BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Elizabethton Twins infielder Spencer Steer came in a little later than the rest of his Twins teammates but he has rapidly caught up with and passed a good many of them in the Appalachian League batting title race.

Steer – currently fourth with a .353 average – trails only Danville’s Bryce Ball (.389), Bluefield’s duo of Spencer Horwitz (.375) and Angel Camacho (.355).

Ball currently leads the league in the Triple Crown categories of batting, home runs (5) and runs batted in (13) and was named Player of the Week for the first week of the season.

The Twins (7-5) trail Johnson City (7-4) in the West Division by a half-game after a three-game sweep of Greeneville at Pioneer Park.

On Friday night Steer had a 3-for-5 night with a double and four RBI to help right-hander Ben Gross (1-0, 3.60) earn his first victory by a 7-2 tally.

On Saturday Steer collected two more base knocks and first baseman Albee Weiss socked two home runs as the Twins won 8-1 behind Andriu Marin (1-1, 4.00) who went five innings striking out five and walking two.

Elizabethton completed the sweep on Sunday with a 4-2 win in 10 innings.

Nate Hadley (1-0, 1.50) got the win with two innings of relief in which he struck out three and walked none. Dylan Thomas earned his first save in that one.

Gross is among the early ERA leaders in the league with his 3.60 mark. He has pitched ten innings and given up ten hits, five runs, with four of those earned. He has struck out seven and walked two.

The current league leader is Danville lefty Mitch Stallings who has yet to surrender an earned run in 11.2 innings of work. He has surrendered just six hits while striking out 16 and walking only one.

Cardinals right-handers Francisco Justo and Wilfredo Pereira are both in the top five earned run average leaders.

Justo is second with a 0.79 ERA over 11.1 innings with 11 strikeouts and just two free passes. Justo has given up only two runs with one earned.

Pereira’s (1-0) numbers are stellar with a 0.90 ERA over ten innings with just one earned run given up with eight K’s and two walks.

The Pulaski Yankees have right-hander Yoendrys Gomez (2-0, 0.82) leading in wins. Gomez has given up one earned run over ten innings with 10 K’s and two walks.

The Burlington Royals boast a pair of hurlers with great numbers in Adrian Alcantara (1-1, 1.54) and Delvin Cappellan (2-0, 2.40).

Another Danville lefty Filyer Sanchez (1-1, 3.00) has pitched 12 innings and given up four earned runs.

Games on tap for this Fourth of July week include Elizabethton at Pulaski for a three-game set July 1-3, Greeneville at Johnson City, Bristol at Kingsport, Princeton at Burlington and Bluefield at Danville.

The Twins come home to Northeast Community Credit Union ballpark on July 4 beginning a three-game set with Kingsport.