[gehrig38]

2014 SEASON BEGINS!
3 vs Las Vegas
4 vs Pittsburgh

GAME 1
Opening up with West Division champ Vegas. Getting Marshall Wall opening day (12-6 3.42 in 22 starts adter his call up last year, finished strong winning the CL’s August Pitcher of the month). Newly acquired Drew Leduc will help anchor their offense, and they’re without their ace for about the first 3 months (Cafasso).

1st batter of the 2014 season, LV RF Bob White drills the third pitch he see for a 415ft homer. Please don’t let that be a premonition. Hugh Collins gets the first hit of the year, a 2 out solo shot in the 3rd. White drills another shot (2) off Alejadrez in the 4th to make it 4-1, where it stays. Alfredo (0-1) has a rough day (5.2-7-4-4-6-5) but the pen throws 3.1 scoreless behind him. We manage just 2 runs on 6 hits with Collins going 2-4. Wall (1-0) goes 8 strong 8-6-2-2-3-4 and Suhayb notches his 1st save.
LV 4 CHI 2 (0-1 1 GB)

ORG NEWS
Bench Coach Art McPhun agreed to a 5 year 455K a year extension after the opener. A successor to Jared Smith when he walks away, McPhun is regarded as one of the better baseball minds around.


GAME 2
Another Chicago starter wrestles with the strike zone. Mark Williams (1-0) walks 6 in 5.2-6-5-3-6-3 but the offense and pen bail him out. An Eric Hudson error let Vegas slip back into the game after the offense exploded for 6 in the 4th. Ernesto Cruz came in and surrendered a single before getting his 1st save. Hugh Collins hit his 2nd HR going 4-5 with 2 run and 2 RBI’s and Jean Chartier hit a grand slam for his 1st HR of the year. Paul Riggs went 1-2 with 2 runs and 2 RBI’s.
CHI 9 LV 6 (1-1 1GB)

LEAGUE NEWS
Vegas CF Thomas Hood will miss the next month after being hurt in our game yesterday, straining a hamstring.

ORG NEWS
Chicago inked Pitching Coach Peter Hardin to a 4 year 177.5K a year contract extension. A raise from his current 140K deal set to expire at years end.

Talks with hitting coach John Edgar continue, though there appears to be some distance in money between the two.


GAME 3
The 4th appears to be our inning. Another 6 run fourth turned a 2-2 game into a 10-3 rout. Bill Alexander (1) hit his first HR of the year in a 2-5 3 RBI day and Paul Riggs went 3-5, scoring twice and driving in 3. Wes Morgan hit his first homer of the year as well. Hudson and Gutierrez had 2-4 days. Starter Mike Davis (1-0) had control issues early but settled in (7-6-3-3-4-5).
CHI 10 LV 3 (2-1 1GB)

LEAGUE NEWS
Cy May (HOU) will miss the next 2 weeks with a finger sprain.

ORG NEWS
Bob Barbour is off to an 8-13 start in Tulsa, and has also picked up the hitting streak he left behind in 2012! He’s hit in 20 straight now.

GAME 4
Pittsburgh finally gets Ace Vincent Bray back after he missed the entire 2013 season with Tommy John surgery. The Riverhounds #1 pick in the inaugural draft went 14-9 with 229 K’s in 216 IP in 2012, before being injured late in the year. He’ll throw game 3 of this rare 4 game weekend wrap around.

Another struggle to find the zone for my starter. Jeff Bentley, in his IBL debut goes 4-5-4-3-6-3 but the pen, Torres (1-0), Pacheco (H1), Pennington (H1) gets to Cruz who grabs the last 4 outs perfectly, with 2 K’s, for save 2. Bill Alexander went 3-5 with a HR (2) and 2 RBI’s, Hugh Collins went 2-4 and scored twice, and Ernesto Gutierrez went 3-3, scoring twice and driving in a run. Raul Feliz tripled in a 2-5 day. Ignacio Ferrer was banged up and will be DtD for a few.
CHI 7 PIT 4 (3-1 1 GB) Columbus is off to a 4-0 start.

LEAGUE NEWS
Knights fans received some terrible news today. 32 year old slugger and lineup anchor Stefan Conway will miss the next 4 months with a broken kneecap suffered in the season opener. Conway has hit 68 HR’s the past 2 seasons and driven in 191 runs.

GAME 5
Ernesto Cruz loaded the bases in the 9th inning of a 4-3 game, then struck out Ben Hutchins and got Kris Wright to ground into a FC for his 3rd save. Eric Hudson’s 2 run 1st inning double helped Chicago jump ahead and Raul Feliz went 1-3 with 2 RBI’s in the win. Carlos De La Torre (1-0) went 7-8-3-3-3-6 and Jose Pacheco (H2) bridged to Cruz in the 9th. Paul Riggs grabbed his arm on a throw in the 8th and was taken out of the game, waiting on word of the extent of his issue.
CHI 4 PIT 2 (4-1 Tied)

ORG NEWS
Riggs will miss the next 5 days with a sore arm.

GAME 6
Vince Bray held us hitless into the 4th. He ended up going 8-7-3-3-1-6 for a ND. Alejandrez went 6.1-6-3-3-3-3 in the matchup and 3 Chicago relievers managed to hold the game through 10. In the 11th Ryan Pennington (0-1) gave up a 2 out single for the final 4-3 score. Gutierrez went 3-5 with a 2B and Jean Chartier went 2-4 with his 2nd HR and 2 RBI’s. Hugh Collins hit his 3rd.
PIT 4 CHI 3 (4-2 1 GB)

WEEK 1 NEWS AND NOTES
Paul Morris (BRO) took home FL PotW honors after going 10-20 with a HR and 7 RBI’s. The 29 year old, acquired from New York this winter, helped Brooklyn to a 4-2 start.

Philly’s Carlos Arredondo went 10-22 with 3 HR’s and 7 RBI’s to win his 1st CL PotW award.

Nothing major this week. San Antonio, El Paso, Philly, Baltimore, Columbus are all off to 5-1 starts. Buffalo and Pittsburgh are 1-5.

Ed Thomas (SAN) has 11 RBI’s through 6 games, Jean Chartier (CHI) has 10. Arredondo leads the IBL with 4 HR’s.

Ernesto Gutierrez is leading all IBL hitters at .524.


ORG NEWS
Tulsa IF Dudley Williams took home PotW honors after a 9-20 1HR 6 RBI week.

Bakersfield’s Flynn Ash, back for a 3rd year in the town, won the PotW award after going 7-16 with 4 HR’s and 10 RBI’s.