Saw Kaohi Downing of Point Loma in action tonight for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes of the Class A Northwest League. He went 1-4. His hit broke up a no-hitter. An inning later, he struck out with two out and runners on first and second.

The Volcanoes have several other NAIA players on the roster who didn't see action: Brice Cutspec of Azusa Pacific, Joe Staley of Lubbock Christian, and Stephen Shackleford of Savannah College of Art and Design.

Eric Brown of British Columbia came on for the Vancouver Canadians with one out in the top of the ninth, and the bases loaded. He threw one pitch; the result was a double play that ended the inning.

Further up the ladder, Azusa Pacific alum Stephen Vogt (C, 2007) was named Minor League Player of the Year for the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Vogt, who was the Rays' 12th-round pick in the 2007 draft, hit .285 with 17 HRs and 105 RBI splitting time between AA Montgomery and AAA Durham.

http://www.durhambulls.com/team/press_release.html?id=1914

Effective the Monday before Thanksgiving, Vogt has been added to the Rays' 40-man major league roster.

With a couple of injuries to their regular outfielders, former APU C Stephen Vogt got the call last Tuesday and was on the Tampa Bay roster for opening day. In the season-opening three game sweep of the Yankees, Vogt came off the bench in two of the three games, going 0-3 at the plate.

With all the attention I was paying to Vogt's quest to make the Tampa roster, Kirk Niewenhuis (APU '08) came back from injury and hit his first MLB home run last night for the Mets, a two run shot in a 4-3 win over Washington. Here's the video:

http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=543590#gameType='R'&sectionType=career&statType=1&season=2012&level='ALL'