Braves' Langeliers posts first four-hit game

Shea Langeliers broke out of a slump in a big way Tuesday.
Atlanta's fifth-ranked prospect went 4-for-5 with four runs scored as Class A Rome rolled to a 14-4 victory over Kannapolis at State Mutual Stadium. The hits and runs scored were career highs.

The result helped Langeliers emerge from a tough stretch in which he felt he couldn't hit the ball, a problem that was compounded by the fact he was trying to do too much at the plate.
"I started to swing at pitches out of the zone and not staying in my approach," said the right-handed hitter. "I was trying to do too much with certain pitches instead of putting a good swing on it and taking a hard-hit ball somewhere. That's what I did tonight, try to get out of my own head and swing at strikes and put the ball in play hard."
Langeliers went hitless in his previous 14 at-bats before blooping a 1-1 pitch by Davis Martin into right field for a leadoff single in the second inning.
"I was just thinking to myself, 'Basically if it's a strike, if it looks good, I'm gonna put my best swing on it,'" Langeliers said. "When you get one to fall in like that, you start to feel a little bit better at the plate, a little more comfortable. And it goes a long way."
With two outs in the third, the catcher beat out a roller he deemed "a little firmer than a bunt" down the third-base line on another 1-1 offering from the right-hander.
Gameday box score 
The only Intimidator who retired Langeliers was 6-foot-9 righty Lane Ramsey, who struck out MLB.com's No. 67 overall prospect in the fifth.
After Bryce Ball led off the seventh with a homer off right-hander J.B. Olson, Langeliers lined a 1-2 offering to left for a single and his first three-hit game since July 27. An inning later, the Baylor product lined Olson's first pitch to right for his fourth single of the evening.
Langeliers was batting .167 (9-for-54) in August coming into the game. The ninth overall pick in this year's Draft was hitting .160 (17-for-106) on the road, but batting .318 (22-for-69) when in Rome.
"Honestly, it's just gotta be at home, it's a different routine," he said. "I feel more comfortable. I can go hit off the tee in the cage if I want to."

While Langeliers likes to arrive at his friendly confines six hours before first pitch, the Braves tend to get to the road ballpark four hours prior to game time.
"It's just more comfortable being at home," he said. ""There's an extra two hours in there where I can go do whatever I want and get my mind right for the game."
Overall, the 21-year-old raised his slash line to .223/.289/.309 with two homers, 32 RBIs and 21 runs scored in 44 South Atlantic League games.
Justin Dean, Atlanta's No. 23 prospect, went 3-for-6 with two RBIs and a run. It was the fifth multi-hit performance in his last seven games and raised his August average to .384.