Dash announce starting rotation

Cease, Dunning headline starting staff

The Dash have set the season’s starting rotation in advance of Thursday’s season opener. Right-hander Dane Dunning will be on the hill for Winston-Salem when the Dash face off with the Mudcats in Zebulon, N.C. First pitch is at 7:00 p.m. This will be Dunning’s first career opening day start.Left-hander Bernardo Flores, the lone southpaw in the rotation, gets the ball for the second game of the season. Flores will be followed by right-hander Dylan Cease, right-hander Jimmy Lambert and right-hander Ricardo Pinto. Pinto will open next week’s three-game series at Myrtle Beach. Cease is lined up to start the Dash’s home opener on April 12 against Carolina.

Dunning, a 2016 first-round pick by the Washington Nationals out of the University of Florida, began last season with Low-A Kannapolis, where he went 2–0 with a 0.35 ERA en route to earning White Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Month honors and a promotion to Winston-Salem. Dunning, the White Sox sixth-ranked prospect and 92nd overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, made 22 starts for the Dash last season, posting a 6–8 record and a 3.51 ERA. Both his ERA and his 135 strikeouts ranked fourth in the league.

Flores, a 2016 seventh-round pick out of the University of Southern California, split last season between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem, going a combined 10–7 with a 3.42 ERA en route to being named an MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. He joined the Dash in late June and made nine starts, going 2–3 with a 4.24 ERA, striking out 33 and walking 19 in 40.1 innings.

Cease is the White Sox fifth-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. The right-hander joined the organization as part of the Jose Quintana trade with the Chicago Cubs last July. Between Low-A South Bend (CHC) and Kannapolis last season, Cease went 1–10 with a 3.28 ERA, striking out 126 and walking 44. Before departing South Bend, he was named a Midseason Midwest League All-Star. Cease, a sixth-round pick by the Cubs in 2014 out of high school in Georgia, is also the 61st-ranked prospect in baseball.

Lambert, like Flores, split last season between Kannapolis and Winston-Salem. The right-hander shined with the Intimidators, earning Midseason South Atlantic League All-Star honors after going 7–2 with a 2.19 ERA in 12 first-half starts. After he was promoted to the Dash in late June, Lambert went 5–4 with a 5.45 ERA in 14 starts. Lambert’s 12 overall wins last season were the most by a White Sox farmhand.

Pinto was acquired by the White Sox last week from the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for international signing bonus pool money. The right-hander made 25 appearances with the Phillies last season, posting a 7.89 ERA with 25 strikeouts and 17 walks in 29.2 innings. While he was not listed among the Phillies’ top-30 prospects ahead of the 2017 season, he was graded as having the best changeup in Philadelphia’s system. Pinto last pitched at the High-A level in 2015 with the Clearwater Threshers (PHI) in the Florida State League, where we went 9–2 with a 2.87 ERA in 13 starts.

The 2018 season begins on Thursday when the Dash travel to Zebulon, N.C., to take on the Carolina Mudcats. The season opener will be broadcast live on WSJS Sports (600 AM and 101.5 FM), wsjssports.com and the TuneIn Radio App.

Winston-Salem’s home opener is set for Thursday, April 12, against Carolina. Single-game tickets and season-ticket packages are on sale now. For more information, call the Dash at (336) 714–2287 or visit wsdash.com.