Allard, Staumont among top prospect performers Thursday

Braves' No. 4 fires six scoreless; Royals' No. 11 goes 6 1/3 of his own

September 16th, 2016

Kolby Allard spun another gem as Rome beat Lakewood 2-0 to take a 2-1 series lead in the Class A South Atlantic League Finals on Thursday.
Allard, the Braves' No. 4 prospect (No. 63 overall), threw 69 of his 100 pitches for strikes and struck out nine in six scoreless innings.
The 19-year-old lefty has won six consecutive decisions, and after going 5-3 with a 3.73 in 11 starts during the regular season, has been even more dominant in the postseason.
Allard has made two starts in the playoffs and given up nine hits, including six on Thursday, over 12 scoreless frames.
The rest of the best performances from top prospects Thursday:
• Tyler O'Neill (Mariners' No. 2, No. 62 overall) led Jackson to a Double-A Southern League title, going 3-for-6 with an RBI. O'Neill, who was named the Southern League MVP after he hit .293 with 102 RBIs, hit .448 in seven playoff games.

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• Austin Riley (Braves' No. 13) is making good use of the long ball for Rome in the Class A South Atlantic League Finals. Riley went 1-for-3 with a walk and a solo homer in Game 3 and has now gone deep in each of the past two games. The 19-year-old hit 20 homers in 129 games during the regular season, his first full year as a professional.
"He started me with a curveball that I swung and fouled off and then came back with another curveball that I took. So in my mind, I was thinking there was a good chance he was going to come back with a fastball," Riley told MiLB.com. "That's what I sat on and he kind of left it over the plate. I put a pretty good swing on it."
(Braves' No. 18) snapped an 0-for-11 skid with a four-hit performance for the M-Braves in a season-ending loss to Double-A Jackson. Peterson hit a solo homer in Mississippi's 11-3 loss and batted .345 during the postseason. Braves No. 29 prospect A.J. Minter needed only six pitches to toss a perfect frame in relief in his first appearance in the Southern League Finals. The 23-year-old lefty struck out one and finished the postseason with four strikeouts in 3 1/3 perfect innings.
• Walker Buehler (Dodgers' No. 7) put together a short-but-effective start for Class A Great Lakes as the Loons evened up the Midwest League Finals at one game apiece. Buehler, the Dodgers' first-round pick in 2015, threw 43 pitches (29 strikes) and gave up two hits in three scoreless innings. He struck out four.
• Omar Estevez (Dodgers' No. 12) provided the bulk of the offense for Class A Great Lakes. The second baseman put the Loons on the board with a two-run single in the third and later scored a run in the seventh. Estevez finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs in the 4-0 win.
"It was huge," Great Lakes manager told MiLB.com. "He continues to be clutch for us. He's been clutch for us in most situations and finds a way to come through for us when he comes up in situations like that. It's nothing that's surprising, It's just awesome for an 18-year-old to be playing this way."
(Phillies' No. 29) threw well, but a couple of mistakes proved costly for Lakewood in Game 3 of the Class A South Atlantic League Finals. Tirado struck out the side in the third but gave up a solo homer to lead off the fourth. The 21-year-old threw five innings, struck out seven and gave up two earned runs on six hits.
• Jose Trevino (Rangers' No. 21) helped High Desert to a win in Game 1 of the California League Finals. The 23-year-old catcher went 3-for-6 with a home run and three RBIs in his club's 5-4 extra-innings win over Visalia.
• Josh Staumont (Royals' No. 11) gave Northwest Arkansas exactly what it needed. Facing elimination in the Double-A Texas League Finals, the right-hander fired 6 1/3 scoreless innings. Staumont threw 59 of his 89 pitches for strikes and gave up just three hits while notching eight strikeouts.

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