[luckymann]

At our first management meeting for the month, I make the call to clear the decks of what’s left in respect to players we aren’t interested in keeping. I’m not expecting much with so little of the season remaining, but we hit pay dirt first cab off the rank, doing a straight swap of David Boyd for a clubhouse leader and gun 2B in Ethan Williams. What we really need is pitching, however, and that’s where I turn my focus on the day of the trade deadline.

To bump Nate Kurtz for a great starter in Rob Moore, we need to part with Joe Alexander. I have no problems with losing Joe to make this upgrade, and pull the trigger without hesitation. Chris Barnes nets us solid reliever Garrett MacArthur and stopgap starter Andy English, who may come in handy should John Leon’s injury keep him out for any length of time. We get another reserve starter Dave Klasen, along with backup reliever Joel Levi, for Bryce McCray. Our final move for the season sees Mark Gentry shipped to Caldwell for reliever Greg Moore.

In the end, much to our relief, John is cleared to play. Still these guys will be ready to go if and when injury does sideline one of our hurlers. The next day, however, Jonno Moulton goes down with a virus that knocks him for six, so much so I opt to IL him and bring up Joe Douglass for some game time. We lose Dave Schuld for a week with a bruised thigh as well.

None of these are bad things, mind you, as they keep the roster ticking over and let us have a look at what some of the lesser lights bring to the table.

The group shows what it’s capable of early in the month with a massive 14-5 demolition of Lanai City, who look a virtual lock for the HAL pennant. Malone goes yard for the 27th time and drives in 3, while Kyle Hackett – batting nearly .400 for us so far with 13 RBI in just 78 AB – also has a good game. With some time spent in the offseason getting the squad to gel, here’s hoping this sort of performance becomes the rule rather than the exception next year. Point in case, the 11-4 drubbing they give us the very next day.

We lose Ben Penley for the season to a fractured thumb mid-month. John Leon finally gets his first win for us with a dominant two-hit complete game performance, one of three in a row we reel off. We enter our final series of the regular season just one game behind second-last-placed Kaunakakai. Two wins against the putative champions Lanai City, the second of which sees John Leon break the team record for strikeouts with 14, see us pull level with the Juice with one to play. We play the early game, completing a sweep of the Lightning with an emphatic 8-3 win powered by Malone’s 35th dinger of the year, and with a couple of innings to go in their game against Hilo, the Juice look down and out trailing 7-2. But they rally to pinch it 8-7, meaning we finish in a tie for last – or second last if you want to look at it that way – with a record of 47-58, 13 games behind Lanai City, who win the league by 4 from Hilo. That’s 7 games better than BNN predicted we’d do, and we finish July with at 13-10, our only winning month of the season. Our BA finishes at .250, third best in the league.

All of which bodes well for next season.