[Westheim]

Raccoons (7-6) @ Loggers (7-5) – April 21-23, 2025

Milwaukee had opened the season 7-0, but had lost five in a row by now, including a sweep at the hands of the Titans in which they scored only five runs in four contests over the weekend. Been there, seen that. They ranked seventh in runs scored, eighth in runs allowed, but the points seemed set for trouble already given their pitching ranking near the bottom in many categories. The small sample size was probably keeping their moods up, plus, here came the Critters for healing…

The Raccoons had not lost a season series to the Loggers since all the way back in 2013, including a 9-9 outcome last season, altogether piling up a total record of 121-78 against them in the regular season, including the most unfortunate Nick Lester Game.

Projected matchups:
Graham Wasserman (0-2, 7.59 ERA) vs. Alex Hichez (0-0, 4.15 ERA)
Jesus Chavez (1-0, 1.88 ERA) vs. Jorge Villalobos (1-0, 4.70 ERA)
Mark Roberts (1-1, 2.18 ERA) vs. Jonathan Toner (0-1, 4.50 ERA)

Three right-handers; Hichez would open the series on short rest as Villalobos was dealing with a bum shoulder and couldn't go. They still planned with him for Tuesday, otherwise Jonny Toner would have to go on short rest, and he was far from a delight even on regular rest… in 14 innings to begin the season, Jonny had walked nine and had been at the mercy of the defense.

Game 1
POR: CF Mora – 2B Otis – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – P Wasserman
MIL: SS Ferrer – 2B J. Stevenson – 1B Tadlock – CF Coleman – RF Feldmann – 3B A. Velez – LF Berntson – C A. Baker – P Hichez

Elias Tovias put the Raccoons up quickly with a first-inning 2-piece, collecting the blistering Abel Mora and his leadoff walk for a rapid 2-0 advance. The team could have gotten so much more early on, but proceeded to leave the bases loaded without scoring in both the second and third innings. In the second, the Loggers helped them out with an error subbing for a double play on Wasserman's grounder with two on and one out, while in the third inning it was straight 2-out singles by Nunley, Kopp, and Stalker that stuffed the bags. Neither Mora and Otis in the second, nor Cookie in the third could make anything out of the fattest plate available. Wasserman struggled with control in a muddled outing, walking a batter every inning while generally watching the Loggers not getting their fly balls to fall in and also chip into a first-inning double play. At the plate, Graham did lead off the fourth inning with a double, eventually scoring on Tovias' 1-out RBI double that sent Otis to third base as well, from where he scored on Jon Gonzalez' sac fly to center, generating a 4-0 lead.

While Wasserman got a bit better in the middle innings and stopped trying to throw balls through both the legs of Elias Tovias and the umpire, the Loggers' battery scored a fifth run for the Coons in the sixth inning that saw Matt Otis singling and taking off with one out Gonzalez batting (and eventually striking out). Adam Baker's throw was errant, allowing Otis to get the steal and then third base for free, and from there Hichez plated him with a wild pitch. Wasserman handed that run right back in the bottom 6th on an Ian Coleman RBI double, but these things were going to happen from time to time. The thing more aggravating was the walk to Ron Tadlock before the double, and the one to Ryan Feldmann after the double… The sixth inning was Wasserman's last, just as it was for Abel Mora, who was replaced defensively by Dwayne Metts. No, the finger hadn't fallen off yet, but we were up by four, so why take chances? The Loggers would take a blip out of the lead briefly in the bottom 8th, in which the miraculously helpless Justin Hess faced three batters, resulting in runners on the corners in a hurry. Vince D allowed one run to score, but kept the lead from disintegrating, and the Coons moved back to slam range in the top 9th on Cookie Carmona's fourth base hit on the day (some of that on crummy defense) was his 108th career triple into the rightfield corner and scored Tim Stalker. Bottom 9th, the Loggers had three on and nobody out with Manny Ferrer singling off Vince D, who walked Josh Stevenson too before yielding to Jonathan Snyder, who surrendered a 3-1 single to Tadlock. One run scored on Coleman grounding to first for a fielder's choice that removed Tadlock and kept the double play in order, but Snyder walked Feldmann anyway. Alberto Velez' sac fly cut the lead to two runs, but Jon Berntson swung through the 3-2 pitch to end the game juuust before it could get really ugly indeed. 6-4 Raccoons. Spencer 1-1; Otis 2-5; Tovias 3-5, HR, 2B, 3 RBI; Stalker 2-5; Carmona 4-5, 3B, RBI;

Helpless Hess? Hapless Hess? There is a nickname somewhere in there! Like Winless Watanabe!

Abel Mora got the day off on Tuesday in deference to the finger issue. That, and the off day on Thursday, that's gotta be enough healing.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – 3B Nunley – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – RF Alfaro – SS Stalker – LF Carmona – CF Metts – P Chavez
MIL: SS Ferrer – LF Berntson – 1B Tadlock – CF Coleman – RF Feldmann – 3B A. Velez – 2B March – C A. Baker – P Villalobos

Jesus Chavez sunk in the second inning, first allowing a run on three singles to Feldmann, Velez, and Baker, then issued a 2-out walk to Villalobos, inexplicably. Manny Ferrer's RBI single extended the Loggers' lead to 2-0 on the Coons, who had so far gone down in order against Villalobos, and Cookie had to make a running catch on Jon Berntson's liner to keep the game from breaking wide open right in the second inning. The shoulder-ailing Villalobos remained perfect through three, but allowed leadoff singles to Spencer and Nunley, both to left, in the fourth inning, putting the tying runs aboard for Tovias, who held the team triple crown with a .356 average, 3 HR and 12 RBI, singled up the middle, but not even Spencer could reasonably be sent on Ian Coleman's murder arm and Coleman was on that ball in a hurry. So, three singles, three on, nobody out, and lots of .200-and-worse approaching now, starting with Jon Gonzalez, who was still in his September swoon with a .185 clip and only 4 RBI this season. This was a good spot to break out of a rut! He lined out to Velez, though. In a stunner, the .115 menace Alfaro would flip the score with a bases-clearing triple into the corner, putting the Raccoons up 3-2. Stalker's sac fly added another run to that, only for Chavez, the terrible fool, to give it back when Dan March scored on Villalobos' 2-out single to right in the bottom of the same inning. Oh why. Oh why.

Luckily, both teams had their potential for inept moves. The Coons scratched out a comeback run in the fifth on Tovias' 2-out infield single, which sounds weird already, and was mostly on Manny Ferrer handling the grounder with the clumsiness you'd expect from a nine-year-old wannabe fielder. Jarod Spencer scored on that play, having initially hit a 1-out double to left center. The Loggers pulled another run back on March's RBI double in the bottom 6th, which was also Chavez' last meager inning. Cocking up the effort for good was then left to the bullpen. The first guy to be washed forth from the pen, Jimmy Lee, retired nobody before turning a 5-4 edge into a 7-5 deficit, allowing a single to Ferrer, a walk to PH Danny Munn, and then a 3-run homer to Tadlock in the bottom 7th. Ricky Ohl allowed another run in the eighth against the Loggers, while the Coons stranded pairs in the seventh against Joey Hopkins and in the eighth against a bevy of relievers.

Top 9th; Spencer led off with a base hit, his fourth single of the game, against Brian Gilbert. The right-hander got Nunley to fly out while Spencer stole second, then scored on Tovias' single. Jon Gonzalez rolled a soft single to light up an 0-4 day, and that brought up the go-ahead run in … Alfaro. But even Omar had two hits and three ribbies on the day, so maybe miracles were possible after all. He flew out to Munn in left, Stalker flew out to Coleman in center, and if there were miracles after all, the Raccoons were not yet eligible for one. 8-6 Loggers. Spencer 4-5; Tovias 3-5, 2 RBI; Alfaro 2-5, 3B, 3 RBI; Carmona 2-4; Otis (PH) 1-1;

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 3B Nunley – SS Stalker – 1B Kopp – LF Carmona – RF Alfaro – P Roberts
MIL: SS Ferrer – CF Coleman – 1B Tadlock – RF Feldmann – 2B Stevenson – 3B A. Velez – C Padilla – LF Berntson – P Toner

The Raccoons weren't seen taking enthusiastic advantage of Jonny-Jonny-Jon-ny To-ner's erratic control and eroded stuff, with Mark Roberts' blooper falling into shallow center in the third inning to plate Cookie Carmona for the first run of the game. Cookie had singled and had stolen second base before. Cookie, who entered the series with four base hits in two weeks, was on eight base hits in three days by the fourth inning, dishing a 2-out, 2-run double into the left-center gap to plate Tovias and Nunley, who had both singled, in running the score to 3-0 on Toner, who had three strikeouts in the game and 15 on the year, but still wasn't exactly fooling anybody. That Cookie tore him up the best was extra ironic – here were two players, who at age 30 had looked like sure-as-damn Hall of Famers, and one of the them (Toner) on the first ballot. Now they were 33 (Cookie) and 34 (Toner) and looked like they would best be left alone with a good book.

For Toner it would get worse before it could get any better in the game. The Loggers called for the intentional walk on .161 batter Omar Alfaro, then got charred on another blooper by Roberts that had the guts to fall in for an RBI single, again plating Cookie. Among the (thin, owing to near-arctic temperatures) crowd were a few hundred of the Raccoons' diehard fans that didn't know whether to cheer or weep at this point. Jarod Spencer hit a hard RBI single, 5-0, before Mora took strike three at the knees. Toner would only last five, and his ERA approached six, while Roberts was not dominant, but also not allowing many chances to the Loggers, who got their best chance during Toner's lifetime in the fourth inning, when Ron Tadlock singled and advanced on Roberts' error, a wild pickoff attempt. Roberts made another error in the sixth, eating a 2-out grounder by Feldmann without properly seasoning it first, but that was the only Loggers runner in the inning. The next time the Loggers got multiple men aboard in an inning was in the eighth, aka the inning where Roberts ran out of steam. Consecutive 3-1 counts resulted in a 1-out single to Ferrer and a walk to Coleman, prompting a move to Ricky Ohl, who walked Tadlock to fill the bags before striking out both Feldmann and former Raccoon Josh Stevenson to keep Milwaukee shut out, a state that didn't change in the ninth inning. 5-0 Coons. Nunley 2-5; Carmona 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI; Jurek (PH) 1-1; Roberts 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K, W (2-1) and 2-2, 2 RBI;

Raccoons (9-7) @ Falcons (4-12) – April 25-27, 2025

The Falcons had allowed the most runs in the CL so far, 96 in 16 innings, which added up to a pretty grim six runs per game. Their offense was mediocre, but mediocre would be a vast improvement for their pitching, with a rotation that ranked 10th in ERA, and a bullpen that was even worse and ranked last with a 5.73 ERA. The Raccoons had won the season series for two years in a row, both times with a 5-4 final score.

Projected matchups:
Rico Gutierrez (2-0, 0.44 ERA) vs. Doug Moffatt (0-3, 5.79 ERA)
Jack Sander (1-1, 2.84 ERA) vs. Kyle Anderson (0-3, 11.30 ERA)
Graham Wasserman (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Joel Trotter (0-2, 6.11 ERA)

Their rotation was all right-handed and had three wins in total. All those wins were Greg Gannon's, who shut out the Bayhawks on Thursday – our off day – and was thus out of the picture with his 3-0 record and 1.30 ERA. Their pen, among other horrors, held "Tragic" Travis Garrett, who also had an ERA just over six.

Game 1
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – RF Kopp – SS Stalker – P Gutierrez
CHA: SS Bowman – RF Banfi – LF Kok – 1B Fowlkes – 2B Good – 3B Czachor – CF McClenon – C Sigala – P Moffatt

With the Loggers in the rear-view mirror, Cookie seemed to revert to crummy, hitting into a double play with two on and nobody out in the second inning. Terry Kopp picked up the tap, sending an RBI single into rightfield for the first run in the game. Rico sat down the Falcons in order the first time through, but Sean Bowman reached on a Gonzalez error in the bottom 4th and eventually scored on base hits by Pat Fowlkes and Matt Good with two down in the inning, which tied up this game at one. It got worse in the fifth inning, though, and then it was Rico's fault as he allowed a 2-out single to Moffatt, then a double into the gap to Bowman. The Falcons sent the pitcher around third, and the Raccoons dawdled the ball on the infield long enough to allow not only Moffatt to score, but also for Bowman to reach third base, from where he went on to score on a wild pitch. Since the Coons did little to nothing against Moffatt, the Falcons were now ahead 3-1 after five.

Cookie was aboard leading off the sixth, reaching on an uncaught third strike blamed on Jairo Sigala, a 25-year-old Dominican rookie in his fifth major league game. Terry Kopp was supposed to do something about a free runner like that, but struck out. Tim Stalker doubled to right, putting the tying runs in scoring position with one out, which forced the Raccoons' hands in retiring Gutierrez after just six innings. Matt Otis batted for him, but grounded out to Good. While that scored Cookie, it was not enough, with Ryan Czachor cleanly handling Spencer's subsequent grounder, and the Coons remained down 3-2. Moffatt lasted eight, whiffing ten, then made way for left-hander Danny Munos in the ninth. Munos, 35, had been a closer twice before in his career, and both times for losing teams. 3.2 innings into this year, his ERA was 12.27, and he had three walks against one strikeout. However, he faced three left-handers starting with Nunley, who grounded out to Good. Alfaro batted for Cookie for the sake of a platoon advantage. He struck out. Tony Delgado batted for Kopp, rolled out to Czachor, and Gutierrez cashed defeat for the first time this season. 3-2 Falcons. Gonzalez 2-4; Stalker 1-2, BB;

The Raccoons made two roster changes after the game, one of them humiliating. Dwayne Metts was DFA'ed batting 1-for-16, and Omar Alfaro was sent to St. Petersburg outright batting .152. We recalled Greg Borg, who was 26 and thus two years older than Alfaro and batting .308 in AAA, as well INF Sam Armetta, who was batting .400 even.

Game 2
POR: 2B Spencer – CF Mora – C Tovias – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – LF Carmona – RF Kopp – SS Otis – P Sander
CHA: SS Bowman – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF M. Clark – P K. Anderson

Charlotte put up a near-instant run in the bottom 1st with Bowman and Joseph McClenon getting sharp singles off Jack Sander to go to the corners. Pat Fowlkes' sac fly to center brought in the game's first run, while Sander came back with K's to Barend Kok and Ryan Czachor to stay in control somewhat. McClenon would rob Sander on a line drive in the second inning with the game tied following Gonzalez' leadoff double, Cookie's RBI single, and another double by Kopp, who seemed to slowly shake off the coma. Otis' grounder in front of the plate got in nobody, and while off the bat Sander sure looked like trouble and two runs, McClenon denied him with a superb play that got the Falcons fans cheering. The crowd soon saw their team renew their lead in the bottom of the fourth, with Sander walking both Kok and Czachor in front of three left-handed batters. He managed to stave off Good for the second out, but Paul Mattaliano and Matt Clark both smacked RBI singles to put the Coons into the same 3-1 hole they hadn't emerged from in the Friday game already.

Throughout the middle innings, the Raccoons hardly existed at the plate, but it was hard to swing a bat with a plate on which several slices of cake were piled up. Only Matt Nunley, an expert at stuffing one's snoot, managed a single, and was left to munch at first base thereafter. Otis hit a single in the seventh to no greater effect. Kyle Anderson, who had been clobbered in his first three outings of the year, cruised through eight, and when the Raccoons brought the tying run to the plate in the eighth that was only due to an error by Matt Good. Munos was back at it in the ninth; this time Cookie was allowed to hit for himself and singled, bringing up Kopp as the tying run with nobody out. Kopp also batted for himself and beat Chris Erskine in center for a double, but Cookie had to hold at second base until the ball dropped in and couldn't make a run for home. But the tying runs were in scoring position with nobody out for Otis, who flew out to shallow left, and then Tony Delgado as pinch-hitter for Vince Devereaux. Delgado, the grizzled veteran, creamed a poor 1-1 offering into the left-center gap to tie the score, both runners scoring casually as Delgado cruised into second base on the double, only to be swiftly relieved by pinch-runner Tim Stalker, but two groundouts by Spencer and Mora were not suitable for any sort of runner to score. Kevin Surginer retired the Falcons in order in the bottom 9th, sending the game to extras, where the Raccoons took the lead in the top 10th on Jon Gonzalez hitting a double to left-center, then advancing on a Munos balk and a passed ball charged to Mattaliano. WHATEVER WORKS!! Snyder also worked, retiring Kok, Czachor, and Good in order in the bottom of the inning to squeeze this one to conclusion. 4-3 Raccoons. Gonzalez 2-5, 2 2B; Nunley 2-5; Carmona 2-5, RBI; Kopp 2-4, 2 2B; Delgado (PH) 1-1, 2B, 2 RBI;

Like I say. WHATEVER WORKS.

Game 3
POR: 2B Spencer – LF Carmona – CF Mora – 1B Gonzalez – 3B Nunley – RF Kopp – C Delgado – SS Stalker – P Wasserman
CHA: SS Bowman – RF McClenon – 1B Fowlkes – LF Kok – 3B Czachor – 2B Good – C Mattaliano – CF Erskine – P Trotter

An error by Fowlkes put Jarod Spencer on base to begin the rubber game, but Spencer was caught stealing to get Trotter out of the first in three batters anyway. The Falcons scored, however, getting three hits, a walk, and only one run out of the relentlessly foundering Wasserman. They stranded another full set in the second, this time without scoring, when a Bowman single, McClenon reaching on Gonzalez' error, and Fowlkes working a walk all occurred with two outs and Barend Kok couldn't get the ball past Cookie. Wasserman also couldn't bunt properly in the third inning; the Coons had two on and nobody out, and also still no base hit. Delgado walked, Stalker was hit, and Wasserman knocked one hard at Fowlkes, who went for the lead runner at third base, and Delgado was well dead there. The Coons couldn't pull through, Spencer hitting into a fielder's choice and Cookie not getting past Kok either.

Still hitless, the Raccoons had the bases loaded in the fifth inning, courtesy of Trotter walking Stalker (who stole second base), Wasserman(!), and Spencer in order, putting Cookie into the slam spot with one out. Although to be honest… a single would do. He got nothing, popping out to Good over the infield, and Abel Mora struck out to keep the Coons in the hitless, runless dust, and 1-0 behind as well. The Falcons struggled to tack on, but had runners on the corners in the fifth until Czachor smacked one to Stalker for an inning-ending double play.

Trotter kept the Coons hitless through six, but his pitch count had long exploded due to the five walks issued. He started the seventh on 91 pitches, five walks, and six strikeouts, before Tony Delgado humorlessly ended his shenanigans with a crisp single over Good into shallow right. That was a single, and that was also the ****ing tying run once more. Stalker singled, but Otis fouled out when he batted for Wasserman. Spencer hit a ball to the left side, past the diving Czachor and into the outfield for the third hit of the inning. Delgado was waved around since Barend Kok was not to the ball very quickly and also did not have the strongest arm, and slid in just a step and a half ahead of the throw. The trailing runners advanced into scoring position, too, now in a game tied at one, but Cookie and Mora failed again. One flew out to Kok, the other grounded out to second base. Joel Trotter stuck around long enough to break Terry Kopp's wrist with a fastball in the eighth inning, requiring Kopp's removal for Greg Borg.

Top 9th, Justin Fleming allowed 1-out singles to PH Elias Tovias and Jarod Spencer. Cookie was in the crosshairs again, 0-for-4 on the day, but we were now short on reserves and the game was likely to go to extra innings anyway if one was to send up Sam Armetta now. Cookie grounded out, remaining a big zipper in the box score, but Abel Mora broke up his oh-fer with two outs, singling up the middle to plate both runners! Jon Gonzalez grounded out, but Snyder had no issues as he faced the bottom of the order in the bottom of the inning, and turned the Falcons away 1-2-3 to notch a series win. 3-1 Furballs! Spencer 2-4, BB, RBI; Stalker 1-2, BB; Tovias (PH) 1-1;

The Kopp injury smells. You don't like to lose one of your best (.200) batters.

In other news

April 21 – Persistent elbow soreness puts TOP SP Carlos Marron (1-0, 2.29 ERA) on the shelf. The 29-year-old is expected to be shut down until the end of May at least.
April 23 – The Miners break through against the Cyclones with an 8-run eighth inning, claiming an 11-3 victory. 1B Josh Keen (.306, 1 HR, 9 RBI) and INF/LF/RF Hector Rodriguez (.350, 0 HR, 3 RBI) lead the winning team with four base hits each, while Keen also drives in three runs.
April 24 – Knights fans are distraught by news as 28-year-old ATL LF/RF Johnny Stuckey (.283, 1 HR, 7 RBI) is reported in critical, but stable condition after losing control kite-surfing and crashing into a hut near the beach on the Knights' off day. With several fractures and foremost a pretty bad concussion, Stuckey is ruled out for returning during the 2025 season.
April 24 – BOS SP Dustin Wingo (0-1, 5.71 ERA) is out with shoulder inflammation and could miss the rest of the season.
April 25 – 34 hits and 32 runs are the total tally of the Loggers' seesaw, 18-14 win over the Condors in Tijuana. 37-year-old RF/LF Ryan Feldmann (.273, 1 HR, 15 RBI) collects three base hits, two doubles, and a game-high 7 RBI,
April 26 – PIT LF/CF/INF Carlos de la Riva (.353, 0 HR, 9 RBI) chains together a 20-game hitting streak with two base knocks in a 9-4 defeat to the Wolves. The streak started in the final week of the 2024 season, with 17 of the 20 games being part of the '25 season.
April 26 – The Wolves trade super utility player Raimondo Odescalchi (.296, 3 HR, 10 RBI) to the Rebels for 3B/2B Adrian Alvarez (.254, 0 HR, 4 RBI).
April 27 – DAL SP Jeff Dykstra (2-1, 2.17 ERA) throws a 3-hit shutout against the Buffaloes, clinching the 2-0 win.

Complaints and stuff

The Druid is doing his all, and is already hard at work squeezing out Higher Colombian Spotted Slime Beetles for a healing paste – I am told by the way that the Lower Colombian Spotted Slime Beetles and all variants of the Ecuadorian and Bolivian Slime Beetles are no good for a healing paste – for Kopp's wrist, but at the end of the day it's a broken wrist alright and he's probably going to miss six weeks. The real question is how that hurts our offense, if at all, but we sure need to call up another outfielder, and it's not going to be the just recently banished Omar Alfaro.

We will have to see whether Johnny Stuckey can return to baseball, but for now, this week, 25-year-old Venezuelan Lucan Giannini, a Buffaloes bench piece, retired due to another nasty concussion. Giannini never crossed our paths, getting only 157 at-bats in parts of four seasons, batting .248 with one homer.

Fun Fact: Cookie Carmona hit a grand slam once in his career, in a June 8, 2013 game against the Scorpions. Jorge Gine was saddled with the 8-1 loss, while Rich Hood picked up the win.

The rest of that lineup is a bit of a walk down memory lane, but not often for the right reasons: 1B Sambrano – CF Carmona – C D. Alexander – RF Bednarski – LF J. Alexander – 2B Palmer – SS Canning – 3B Rodgers – P Hood

That is Walt Canning by the way, who fraudulently extolled over 800 at-bats from the Coons across six seasons while batting for a .665 OPS and never held a major league job for any other team, and Ken Rodgers, a longtime Elk who held his last job of significance with the Coons that season and batted .213 with seven homers for it. Matt Nunley debuted late in the season and put an end to Rodgers' shenanigans.