Independent Baseball Insider – by Bob Wirz
Onetime Wichita reliever James Hoyt (2012) received the honor of collecting the last three outs as Fresno (Houston) thumped Columbus (Cleveland) 7-0 in the Triple-A championship game this week. The 28-year-old righthander, who got a long look in the parent Astros’ spring training camp (0.00 ERA with 14 strikeouts over 9.2 innings in nine appearances), threw strikes on 11 of his 13 pitches while allowing a harmless hit and picking up one strikeout, capping a year in which he appeared 47 times (regular season) and struck out 66 in 49 innings. Hoyt seems well-positioned for another long look next spring.
Shortstop K.C. Serna (Amarillo) was part of Reading’s Eastern League Championship Series runnerup team (Philadelphia) while outfielder Edgar Corcino (El Paso) was in the Midwest League’s playoff finale even though his Cedar Rapids (Minnesota) club lost out to West Michigan.