PLAYER / PITCHER OF THE WEEK #22

·         Germantown Grays @ Long Beach Titans

Series Summary *

Long Beach takes 6 of 7 from Germantown.

Mexico City Chihuahuas @ Detroit Stars

Series Summary *

No News out of Detroit.

·         Cedar Park Bears @ Janesville Juggernauts

Series Preview

The Janesville Juggernauts hosts the Cedar Park Bears for a 7 game set. The Bears come in at 78-53 in a battle for first place, while the Juggernauts can only play the spoiler for the winning teams.

Game #1:

Game 1 is all Cedar Park as they win 10-0. Swindell is masterful, going 8 innings with 6 K’s allowing only 1 hit.

Game #2:

Janesville shows some mettle as they win game two of the series 4-2. Buechele is the hero for the Juggernauts hitting a 3 run homer to give Janesville the lead in the sixth inning.

Game #3:

Cedar Park responds by winning game three 9-1 behind another fine pitching performance by Moore, who improves to 14-9 on the season. Puckett goes 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and a RBI.

Game #4:

A back and forth affair, as both teams combine for 34 hits and 22 runs, with Janesville winning 13-9. Series now tied 2-2.

Game #5:

The Bears get another fine pitching performance by Cerutti, who goes 8 innings allowing just one earned run as Cedar Park takes game five 4-1.

Game #6:

Cedar Park now starts to show why they are fighting for a playoff spot, as they win game six 7-1, insuring a series win taking a 4-2 games lead.

Game #7:

Janesville is unable to overcome Swindell’s pitching, as he goes 6 innings winning his 17th of the season as the Bears take game seven 12-4.

Series Summary *

Cedar Park improves to 83-55 with the 5-2 series win. Janesville falls to 54-81.

·         Steel City Sluggers @ Clovis Cougars

Series Preview

First place Steel City comes to Clovis to drive a steel spike through the Cougars playoff hopes.

Game #1:

Clovis 4 Sluggers 0
Bob ‘No-hit’ Milacki dominates again witha 10 strikeout, 5 hit, complete game shutout.

Game #2:

Clovis 2 Sluggers 0
Randy Johnson, the other highly regarded Clovis rookie followed up Milacki’s performance with a complete game 3 hit shutout of the Steel City juggernaut.

Game #3:

Steel City 2 Clovis 0
Perez returns the favor tossing a 1 hit shutout for the Sluggers. The only blemish was a Willie Wilson 2nd inning infield hit.

Game #4:

Steel City 6 Cougars 0
Another shutout, this time from Saberhagen and a trio of relievers who finished up. Kittle slugged a three run homer in the eighth to seal the victory.

Game #5:

Clovis 11 Sluggers 5
Clovis strung together 4 straight doubles from Brantley, Murray, Howell, and Pena in the first to hang a 4 spot on the board and never look back. Smiley picked up the win with 5 solid.

Game #6:

Sluggers 4 Clovis 2
Martinez kept Clovis off balance for 8 innings to notch his 15th win. Gibson provided support with his 18th homer, a two run shot in the 4th.

Game #7:

Sluggers 12 Clovis 2
Sluggers laid a snowman on Clovis in the second inning to put this out of reach early. Sandberg and Quirk went deep for the visitors while Sandberg drove home 4. Don’t know if a record was set but 39 different players got into the game, 25 Sluggers and 14 Cougars.

Series Summary *

Steel City takes 4 of 7 in an entertaining series with Clovis that had a bit of everything, great pitching, strong hitting, close games and a couple of blowouts.

·         Sugar Land Skeeters @ Winnipeg Goldeyes

Series Preview

A battle of bad teams…

Game #1:

Whitson the grade 7 throws another gem for Winnipeg improving to 13-5 2.53

Game #2:

Ivan Calderon grand slam 7-1 Winnipeg

Game #3:

Magrane gets lots of homerun support and Sugar land wins 5-3

Game #4:

Byleven does great and wins 3-2 for Sugar land

Game #5:

Tie breaker goes to Winnipeg as Moyer wins 7-3 and improve shis record to 4-17

Series Summary *

Winnipeg manages to win the series 3-2..

·         Missouri Black Bears @ Valdosta Bombers

Series Preview

Playoff hopeful Black Bears visit 3rd place Valdosta.

Series Summary *

Black Bears take 5 of 7 from the Bombers.

Michigan Marauders @ Manhattan Gas Hornets

·        

Series Preview

NL East showdown – first place hopes and NL Wild Card implicatons on the line.
Michigan (79-52, 2nd place) at Manhattan (85-42, 1st place). Michigan has 2 game edge for NL Wild Card.
Short notes (busy schedule) – too bad, exciting series ….

Game #1:

Nieves tosses 1 hitter through 4 and 2 hitter through 5, problem was 1 was a 2 run HR (21) to Dawson in 1st and 2nd hit was solo HR (4) by Jacoby in 5th. Final score 4-1 Manhattan. Davis solo HR (21) provides Michigan’s lone run.
WP – Reuschel (22-7), S Reardon (37) LP Nieves (4-1)

Game #2:

Follow the leader game – Michigan up 1 in the 2nd tied in bottom half. Michigan 2 more in the 3rd, Manhattan only 1 in the 3rd – last run was the insurance the Mauraders needed when they plated 1 in the 9th for a 4-2 win. Ripken, Schmidt, Jackson and Brunansky all had 2 hits (of the 9 Michigan hits).
Toughest aspect to the game – Leary left in the 6th inning with an injury that cost his next start (in this series!!).
WP – Langston (11-10), S – Henneman (33)
LP – Leary (17-5)
HR – Jacoby (5)

Game #3:

Flip-flop from game 2 – Manhattan wins this one 4-2. Danny Cox strong outing AGAIN – 5 innings, 1 run, but not around for the decision as game was tied 1-1 when he left.
BIG ISSUE – Schofield gets 2 rbis in this one, one on SF one on a HBP – the second HBP on him in the game. Manhattan authorities (the cops) are taking a strong look at the Maruaders and have issued warnings. Higuera hurled both the bean balls. Schofield toughed them out. Bass added a solo shot (4) to ice it in the 8th.
WP D.Smith (1-1), S Reardon (38)
LP Higuera (16-6)

Game #5:

Game 5 (and odd # game) and true to form this one was won by Manhattan – and again it was a low scoring event.
Michigan up 1 in the 1st – but that was all their scoring – and 2 out Nokes rbi double. Even with Ripken’s 3 hits, they could get no more off Reuschel (W 23-7), Reardon, and Mirabella (S 17).
Gas Hornet offense belonged to Tim Flannery who scored their first run and drove in the other two (all in different innings).

Game #6:

First game of the series to actually have a lot of runs scored – and first time the pattern was broken as Manhattan wins back to back games, 7-3. A 3 spot by Paul O’Neill (6) in the first got things going. It was 4-0 before the Mauraders decided to score, 1 in the 4th (Davis HR (22)) 2, in the 5th. But the home team got the 2 back in the 6th and the 1 back in the 7th. Yount (10) also homered for Manhattan.
WP – P. Smith
LP – Terrell (4-7)

Game #7:

Series finale saw the only run of the game scored in the 6th inning as Davis knocks in Palmeiro with an rbi single. Their two hits in the inning were part of the 4 Michigan mustered. But it was enough for Nieves (W 5-1, 7.2 innings, 6 hits) and Stanley (S 7, 1.1 ip, 0 hits) as they combined to bland the Gas Hornets.
Tough loss for Jimmy Key (11-7) as he goes 7 with no run support.

Series Summary *

Manhattan takes the series 4-3 and picks up 1 game on Michigan and gives Missouri a chance to improve.

·         Chicago Demolition @ Fort Worth Panthers

Series Summary *

The Panther’s win two 1 run games & another while Chicago takes the rest winning the series 4 games to 3.

·         California Quakes @ Stockton Wings

Series Preview

California comes to Stockton!

Game #1:

5-2 Quakes

Game #2:

4-0 Wings

Game #3:

8-7 Quakes

Game #4:

3-2 Quakes

Game #5:

7-2 Wings

Game #6:

3-2 Quakes

Game #7:

6-0 Wings

Series Summary *

California takes the series over Stockton 4-3!

·         Traverse City Tigers @ Montana Cutthroats

Series Preview

The first place Tigers face the last place Cutthroats in a 5-game series.

Game #1:

The Tigers unleash their bats early in the series with 12 runs on 18 hits. They also hit 3 homeruns off Montana pitching. Jose Rijo dominate over 7 innings. FINAL – TCT 12 MCT 1

Game #2:

Dave Lapoint and two relievers shutout the Cutthroats on a 5 hitter. The Tigers bats continued to swing it with another 18 hit effort. This time they only get 9 runs though. FINAL – TCT 9 MCT 0

Game #3:

Bruce Ruffin makes his Montana debut and get into a quality pitchers dual with Greg Maddux of Traverse City. Back to back doubles by O’Brien and Molitor give the Tigers a lead they dont give up. FINAL – TCT 3 MCT 1

Game #4:

The Cutthroats avoid the sweep with Ramon Martinez’ quality start and Ellis Burks’ 3 hit game. FINAL – MCT 6 TCT 2

Game #5:

Paul Molitor gets 4 hits to lead the Tigers as they blow a close game open late. Tigers get another 13 hits in the win. FINAL – TCT 9 MCT 3

Series Summary *

Tigers take series 4 games to 1.