Mark Maloney on Kentucky sports

South Atlantic League baseball

Coming up

Lexington Legends vs. Charleston RiverDogs

What: Four-game series

When: Friday through Monday (7:05 each night except Sunday, 5:05)

Where: Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park, a.k.a. “The Joe” (Charleston, S.C.)

Probable pitchers (Legends listed first): Friday, RH Jordan Lyles (5-9, 3.61) vs. RH Jairo Heredia (0-0, 2.25); Saturday, LH Brad Dydalewicz (5-4, 3.38) vs. LH Manny Banuelos (8-4, 2.60); Sunday, RH Ross Seaton (7-8, 2.82) vs. LH Trent Lare (3-2, 1.07 for Staten Island, New York-Penn League); Monday, LH David Duncan (1-2, 3.60) vs. RH Cory Arbiso (3-7, 3.18).

RiverDog to watch: OF Melky Mesa (6-foot-1, 185 pounds, from Haina, Dominican Republic) ranks second in the league with 20 homers and is fourth with 65 RBI. In addition to homers and RBI, he leads the RiverDogs in runs (63), hits (90), at-bats (370), doubles (22), total bases (184) and walks (41). Hitting .243 with 10 stolen bases over 99 games, he also is among the SAL’s top 10 in triples (6) and slugging percentage (.497). However, he’s also second in the league with 123 strikeouts. Signed by the New York Yankees six years ago, when he was 16, Mesa spent two seasons in the Dominican Summer League and two more in the Gulf Coast League. Last year, with Staten Island, he hit .221 with seven homers and 23 RBI over 46 games. Fourteen of his 27 hits went for extra bases.

Brandon Wikoff

Legend to watch: SS Brandon Wikoff (5-8, 170, from Peoria, Ill.) is the first 2009 draft pick to join the Legends. Up from Tri-City of the New York-Penn League, he swaps roster spots with Jorge DeLeon. Wikoff has hits in his first three games with the Legends, going 5-for-11 (.455) and scoring twice. In 28 games with Tri-City, he hit .287 with two RBI, 12 runs and a pair of stolen bases. Selected by the Houston Astros in the fifth round of last month’s draft, out of the University of Illinois, finished his days with the Illini on a career-best 18-game hitting streak, including nine multi-hit games. An all-Big Ten pick, he had 23 multi-hit games in the season, started all 56 games and reached base in every game except one. He played third base as a freshman (2007), before moving to short. He led his high school team to the Illinois State Tournament in 2005 and 2006.

Radio: WLXG AM-1300

Koby Clemens

Also of note: Mike Tauser’s “Farmstros Five” for the week of July 22-28 include former Legend Koby Clemens, now with the Lancaster JetHawks. The weekly list of top performers in the Astros system (click here: http://farmstros.blogspot.com/) also includes Gulf Coast League Astros IF Luis Bryan, Tri-City ValleyCats RHP Max Fearnow and Round Rock Express RHP Yorman Bazardo. Top performer is plural this week, designated as the Dominican Summer League Astros pitching trio.