvis drew another walk to force in Valdez. Callihan lined a bases-loaded single to left for his third RBI of the game.
Cimillo supplied the inning’s exclamation point. He drove a breaking ball the other way, clearing the right-field fence and landing it in the Indianapolis bullpen for a grand slam. The seven-run inning had pushed the margin to 15-0 before Vanasco recorded his second out; he left after allowing seven earned runs while getting only one.
Cimillo went 3-for-5 with a double, his 15th homer and four RBIs. Callihan was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs, while Valdez collected three hits, including two doubles, and scored twice. Jebb also had three hits, a double and two runs as Indianapolis finished with 17 hits.
The score stopped growing after the sixth, but the shutout held. CD Pelham navigated two scoreless innings after Gwinnett collected its first two hits in the seventh, getting a pair of double plays along the way. Derek Diamond allowed a leadoff double in the ninth before retiring the next three hitters, including a strikeout of David McCabe.
Gwinnett finished with three hits. Indianapolis made no errors and produced the sort of complete game that leaves little room for complication: six hitless innings from its starter, three home runs from its lineup and a 15-run margin by the middle of the sixth.