Afternoon Sports Brief - Brewers Scooter Gennett named to Major League All Star "Futures Games"

• Image

Talk about it

MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Brewers’ infield prospect Scooter Gennett was named today to the Major League All Star “Futures Game” on July 8 in Kansas City.

He was the only Brewers’ prospect chosen, and he’ll play on a team of American born minor leaguers against the World team of foreign born prospects. The 22 year old Gennett plays second base for AA Huntsville. He leads the Southern League with 83 hits in 70 games. He has a .300 batting average with three homers, 19 doubles, and 23 RBI’s. The Futures’ Game has become one of the major events at the All-Star Game. It’s normally played on the Sunday before the Mid-Summer Classic.

___________________________________________________________________________

Brewers’ closer John Axford still has his job, at least for now. Manager Ron Roenicke says Axford is quote, “still the guy” he wants for the ninth inning, even though “Ax” has blown three saves in his last five opportunities. Last year, Axford went from early April until the playoffs before he blew a save. On Tuesday, he gave up back to back homers in the ninth inning and he took the loss in 10-9 slug fest. It dropped his record to 1-4. Axford’s wife gave birth to their second child earlier on Tuesday. He said he could have taken the night off but he reported to the bullpen during the game because quote, “It’s my job for now, anyways.” Axford’s fastball has sped up this year to the 100 mile an hour range, and he’s had control problems with it. Roenicke says Axford is “scuffling,” and he’s not sure why. But he says he won’t replace Axford with Francisco Rodriguez. K Rod has 292 career saves, but he has also struggled at times this year as the eighth inning stopper. The Brewers are off today. They’ll open a three game series tomorrow night in Chicago against the White Sox.

___________________________________________________________________________

Baseball fans in Appleton will get to see a lot of Lance Roenicke, son of Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke. He only played three games for the Helena Rookie League team when he was called up to the Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Lance Roenicke, an outfielder, batted .583 in his three rookie league contests. The Brewers drafted him in the 25th round earlier this month. Also, three Timber Rattlers have been promoted to Milwaukee’s higher Class A team at Brevard County Florida. Those three are outfielder John Dishon, infielder Jason Rogers, and right handed pitcher Seth Harvey. Rogers and Harvey pitched in the Midwest League All Star Game on Tuesday night at Kane County Illinois.

__________________________________________________________________________

Madison golfer Jerry Kelly shot a four under par 66 today at the PGA’s ravelers Championship in Cromwell Connecticut. Kelly was only one shot off the lead after all 78 players in the morning group completed their opening rounds. Nathan Green and Will Claxton were both at five under par as the afternoon group was about to begin. Kelly and Seung Yul Noh were tied for third. Kelly is the only Wisconsin player in this weekend’s event.

__________________________________________________________________________

Sam Frank of Oconomowoc and Brady Strangstalien of Madison were playing this afternoon for the championship of the state men’s match play golf tournament. Frank eliminated Max Hosking one-up in this morning’s semi finals at Hidden Glen in Germantown. Strangstalien defeated Jordan Niebrugge 3-2. Niebrugge had won the state high school Division One title earlier this month. Frank defeated the state golf association’s season points leader, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo of Burlington, in their opening match on Tuesday.

__________________________________________________________________________

A state champion player has joined the Wisconsin women’s hockey team. The Badgers said today that forward Rachel Jones of Berlin will start playing for the national runner ups this fall. Jones, a 5-6 forward, helped the Madison Capitols team win three state titles during her four years in high school. She had 33 goals and 34 assists in 65 games last season. As a sophomore, Jones competed with the Capitols at the Under-16 US National tournament. And she took part in the US development camp in 2009 and 2010.

___________________________________________________________________________

Beloit College has a new women’s tennis coach. She’s Kara Amundson, a standout player at UW Whitewater. Amundson expects to get a master’s degree next May in marketing and human resources and she’s been an assistant coach for the Warhawks while pursuing her graduate degree. Amundson has over 100 victories in her Whitewater playing career.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam, brewers, badgers