Mizzou Baseball in the Minors

■ RHP Andrew Johnston (05) was 13-for-13 in save opportunities until he blew one on May 24. He earned his first win instead (milb.com)

■ First round draft pick Aaron Crow pitches Fort Worth Cats to victory (Forth Worth Star-Telegram):

Crow (06-07), a 2008 first-round selection in the major league draft, pitched six shutout innings, allowing only three hits, with four strikeouts and no walks on 67 pitches.

"I felt pretty good," Crow said. "I had really good command today and was throwing a lot of strikes, so I felt pretty good about that."

Crow, who is re-entering this year’s draft after declining a contract last year with the Washington Nationals, said he’ll throw one last time during the Cats’ May 29-31 homestand before the 2009 draft in June.

Things turned a bit interesting in Crow’s final inning when he hit Carlos Arroyo with a pitch. Arroyo didn’t take the plunking sportingly and threw a bat toward Crow. Cats catcher Kelley Gulledge immediately stepped in front of Arroyo as both teams wound up on the field. No punches were thrown.

■ San Antonio starter Nathan Culp (04-06) needed just 59 pitches to get through six innings. The Hooks’ situational hitting also was subpar, going 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. (Caller.com)

■ Starting pitcher Rick Zagone (06-07) struck out 10 batters in six innings, and the Shorebirds held off Hickory, 1-0. The 22-year-old left-hander gave up two hits and issued three walks. (Baltimore Sun)

■ The Oklahoma City Redhawks may have also lost starting pitcher Doug Mathis (05) who went 2 1/3 innings on May 25th before being lifted for a possible call-up to Texas, according to NewsOK.com. AS of this morning (May 27th), that transaction had not yet taken place.

■ Erik Dessau (04-05) is now playing in the independent Golden League for the Calgary Vipers. He pitched his 1st league game 5/25/09 & got a win. The Vipers won 10-3 over the Victoria Seals.

■ James Boone (03-05), of the Altoona Curve, was on hand at the local Barnes & Noble, along with his General Manager and the Curve Mascot, to read baseball-themed stories to local kids.

■ Justin James (02-03) had a good outing for the Kansas City T-Bones this weekend, according to kansascitykansan.com:

Game two was considerably less quiet, as Justin James' shut down Winnipeg, pitching six solid innings and allowed just two runs and four hits.

■ Garret Broshuis (02-04) has a new Prospect Diary at Baseball America:

Collectively, the bullpen views kids much the same way the hippo views the oxpecker. The hippo gains a lot from this bird, as it eats all the bugs that inevitably cover its four-ton body—an impossible task for those stumpy little legs to perform. But all that pecking and noise that birds make has to get annoying. They fly around, yap at each other, and invite their friends to the tea party. Before long, what began as a single symbiotic relationship turns into a bird fiesta. And birds smell. After a while, all the hippo wants to do is lay in his muck in peace. Yet the birds keep yapping and pecking, yapping and pecking, yapping and pecking. Before long, the hippo loses it: he opens his giant mouth and screams. The birds frantically scatter.

■ Speaking of blogging ballplayers, Hunter Mense (04-06) has a recent entry at The Life and Times of Aitch:

They actually keep a hard hit column from team to team in our organization. The first month I was second on the team in hard hit balls, so the way I look at it is if I keep hitting the ball hard eventually they’ll find holes and eventually the balls that I hit hard and got out on will lead to a broken bat hit or an infield single. The challenge when you struggle numbers wise is to get away from what works and mentally try to do things that aren’t capable of doing from at- bat to at-bat. For example, in a single at-bat you’re only going to be able to at most get one hit. It’s a slow and gradual process to turning things around but if you stick with your plan and stay positive then things will turn around.