Monday night's game at Appalachian Power Park between the West Virginia Power and Lakewood BlueClaws came down to a simple game of give and take.

In this case, West Virginia seemingly gave the game away, then took it right back, all in the same inning of an 8-4 win.

In the top half of the sixth inning, the situation looked bleak for the home team. 

Some shaky defense, a walk and a chopper over first baseman Calvin Anderson's head, led to three Lakewood runs and, turned a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 lead for the BlueClaws (48-32 overall, 6-6 second half).

But after struggling with the bats through the first five innings, the Power (35-46, 8-3) created a miniature spray chart at the expense of BlueClaws reliever Ryan Bergh (1-2), slapping, looping, and lacing five consecutive base hits to all fields. Four runs scored, highlighted by a two-run, game-tying double by Adenson Chourio.

But late-inning rallies are no longer surprising to Power manager Gary Green, who believes an effective offense is becoming the norm for his surging team.

"Well it's been a trend over about the last eight weeks," said Green referring to his team's comebacks. "The offense has battled, battled, and battled, and just hasn't quit."

Green is also seeing confidence build in the clubhouse as his team continues to ride a wave of momentum to begin the second half of the South Atlantic League season. The Power owns the top spot in the Northern Division standings by a full game over Hickory and Kannapolis.

"Once you start having a little bit of success and you see that you can do some things and come back, I think they start to believe and I think it's starting to manifest itself into confidence," said Green.

In addition to a West Virginia win, it was also a night of firsts at Appalachian Power Park.

Power starter Quinton Miller made his home debut and cruised through most of the first five innings, sporting a low 90s fastball and mixing in a high-70s breaking ball to keep Lakewood hitters mostly off balance.

"That's the second time we've seen him, and he's thrown the ball good twice," said Green. "He's got a bright future."

Monday night's game at Appalachian Power Park between the West Virginia Power and Lakewood BlueClaws came down to a simple game of give and take.

In this case, West Virginia seemingly gave the game away, then took it right back, all in the same inning of an 8-4 win.

In the top half of the sixth inning, the situation looked bleak for the home team. 

Some shaky defense, a walk and a chopper over first baseman Calvin Anderson's head, led to three Lakewood runs and, turned a 1-1 tie into a 4-1 lead for the BlueClaws (48-32 overall, 6-6 second half).

But after struggling with the bats through the first five innings, the Power (35-46, 8-3) created a miniature spray chart at the expense of BlueClaws reliever Ryan Bergh (1-2), slapping, looping, and lacing five consecutive base hits to all fields. Four runs scored, highlighted by a two-run, game-tying double by Adenson Chourio.

But late-inning rallies are no longer surprising to Power manager Gary Green, who believes an effective offense is becoming the norm for his surging team.

"Well it's been a trend over about the last eight weeks," said Green referring to his team's comebacks. "The offense has battled, battled, and battled, and just hasn't quit."

Green is also seeing confidence build in the clubhouse as his team continues to ride a wave of momentum to begin the second half of the South Atlantic League season. The Power owns the top spot in the Northern Division standings by a full game over Hickory and Kannapolis.

"Once you start having a little bit of success and you see that you can do some things and come back, I think they start to believe and I think it's starting to manifest itself into confidence," said Green.

In addition to a West Virginia win, it was also a night of firsts at Appalachian Power Park.

Power starter Quinton Miller made his home debut and cruised through most of the first five innings, sporting a low 90s fastball and mixing in a high-70s breaking ball to keep Lakewood hitters mostly off balance.

"That's the second time we've seen him, and he's thrown the ball good twice," said Green. "He's got a bright future."

Miller gave up two earned runs on four hits and a walk while striking out five, but exited before the Power seized the lead.

Lakewood starter Jason Knapp (2-6) was equally effective and also not a factor in the decision. Knapp was also consistently in the 90 mph range, peaking at 95. Coming off a 12-strikeout game, he fanned five and gave up one run on five hits in a walk in five innings.

Another first for West Virginia was the debut of Casey Erickson (1-0), who earned the victory after relieving Miller in the critical sixth inning. Monday night marked Erickson's first action since coming over as part of a trade with the Yankees for Pirates rightfielder Erik Hinske.

But the feel-good story of the night was that of Duke Welker, who notched his first save of the season, tossing three scoreless innings to close the game for West Virginia. Welker has struggled this season to an 0-9 record with an earned-run average well above 5.00, but Green hopes Monday's appearance is the beginning of a turnaround.

"Probably the best part of the night was Welker coming out of the bullpen and throwing the ball like that," said Green. "He's struggled this year and that's as good as I've seen him for three innings. That was outstanding.

"He's put in a lot of hard work over the past two years, not only for us as an organization burt for him as a player, and hopefully we are starting to see some of the benefits of that for him."

Quincy Latimore extended his hitting streak to 11 games, going 3-for-5 with a triple, double and the go-ahead RBI. Latimore has driven in 15 runs during the streak. Tony Sanchez continues to impress as well, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs.

The teams will conclude the series tonight at 7:05.

Reach Ryan Pritt at 304-348-1749 or jcantrellf...@aol.com.