[pauwoo]

San Diego Skipjacks (0-0, .000) @ Los Angeles Leopards (0-0, .000)
Outside of losing players like LF Tyler Hill (31yo, 53/53), 2B Raymond Hayes (34yo, 61/61), and CL Victor Carabott (31yo, 67/67), seeing their franchise sold by the previous owner to the heir of the Bumble Bee Seafood fortune and then unceremoniously moved to San Diego, and bringing in 3B Germaine Sturdivant (33yo, 55/55), the new look Skipjacks had themselves a quiet offseason. If your definition of quiet is a Wilhelm scream. San Diego’s focus during the offseason was to get settled into their new digs, introduce themselves to their new community, and put together a roster that will, hopefully, make up for in character what they lack in skills. This should be considered the first year of a tear down, rebuilding effort – the first painful step towards respectability and a sort of table setting season for the feast that the new Ownership claims is ahead. Here, your defending World Series Champions Los Angeles Leopards will do their level best to welcome San Diego to the MLB with a fist slammed squarely into their face.

1 of 162: Lucas Torres (0-0, 0.00) @ Stephen Estevez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 1-0. No hit until the bottom of the 8th by San Diego starter, Lucas Torres, and with OH HONG and Otto both going 0-fer on the day, we’d rely on a perfectly timed, walk-off, SOLO DINGER from Ethan Mullens to win the day, saddling the Skipjacks with a loss in their first regular-season game as a professional baseball outfit. Not counting their 88-year history spent playing as the Golden State W’s and San Jose Seals, of course. Estevez went 4.2-innings, allowing 1-hit while fanning 7, before turning it over to the pen who, to a man, held San Diego hitless with Don Haag being credited with the win by virtue of tossing a 14-pitch bottom of the 9th that included 2 of our staffs 12 K’s.

2 of 162: Knox Hussman (0-0, 0.00) @ Ram Chen (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 2-1 (10). We’d require heroics to get the nod once again with Oh Hong doing the honors during the bottom of the 10th, as he did his best Ethan impression by hitting the game-winning, walk-off SOLO SHOT off Shawn Arguello in extras. Hutchinson drove our only other run in on a single during the bottom of the 4th, Ethan swiped his first bag of the 2081 season, and Don Haag picked up his 2nd win in as many tries with another tip-top, 19-pitch effort during the top of the 10th.

3 of 162: Alan Barrientos (0-0, 0.00) @ Jan Hernandez (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 2-3. Reading Minor extended San Diego’s lead to two runs with a SOLO HOMER during the top of the 6th off Jan, and, despite Oh Hong putting his 2nd TANK of the year on the board our offense couldn’t muster the strength to over come the Skipjacks lead as they managed to win their first game since moving to Southern California in our house.

4 of 162: Jim Girardin (0-0, 0.00) @ Dontrell McNeil (0-0, 0.00)
Loss, 0-2. In what is starting to veer towards being a disturbing trend, San Diego threatened to no hit our club for the second time after carrying one into the 8th on Opening Day. This time it’d be backup outfielder BJ Cristoforo who broke it up with a single during the bottom of the 9th as our offense struggled to get anything going against Girardin in this one. For their part, a Josh Jamison run-scoring double would be all they’d need to earn the split, chasing Dontrell out of this one during the 6th. Surely, not the start I wanted, especially considering our opponent…

Record: 2-2, .500, t-4th NL West
Up Next: We’ll head across the country to Miami for a 3-game set against the Herons…