Ornelas to Wichita; Church to Return

ORNELAS TO FORESTERS

Lompocan BEN ORNELAS has joined the Santa Barbara Foresters for the National Baseball Congress (NBC) World Series in Wichita.

The Foresters, perennial champions of the California Collegiate League, are 37-13 this season. They also are the NBC defending champions.

Ornelas played the summer with the Santa Maria Packers where he batted 319, third best on the team. In the spring at Lewis-Clark University in Idaho Ornelas pounded the ball at a .403 clip with seven home runs and 44 RBI, both second best on the team.

The Foresters open play on Thursday.

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CHURCH TO RETURN

SAN DIEGO -- Right fielder RYAN CHURCH could be back in the starting lineup for the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday afternoon when they close out their three-game series with the Padres.
Church, who missed his sixth consecutive start on Tuesday due to a sore right elbow, took regular batting practice.

"So far so good," said Church after hitting in the cage earlier in the day. "I'm going to go and take BP and come back tomorrow morning and see how I feel. If nothing is hurting, then I'll go ahead and hit tomorrow morning and play the game."

Church had a number of cortisone injections over the weekend and has responded well. He hyper-extended his elbow last month and aggravated it on a swing last week.

He was ready to take batting practice on Monday but was told to take another day off to let the anti-inflammatory medication take effect.

"I was able to do a lot of treatment and treat it on Monday," said Church. "Basically it was about getting some rest. That's the thing that they have said from Day 1 -- rest is going to help.

"But it's tough at this point of the season where you can't really sit out," Church added. "I want to play, I want to get in there and do everything possible. At the same time, you have to listen to the doctors. I think we take the right course of action and go from there."

Church is hitting .222 (8-for-36) with one home run and four RBIs since joining the Braves in the trade with the Mets for Jeff Francoeur on July 10. He has hit right-handers well this season with a .294 average (63-for-214).

Sandy Burgin is a contributor to MLB.com.