BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Johnson City’s three-game sweep of Greeneville – coupled with Elizabethton losing two of three in Bristol – saw the Cardinals move into a flat-footed tie for first place in the West Division of the Appalachian League with the Twins at 21-17.

The Cards rallied from a 4-3 deficit in the seventh inning on Friday on catcher Brandon Purcell’s two-run homer, his first of the season, as JC took a 5-4 win.

On Saturday, the Cardinals once again rallied late with two in the sixth and three in the seventh to erase a 2-0 deficit and Sunday saw JC score five runs in the second and cruise to a 6-2 win.

The Twins fell on Friday night 3-2 and Saturday the Bucs blanked Betsy 1-0 behind Tanhaj Thomas who out dueled Prelander Berroa (2-1, 4.55), but did not get the decision.

Thomas surrendered just three hits over five innings while striking out seven. Berroa was nearly as sharp giving up just three hits but he walked two and struck out five.

Lefty Denny Bentley took the loss, giving up a run in the sixth when Francisco Acuna doubled in Aaron Shackelford who had walked.

The Twins took the get-away game 4-3 as Matt Wallner tripled, scoring Willie Joe Garry, Jr. and Ruben Santana and Max Smith followed with a two-run homer – his fifth of the season. Wallner continues to lead the Twins in hitting with a .302 average but the power he displayed at Southern Mississippi where he is the school’s all time leader has not shown itself at this level with just two home runs and 17 runs batted in.

The Twins and Cards have five games left against each other this season with three of those in Johnson City.

Yankees first round selection, second baseman Anthony Volpe has been on a tear at Pulaski with a three-hit effort on Saturday and has 10 hits in his last eight games.

Volpe (.207, 2HR, 8 RBI) has a .314 average over his last 10 games.

Danville’s Bryce Ball continues to lead the way in home runs (13), runs scored (32) and runs batted in (34) for the last place Braves (16-23) and lefthander Mitch Stallings (3-3) is among the leaders in earned run average at 2.70 and leads the league with 47 strikeouts.

Twins righthander Ben Gross is turning in a stellar season at 3-1 with a 2.64 ERA and 23 K’s in 30.2 innings. Burlington righty Adrian Alcantara (2-2) leads with a 1.89 earned run average over 33.1 innings with 33 strikeouts.

Pulaski (24-14) continues to wallow near the bottom of the league with a collective batting average of just .231 – ahead of only Greeneville’s .225 average, but the Yankees lead the league with 42 home runs.

The Twins are second with 34 and are third in the league with a .260 average. Princeton leads with a .282 mark followed by Bluefield at .267.

On the pitching side, Pulaski is tops with a 3.68 mark followed by Burlington 3.80 and Elizabethton 4.00.

Games this week include Elizabethton at Burlington, Greeneville at Bristol, Johnson City at Princeton, Danville at Pulaski and Kingsport at Bluefield.