BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN

STAR CORRESPONDENT

Prelander Berroa, Dylan Thomas, Cody Laweryson, and Nate Hadley all right-handed pitchers were on the Elizabethton Twins roster at season’s start.

Those players all have moved along to Cedar Rapids and or to other organizations in the case of Berroa who was involved in a major league trade.

Manager Ray Smith commented on that prior to opening day saying, “The roster you see now is not that same as the one we’ll have at the end of the season. Our objective is to get them in, coach them up and move them out. That’s what we do here. We want to move guys up as quickly as possible.”

Along with catcher Alex Isola and first baseman / designated hitter Albee Weiss and shortstop Spencer Steer it has been a busy season of shuffling and reshuffling the deck while trying to continue winning ballgames.

That hasn’t been easy as since July 23 the Twins have a record of 5-7 and if not for some late heroics by Charlie Mack, Seth Gray and Kidany Salva it would be much worse.

The players all understand and left-handed reliever Erik Cha commented on the roster moves saying, “100 percent we go with what we have here. The new guys come in and are welcomed and we go play baseball. That’s how it goes.”

Danville first baseman Bryce Ball continues to look like the league’s MVP with a batting average of .323 with 13 home runs – which leads the league – and 35 runs batted in.

Ball – at one time led in all three categories – but now is fourth in average, and second to Bluefield first baseman Spencer Horwitz (37) in RBI.

Twins right-hander Ben Gross (3-1, 3.78) had a rough outing in Burlington on July 30 giving up five earned runs in 2.2 innings to see his ERA rise from 2.64 to his current 3.78. Gross’ 33.1 innings of work are not enough to qualify for the league pitching stats.

Adrian Alcantara (2-3) of Burlington continues to lead in that category with a 1.93 mark. Braves lefty Mitch Stallings leads the league pitchers with 57 strikeouts in 47.0 innings with a 2.49 ERA but has a record of just 3-4.

Of course, even qualifying for a decision is tough these days with so many good relievers, but credit Stallings for hanging in long enough to get a decision, win or lose.

Princeton catcher Luis Leon moved to the top of the batting chase with a .338 mark, followed by Horwitz .333, Burlington catcher Logan Porter .330, Ball .323 and Bristol second baseman Francisco Acuna rounds out the top five with a .311 mark.

Team standings see Johnson City (25-19) with a two-game lead on the Twins (23-21) in the West Division while Pulaski (30-14) has a 5.5 game lead on Burlington (25-20) in the East Division.

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