Well, it was due, wasn’t it? Josh Horton has been hitting well for
the C’s and the Kane County Cougars are all sorts of terrible, so why
not throw the high draftee up a level and see how he handles the pressure? Throw in a couple of injuries up the ladder, and the promotion was a sure thing. 

From Scout.com’s Oakland Clubhouse:

Horton will be replacing shortstop Mike Affronti, who was promoted to High-A Stockton. Affronti, a Midwest League All-Star in 2007, was batting .264 with five homers and 29 RBI. He was selected in the 17th round of the 2006 draft.

Affronti will replace Isaac Omura on the Ports’ roster. Omura broke his thumb on his glove hand attempting to field a throw from the catcher on Wednesday. Ports’ SS Justin Sellers left Tuesday’s game with a minor injury, but he is expected back in the Ports’ line-up on Thursday.

So how did he do in his first full-season outing? 

CF Mike Massaro led off the four-run inning by nailing a double to left-center field. Recently promoted SS Josh Horton followed by hitting a double in his first at bat with the Cougars to plate Massaro and even the score at 1-1

No
news on whether the C’s will replace him with a promotion from Arizona,
but the way our infield has been playing, one woud hope.
 

UPDATE: The Kane County Chronicle was all over Horton’s debut.

“I was just trying to get him over to third,” Horton said. “I honestly thought [Hunter] was going to catch it. I got kind of lucky with that.”

The Cougars went on to score three more times in the frame, highlighted by Sean Doolittle’s two-run double off losing pitcher Steve Delabar (2-3). Horton was 2-for-4, adding a single to lead off the seventh.

“He did a nice job up there,” Cougars manager Aaron Nieckula said. “He took some nice aggressive swings, worked the count and put some good wood on the ball tonight. He made a couple nice plays in the field.”

Horton did bobble his first fielding chance as a Cougar in the second inning, but calmly recovered to flip the ball to second for the third out. He admitted to being a little nervous making his first appearance with a new team.

“You just got to get out there and try to get comfortable,” he said. “Getting that first hit helped. Obviously, there’s going to be a little bit of nervous tension.”