Minor league notes on Welty, Mahoney, Hobgood, Mummey and more

One of the hottest bats right now in the O's minors belongs to Frederick Keys right fielder Ronnie Welty. He is batting .429-0-10 during an 11-game batting streak which has featured nine games of two hits or more. Welty has raised his average on the year from .247 to .279 with the hot streak. On the season, the O's 20th-round pick from 2008 is batting .279-9-46. The one stat that is glaring on his record is a whopping 95 strikeouts in 73 games and he leads the Carolina League in that category. Frederick pitcher Nate Moreau will make his second Keys start tonight at Kinston. His first resulted in the 6th no-hitter in team history last Wednesday night at Salem. Frederick first baseman Joe Mahoney, who is batting .308-9-49, has missed a couple of games with some soreness in his upper back. The injury is minor and he may be able to play tonight. But since Frederick is off tomorrow, they could also hold him out to give him more time. Mahoney, who is 7th in the league in batting and 6th in RBI, hit .326-4-20 in June. Triple-A Norfolk plays at Charlotte this afternoon with Chris Tillman (7-4, 3.07) on the mound. Zach Britton is set to make his second Norfolk start tomorrow night at Gwinnett. Norfolk's Jeff Salazar is batting .319-5-14 over his last 18 games and Paco Figueroa is hitting .359-1-7 over his last 14 contests and batting .301 on the year. O's fourth-round pick, Trent Mummey, has gone 6 for 9 with a homer and 2 RBI over his past two games at Aberdeen. The outfielder from Auburn is batting .325-1-4 in nine games with the IronBirds. Matt Hobgood returns to the Delmarva rotation tonight. He has not pitched since June 11 due to shoulder soreness and could be limited to a few innings tonight since he has been out several weeks. Hobgood is 3-6, 4.48 on the season. Steven Bumbry now has a team-leading nine triples for the Shorebirds, the most by a Delmarva player since Nate Spears hit 11 in 2004. The team record is 18 set by B.J. Littleton in 2001.