The title reflects the outcome, in more ways than one...
5/21 - Minnesota @ Nevada - 4-3 WIN (10). 19-23, 1-0, W1. Gutsy win by the boys in the opener of the sim.
It wasn't without penalty though, as starting pitcher Ramon Quintana is LOST FOR THE SEASON after
tearing his bicep on his 2nd pitch of the game. He had been our best starter to date, and finishes the
year 4-2 with a 3.65 ERA. At 35, he may end up losing effectiveness altogether. It's a big loss.
As far as the game, Festa got us ahead early with his 11th homer, a solo shot, in the 2nd. Minni then
battled back with 3 runs and the score was 3-1 heading into the bottom half of the 9th. DiBen scored a
1-out double to the gap and was followed by a walk to Lott and a wild pitch. James Lape then proved that
clutch is a state of mind with a big 2-run single to tie it up. Herman Tucker held em in the 10th and
when we came to bat, pinch hitter Big Melvin Hagberg hit a 1-out double. Moncayo then followed with a
big single to give us the win!
5/22 - Minnesota @ Nevada - 2-1 WIN. 20-23, 2-0, W2. Moncayo and Foxworth the stories here. Foxy held
Minni to just 1 run on 7 hits, going the distance to improve to 5-3 while Moncayo had 4 of our 5 hits
including a homerun and a steal. He scored our 1st run after a single from DiBen. Aside from him,
the rest of the offense was 1-23 with 1 walk.
5/23 - Minnesota @ Nevada - 7-3 Loss. 20-24, 2-1, L1. Rough one as we fell behind 6-0 quickly thanks
to 3 more unearned runs. Cordova couldn't get out of the 4th and falls to 1-2. His ERA is now 6.26.
Offensively, we got just 3 hits, though 2 were homers from Lott (#7) and Payton (#1 of his career).
Thiessen also had a sac fly, scoring Festa, who had doubled leading off the 9th.
5/24 - OFF DAY
5/25 - Texas @ Nevada - 3-2 WIN (10). 21-24, 3-1, W1. Close win again for us. After Texas got one
in the 2nd, we countered with 2 in the bottom half on Lott's leadoff walk, Festa's double made it
runners at 2nd and 3rd. Lape then singled home Lott and Thiesen had a sac fly to bring Festa home.
Texas tied it in the 3rd and it stayed 2-2 until the bottom of the 10th when Moncayo, Halpern and DiBen
strung together 3 straight 2-out singles to bring home another extra innning win.
5/26 - Texas @ Nevada - 9-1 Loss. 21-25, 3-2, L1. Ouch. Totally blown out as Herron, called up to take
Quintana's place gets killed for 5 runs in 2.2 innings. He allowed 4 hits, walked 5 and struck out
no one. Just 5 hits and 5 walks offensively, as the lone run came on Payton's sac fly in the 9th. To make
matters worse, Thiessen left in the 9th after being hit by a pitch. He'll be out for the next 4 weeks.
We've called up former backup Joaquin Salazar in his place. Hui will start vsR and L now.
5/27 - Texas @ Nevada - 4-0 Win. 22-25, 4-2, W1. Excellent win for the good guys. Leonos pitches 6
strong innings, we needed that from him. He's now 3-2 and better yet, his ERA is just 2.58. On offense
we got 2 in the first on singles from Moncayo, DiBen, Halpern and Lott. We also got 2 in the 2nd
on a big 2-run, 2-out homer from Moncayo, his 7th on the year.
5/28 - New Mexico @ Nevada - 8-4 Loss. 22-26, 4-3, L1. Fell behind 8-0 after 3 and out late comeback
(4 runs in the last 3 innings) wasn't enough. 4 errors in the first 2 innings led to 6 unearned runs
which doomed us. Foxworth got the loss, he's now 5-4. Lott hit his 8th homer in the 7th and newly
called up C Salazar hit his 1st dinger in the 8th. Lape and Hui added RBI's in the 9th but it wasn't
enough.
5/29 - New Mexico @ Nevada - 8-7 Loss. 22-27, 4-4, L2. Back and forth game where the last break went
to the Dukes. We trailed 2-0 and 6-4, but also led 4-2 and 7-6. We even had 12 hits and 9 walks but
just couldn't make it happen as we had no baserunners the last 2 innings after we fell behind again.
Tucker takes the loss (4-2) after allowing the tying and winning runs, though Cordova allowed 5 ER in
4.2 IP. At the dish, Moncayo had 3 hits with a double, 2 runs and a steal while DiBen had 2 hits and
drove in 3. Hui even added 2 hits and Lott had 2 hits and 3 walks.
5/30 - New Mexico @ Nevada - 12-2 WIN. 23-27, 5-4, W1. Avoid the sweep in a big way, but at a price.
Brandon Coto pitched the first 2 innings, but left with injury and will be gone for 4 weeks. Mo Tamez
came in and picked up the W as he, Trottier and Stoops shut out the Dukes over 7 innings. DiBen led the
explosion with 3 hits and 4 RBIs, including his 7th homer and 17th steal. Halpern had 2 hits while
Festa, Hui and Tamez drove in 2 apiece. Every player had a hit but Coto and Trottier, while
every position player scored.
5/31 - Wisconsin @ Nevada - 8-5 Loss. 23-28, 5-5, L1. A 4-run 9th wasn't enough to erase an 8-1
defecit as we end this sim even. Herron took another loss, he is now 0-3 with a 8.86 ERA. Stoops allowed
3 runs in 3 innings, walking 6 to save a tired pen. Lott hit his 9th homer while Lape and Foland added
2 hits.
STANDINGS
Code:
Great Explorers League
East
Team W L Pct GB L10
Illinois 30 21 .588 - 5-5
Minnesota 29 21 .580 .5 6-4
New Mexico 29 22 .569 1.0 8-2
Wisconsin 26 24 .520 3.5 5-5
Kansas 22 27 .449 7.0 3-7
Texas 21 29 .420 8.5 5-5
West
Team W L Pct GB L10
Idaho 30 20 .600 - 2-8
Colorado 27 23 .540 3.0 8-2
California 25 25 .500 5.0 5-5
Nevada 23 28 .451 7.5 5-5
Washington 20 31 .392 10.5 4-6
Utah 19 30 .388 10.5 4-6
4.5 back as Colorado shoots ahead as predicted. We've definitely have our work cut out for us, with
the injuries and overall poor play. On a standings note, both our AAA and AA teams lead their respective
leagues! Sweet.
BATTING STATS
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG
J. Salazar 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1.000 1.000 4.000
B. Thiessen 43 171 52 10 1 2 22 20 7 28 .304 .335 .409
M. Hui 39 57 17 2 0 0 3 6 7 10 .298 .375 .333
G. Halpern 49 195 58 6 0 6 23 27 24 26 .297 .371 .421
A. Estrada 29 34 10 1 0 0 5 3 1 4 .294 .333 .324
J. Lape 50 171 50 9 1 6 24 23 13 32 .292 .351 .462
R. Moncayo 49 197 54 11 3 7 32 34 24 3 .274 .361 .467
C. DiBenedetto 50 186 47 11 2 7 28 27 19 30 .253 .332 .446
F. Trujillo 32 44 11 2 0 2 5 5 0 8 .250 .267 .432
R. Festa 51 165 41 8 0 11 30 32 31 16 .248 .377 .497
M. Hagberg 22 45 11 3 0 1 6 5 2 6 .244 .277 .378
C. Lott 50 164 34 2 2 9 31 32 40 10 .207 .359 .409
B. Payton 24 54 11 2 0 1 7 6 5 8 .204 .262 .296
C. Foland 46 156 29 8 1 2 7 16 13 36 .186 .249 .288
We're taking a turn for the worse on offense, as we now have no one over .500 in slugging and our lone
.300 is out for a month. Lott and Foland are starting to kill us.
PITCHING STATS
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
G. Foxworth 10 10 5 4 0 4.79 56.1 64 40 30 13 19
H. Tucker 28 0 4 2 0 1.84 29.1 29 8 6 6 10
R. Quintana 9 9 4 2 0 3.65 56.2 43 25 23 32 26
J. Leanos 10 10 3 2 0 2.58 59.1 49 22 17 15 29
H. Trottier 21 0 2 4 9 3.12 26.0 20 12 9 13 20
M. Tamez 21 0 1 1 0 0.95 28.1 21 3 3 10 3
A. Stier 37 0 1 4 0 4.95 36.1 39 28 20 9 8
B. Coto 10 10 1 6 0 4.50 46.0 43 35 23 24 33
B. Hollenbeck 16 0 1 1 1 1.08 16.2 19 5 2 1 6
M. Cordova 10 10 1 2 0 6.57 50.2 60 42 37 24 26
E. Birmingham 9 0 0 0 0 9.00 6.0 13 7 6 2 0
R. Herron 5 5 0 3 0 8.86 21.1 29 23 21 12 2
J. Barker 1 0 0 0 0 13.51 0.2 2 1 1 0 0
B. Stoops 31 0 0 0 0 2.78 32.1 30 15 10 17 21
Pitching is shaky at best. We just need arms. Leonos seems to be the only one I can count on, and
Hollenbeck is pitching well. We'll have to make some call ups to see what happens.
Batting AVG: .248 (11th)
Homeruns: 55 (2nd)
Walks: 191 (1st)
Stolen Bases: 57 (4th)
Runs Scored: 243 (4th)
Pitching ERA: 3.92 (15th)
Opponents AVG: .256 (19th)
HRs Allowed: 38 (T-8th)
Walks Allowed: 171 (22nd)
Runs Allowed: 250 (22nd)
We hold still here, though we drop 2 spots in BAvg and 1 in runs allowed, though our ERA goes to under
4.00.
SCHEDULE
6/1 - Wisconsin @ Nevada - 4th in GE East, 26-24, WIS leads series 3-1
6/2 -
6/3 - OFF DAY
6/4 - Nevada @ Illinois - 1st in GE East, 30-21, ILL leads series 2-1
6/5 -
6/6 -
6/7 - Washington @ Nevada - 5th in GE West, 20-31, NEV leads series 3-2
6/8 -
6/9 -
6/10 -
6/11 - Nevada @ Idaho - 1st in GE West, 30-20, IDA leads series 5-1
Up and down schedule for us. I'd be happy with 1 out of 4 from the division leaders and 4 of 6 from
the others. I'll take 5-5 on this sim.