Riley swinging boom stick for Stripers

Slow start? What slow start?
After posting a .180 average through his first 12 games of the season, Austin Riley continued to put his early struggles behind him on Wednesday with a 4-for-5 performance -- including a pair of dingers, a double, two RBIs and three runs scored -- in Triple-A Gwinnett's 10-7 International League loss to Charlotte at BB&T Ballpark.

It's the eighth multi-hit effort of the season for the fifth-ranked Braves prospect, who extended his hitting streak to six games and his on-base streak to 17 games. It was also the fifth four-hit effort of Riley's professional career -- the 22-year-old achieved the feat twice last season with the Stripers and twice in 2017 with Class A Advanced Florida.
MLB.com's No. 35 overall prospect has 13 hits in his last 24 at-bats with five long balls, four doubles, a pair of walks, nine RBIs and nine runs scored, and brought his batting average up to .293. His seven dingers are tied for third-best in the IL, while his 19 runs scored ranks sixth in the circuit.
Gameday box score
Against the Knights, Riley lined up a 1-1 offering from right-hander Donn Roach and sent it into left field for a base hit in the opening frame. The No. 41 overall pick in 2015 stepped in against Roach again with one out in the third, and laced a double to left. He would come in to score five pitches later when Adam Duvall hit a two-run blast to right.
After Gwinnett posted a four-run third, Riley led off the fourth and greeted reliever Jose Nin with a solo jack to left on a 1-1 off-speed pitch that hung too high in the zone.

The Mississippi native stepped to the dish a triple shy of the cycle in the sixth. After working the count full against Juan Minaya, Riley turned around the next offering from the righty and mashed it to left-center for his second solo blast of the game. It traveled an estimated 492 feet. Chicago's No. 25 prospectCaleb Frare finally retired Riley with a three-pitch punchout in the eighth.
"The first 10 or 12 games, I was hitting balls hard," Riley told MiLB.com's Joe Bloss on Saturday. "I really was. Just balls weren't falling. The bad games really turned into worse games … and it was just kind of a tumble effect. I think balls are starting to fall now and the swing is feeling better. I'm seeing pitches well."
He went on to explain that the catalyst behind his resurgence has been "pitch recognition and patience at the plate."
Riley split time between Gwinnett and Double-A Mississippi last season and also did a six-game rehab stint with the Gulf Coast League Braves. The third baseman posted a .333/.394/.677 line with 19 extra-base hits, 20 RBIs and 17 runs scored over 27 Southern League games before finishing the year with the Stripers, where he batted .282 with 12 dingers, 17 doubles, 47 RBIs and 41 runs scored in 75 IL contests.
This spring Riley made his third consecutive trip to big league camp, where he finished 14-for-54 with a pair of jacks, five walks, three RBIs and nine runs scored over 23 games Grapefruit League games.
Frare recorded his first save of the season for Charlotte after allowing a hit and fanning three over two scoreless frames to end the game and seal the comeback victory for the Knights, who trailed 7-5 heading into the home half of the sixth.
Atlanta No. 18 prospect Thomas Burrows worked around a hit and a pair of walks while whiffing one in a scoreless inning of relief for Gwinnett.