[Westheim]

Raccoons (32-23) vs. Loggers (27-28) – June 4-7, 2063

The Raccoons welcomed the league’s #3 offense (raises eyebrow) and fourth-most generous pitching staff for a 4-game series to start their new weeklong homestand. We had a 2-1 edge against the Loggers so far, but our struggles against them in recent times were well documented. Corey Garmon was the only notable DL occupant for Milwaukee.

Projected matchups:
Chance Fox (4-2, 2.90 ERA) vs. Tony Espinosa (5-2, 3.86 ERA)
John Bollinger (1-3, 4.62 ERA) vs. Vincent Hernandez (4-3, 3.59 ERA)
Josh Elling (3-5, 3.80 ERA) vs. Oliver Graham (3-3, 3.00 ERA)
Tyler Riddle (4-1, 3.39 ERA) vs. Girolamo Pizzichini (1-1, 4.70 ERA)

The Loggers would bring up a pair of southpaws for the first two games of the series.

Game 1
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 2B Milian – 3B C. Sullivan – P T. Espinosa
POR: CF Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – 2B White – C Arellano – RF Campos – P Fox

Rich Monck kept peppering homers now, hitting a 2-piece to right in the first inning after Jack Kozak had led off the inning with a single. Joel Starr’s solo shot in the same inning gave Fox a 3-0 lead, which he immediately endangered by walking Fidel Carrera and Chris Sullivan around a Jonathan Merrill single in the second inning, with all the runners left stranded once Espinosa lined out to Lonzo at short. Instead, Marco Campos’ double and Kozak’s RBI single in the bottom 2nd extended the score further to 4-0. Fox nevertheless remained all over the place, offered another walk in the third inning and was finally tagged for two runs in the fourth by giving up hits to Merrill, David Milian, and Sullivan on three consecutive pitches to begin the top 4th. Sullivan drove in Merrill, and Milian scored on Scott Franks’ sac fly to left, 4-2. And that was before the weather started acting up.

Fox barely got around a Carrera double in the fifth inning after a 30-minute rain delay. That was his final inning in a completely messed up start. The bullpen then very reliably blew the rest of the lead in the seventh. Matt Walters had a nice enough sixth inning against the bottom of the order, then allowed leadoff singles to Franks and Cesar Ramirez to park the tying runs on the corners. Murdock did nothing to better the situation, gave up two more hits to the middle of the order, and with that, the game was tied at four.

The offense didn’t look like they could be arsed going forwards, but just in case McDaniel in the eighth and Carlisle in the ninth held the game tied. Franks hit a single off the latter in the ninth, but was caught stealing by Arellano, although Franks had stolen bags against both Fox and Murdock earlier in the game. Carlisle pitched two innings including the tenth when the game dragged itself to those lengths, but he was matched by southpaw Dave Burnett and the game reached a point where we were running out of arms once more. For the 11th inning, Pohlmann entered in a second double switch for the team, batting fourth while Ben Morris was into the game in the #6 hole, which was due up second in the bottom of the inning. Pohlmann retired Milwaukee in order in the top 11th before Starr flew out against Brad Walker, but the right-hander then gave up a triple over the head of Dave Wright – not a natural born centerfielder – to put Morris on third base with the winning run and one out in the bottom 11th. Arellano was walked intentionally to set up a double play with Campos, which was a bold proposition that became hypothetical when Campos actually did hit a comebacker to Walker, the pitcher just threw it wildly past Carrera at second base to allow Morris to dazzle home to end the game. 5-4 Coons. Kozak 2-5, RBI; Morris 1-1, 3B; Campos 2-4, 2B, RBI; Carlisle 2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K;

After this newest mess of a game and with John Messinger coming up, the Raccoons badly needed fresh blood in the pen. Daniel Benitez (0-0, 9.00 ERA) was sent to AAA and another failed starter, Malik Padgitt, was brought up as garbage option should Bollinger get beaten up again. In that case, they’d then probably return to St. Petersburg as a duo on Wednesday…

Game 2
MIL: LF Franks – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – RF D. Wright – 3B C. Sullivan – 2B Milian – P V. Hernandez
POR: 1B Kozak – SS Lavorano – 3B Monck – 2B White – LF Crumble – CF Morris – C Arellano – RF Campos – P Bollinger

Messinger was pinata’ed for three runs in the first inning, walking Franks to get going before allowing three singles to Ramirez, Carrera and Merrill, the latter two getting RBI’s, while plating another run with a wild pitch. Milian and Franks whacked more singles for another run in the second inning, and Bollinger was kicked from the game and off the roster after walking the bags full in the third with one out. Padgitt allowed a sac fly to Milian, 5-0, and got Hernandez out to end the inning, then went ahead and hit a single in the bottom 3rd. Kozak drew a walk, Lonzo grounded out, and Monck singled in the pair of runners to at least do *something* on offense.

On the hill, Padgitt was no less awful than Bollinger and wound up getting nine outs before departing in the sixth inning in utter disgrace as well. He had allowed an unearned run – Morris dropped a fly – in the fourth inning, but in the sixth walked and drilled the bags full, including plonking Wright out of the game in favor of Phil Reder before walking in a run against Chris Sullivan. Carrillo allowed a 2-run single to Milian before getting out of that bloody inning, and by then the Loggers held a 9-2 lead, and the Raccoons still had to find nine outs from a completely flayed pen. Carrillo got the seventh dealt with and Walters, despite being out the fourth time in five days, had a 1-2-3 inning left in his diminished arm as well. In between, the Coons had scored a run in the seventh on singles by Arellano and Corral, Kozak bringing home the catcher with a groundout, and Rich Monck hit another home run in the bottom 8th to reduce the gap to 9-4 – not that I was hopeful or anything. I was busy going through the AAA roster to find something, anything with three outs in the paw. Jon Bean made another pitching appearance in the ninth inning. Every Logger he faced put the first pitch into play, but they were held to a Ramirez single and didn’t score. Randy Birnbaum got the ball in the bottom 9th. Bean grounded out, but he walked Corral. Starr and Fowler batted for the 1-2 people, with the latter hitting a 2-out single to left. Monck then thrashed another offering for a 3-run homer, prompting another pitching change, but White grounded out against Brad Walker and that was the ballgame. 9-7 Loggers. Fowler (PH) 1-1; Monck 3-5, 2 HR, 6 RBI; White 2-4, BB; Corral (PH) 1-1, BB;

Imagine what poor Rich Monck could do on a good team! Well, there were news on that, but we’ll talk about that in the bottom blurb.

Offed the roster unceremoniously were John Bollinger (1-4, 5.26 ERA) and Malik Padgitt (0-0, 5.40 ERA), to be replaced with two relievers just to get a breather before we’d need that fifth starting spot again on Sunday. Rich Read and Hachiro Yokoyama returned from the Alley Cats.

Lonzo had a day off on Wednesday.

Game 3
MIL: LF Franks – 1B C. Ramirez – SS F. Carrera – CF Merrill – RF Reder – 3B C. Sullivan – C Jack – 2B Milian – P O. Graham
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – SS Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – 3B Fowler – C Lawson – P Elling

Elling tried to go against the trend in the rotation and struck out four Loggers while refusing to allow any of them on base the first time through the order. Franks singled to begin the fourth, but was doubled up 4-6-3 style by Ramirez. By then the Raccoons had taken a 1-0 lead on a Morris homer in the bottom 3rd, but had only two hits themselves in the early going.

Of course it couldn’t remain a nicely pitched game. Jonathan Merrill hit a leadoff single to left in the fifth, then scored on Phil Reder’s triple into the corner. A sac fly by J.P. Jack gave Milwaukee a 2-1 lead. Milian hit another single before Graham grounded out to end the inning. Elling then faced another four batters in the sixth inning… and retired none of them. One run was home, the bags were full with nobody out, I tried to send his contract through the shredder, but Maud was fighting me hard over that, and the Raccoons brought in McDaniel into a situation where the last thing we needed was a serial walker. Reder whiffed and Sullivan hit into a double play to end the inning without more Loggers runs, though. The Coons were not getting ANYTHING off Graham, who nursed a 2-hitter through seven, then went with Yokoyama hoping for a 6-out appearance to finish the game. The Japanese left-hander got two outs, gave up three runs on three hits, two walks, and a hit batter, and then left a teeming mess for Rich Read, who saw Tyler Gilliam ground out to short on the first pitch he threw to end the ******* inning.

At this point we just wanted the game over with. Graham went eight with a 6-1 lead before releasing the pillow off the Coons’ snouts, and Read had a neat enough ninth inning to at least not provoke us into using any other pitchers that badly needed a day off. The Loggers sent Matt Pickel into the bottom 9th with a 5-run lead, with Crumble pinch-hitting and flying out before Starr and Monck suddenly bashed back-to-back bombs to get to 6-3. Brad Walker then came on for Pickel making his third appearance of the series in as many days. Corral singled off him. Arellano batted for Read, grounded to third, and Sullivan threw the ball away for an error, bringing Fowler to the plate as the tying run. Walker walked him on four pitches. And then the whole thing turned into nothing as Lonzo popped out in Lawson’s spot and Bean grounded out to second… 6-3 Loggers. Corral 2-3, BB; McDaniel 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K;

Yokoyama (1-0, 6.75 ERA) got the axe right away, since we were done messing around, yet somehow ended up with Paul Barton, now wearing #57 rather than #49 that had gone to Carlisle, on the roster again…

And no, your eyes were not betraying you. Lonzo was back in the lineup on Thursday – but batting SEVENTH.

SEVENTH.

Game 4
MIL: LF Franks – RF C. Ramirez – 1B D. Robles – SS F. Carrera – C Guitreau – CF Merrill – 2B Gilliam – 3B C. Sullivan – P Pizzichini
POR: CF Morris – LF Kozak – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Riddle

Ramirez and Robles reached base rather rapidly in the first inning before Carrera dumped a 2-run triple into the depths of centerfield and another game was going its merry way against the Critters. Riddle at least popped out Guitreau and saw Merrill fly out to keep that extra runner on base. The Coons replied with a Corral homer in the bottom 2nd, 2-1, then got White on base on an error. Declawed Lonzo forced him out, but instead stole second base, #736 of his career and the second since coming off the DL. Arellano’s deep fly to left was caught at the fence by Franks to leave him on base.

Franks had not attempted any steals in the last two days, but after a leadoff single in the third inning and two outs later went and scooped his 21st of the year with Carrera at the plate. He then tried to make it a double, but was thrown out at third by Arellano to end the inning. Riddle led off the bottom 3rd with a single to right, and more singles by Morris and Starr loaded the bass for Rich Monck, which was a dangerous proposition at this stage. He spanked a grounder up the middle, though, which Carrera intercepted, but the Loggers only got the out at second base, and the tying run scored. This was Monck’s 50th RBI of the year in 58 games. Corral fell to 1-2 before stretching a fly out of Ramirez’ range in right for an RBI double, giving Portland a 3-2 lead, but White’s pop to Pizzichini himself ended the inning. The lead was extended in the fifth inning. Pizzichini got two outs before allowing a gap triple to Starr, then hung a breaking ball to Rich, the Destroyer, and was down 5-2 after a 396-foot blast to left. That was Monck’s FIFTH homer in the series…!! (enthusiastically high-fives with Slappy)

Refreshingly, Tyler Riddle gave the Raccoons seven innings of 5-hit, 2-run ball before being hit for to begin the bottom 7th. Matt Walters got three groundouts off left-handed batters in the eighth inning before the 5-2 lead went to Carlisle in the ninth inning. Carrera hit a double to left with one out when Crumble slid and missed the ball instead of playing it safe for a single. Guitreau whiffed for the second out before PH Jake Jackson got nailed, which promoted the tying run to the dish in PH David Milian, batting .381 from whichever side he pleased. He grounded out to Fowler, defensive replacement at short. 5-2 Coons. Starr 2-3, 3B; Corral 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Riddle 7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, W (5-1) and 1-2;

Finally a good start…!!

Raccoons (34-25) vs. Gold Sox (34-24) – June 8-10, 2063

The second-place Gold Sox were trying to stay in touch with the Stars, who were 4 1/2 games ahead of them. The Coons also had lost first place to the Indians, trailing by half a game. Denver ranked fourth in runs scored and sixth in runs allowed with just a +9 run differential, which still beat the Critters’ -7 mark. The key was to get through their very good rotation and then run roughshot on the bullpen, which had piled up a 5.33 ERA so far, worst even in the Federal League. The Raccoons had not won a series from the Gold Sox in *15* years, including six two-games-to-one interleague series losses and one 2051 World Series we don’t wanna talk about much anymore here.

Projected matchups:
Angel Alba (5-4, 3.45 ERA) vs. Ben Peterson (2-4, 4.23 ERA)
Chance Fox (4-2, 2.96 ERA) vs. Matt Asplund (7-3, 3.89 ERA)
TBD vs. Neil Mongillo (6-3, 3.86 ERA)

Officially, Sunday was given as TBD, but I had an idea already and a prospect in AAA that was lined up exactly with that spot. Meanwhile, the Gold Sox would bring up two more southpaws in Peterson and Asplund. They had a total of three in their rotation.

Game 1
DEN: CF Lauterbach – LF J.D. Johnson – 1B Joyner – C Goodwin – 2B Seul – SS L. Palacios – RF Everingham – 3B Clover – P B. Peterson
POR: CF Morris – 1B Kozak – 3B Monck – 2B White – LF Crumble – RF Campos – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – P Alba

Alba couldn’t keep Chris Lauterbach off base; the leadoff man hit a single and was stranded in the first inning, but doubled and scored on J.D. Johnson’s single in the third inning, which marked the game’s first run. Alba then failed to get a bunt down after Lonzo and Arellano reached base to begin the bottom 3rd, striking out before Morris’ and Kozak’s flies ended the inning. Had he gotten Lonzo to third base, he would have easily scored on Morris’ fly to deep center. Woulda coulda shoulda.

In real terms Monck grounded out to begin the fourth, but White’s single and Crumble’s homer to left flipped the score to 2-1 Critters. Morris and Kozak hit 2-out singles in the fifth, but Monck struck out. The Sox hit back-to-back 1-out singles off Alba in the top 6th, but Bill Joyner was thrown out at third base on Curt Goodwin’s single to right that Campos played very well and lasered the slow runner out at the far corner. Je-ju Seul’s fly to center ended that inning.

Alba was cruising – and messing up another bunt opportunity along the way – into the eighth inning when Lauterbach singled to center with one out and Morris had the ball hit off his chest and bounce away for an error and an extra base. Johnson’s groundout moved the tying run to third, and the Coons twitched and sent McDaniel against the left-handed Joyner. The Gold Sox countered with righty-hitting Eric Whitlow, who hit a clean single to left to tie the game at two… Goodwin would strike out, but by then it was too late. The Sox then thought it smart to send in Duarte Damasceno, former Critter, into the bottom 8th with his 6+ ERA. Monck got nothing to whack and drew a leadoff walk. White flew out, but Crumble got a ball between Lauterbach and Johnson for a double, although Monck had to be stopped at third base. Jose Corral batted for Campos and gave the Critters the lead again with a single dished through the hole on the right side; Crumble was held at third against the arm of Andy Everingham – the outfielder’s foremost and only asset. Lonzo brought Crumble home with a groundout to third baseman Chase Clover. Joel Starr batted for Arellano and based a 2-run homer to get the score out of save range…! This spared Carlisle another outing and instead brought on Rich Read for the ninth inning. He allowed a single to Luis Palacios, but retired the Gold Sox before the save was back on. 6-2 Raccoons. Crumble 2-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Corral (PH) 1-1, RBI; Arellano 2-3; Starr (PH) 1-1, HR, 2 RBI; Alba 7.2 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K;

Game 2
DEN: CF Lauterbach – LF J.D. Johnson – 1B Joyner – C Goodwin – RF Whitlow – 3B Clover – 2B Seul – SS L. Palacios – P Asplund
POR: CF Morris – SS Lavorano – 1B Starr – 3B Monck – RF Corral – 2B White – LF Crumble – C Lawson – P Fox

Fox hit a batter (Johnson) and threw a wild pitch in the first inning, and somehow wasn’t punished. And that was against the lefty top of the order… The Coons better get something on the board and did so on Crumble’s RBI double in the bottom 2nd, which plated Corral and sent Jim White to third base. Lawson’s groundout made it 2-0 and Fox whiffed before going back to the hill. He allowed 1-out singles to Asplund (…) and Lauterbach in the top 3rd before Johnson’s grounder to short offered a ticket out of the inning, but White was slow on the transfer, then was taken out rather violently by Lauterbach, who was one of two outs on the play; the other being White, who limped off the field with Luis Silva, while I was plotting revenge. For now, Fowler would enter the game at third base with Monck going to second. Joyner’s fly to left ended the inning without Denver scoring more than a few shattered bones.

Lonzo singled and stole second in the bottom 3rd, but Starr and Monck had their flies to center caught by Lauterbach, the evil fiend, to keep him on base. Monck narrowly missed a homer to right when he flew out to Whitlow to begin the bottom 6th. The score remained unchanged with the middle innings being rather calm. Fox allowed just two singles in those, including a Goodwin single to begin the fourth that immediately led to a Whitlow 6-4-3 double play. Fox’ day still went south in the seventh with Clover’s double to left and scratch singles for Seul and Palacios. One run was home before Asplund bunted the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. Here we would have been tempted to have Fox face Lauterbach – the whole lefty-for-lefty phobia – but the Sox pinch-hit the switch-hitter Everingham for the seemingly unretireable Lauterbach, and he hit left-handed pitchers (if anything), so the Raccoons moved to Murdock, who got him out to short.

Bottom 7th, and Crumble opened with a single against Asplund. Lawson grounded out, working his way to the .200 mark from above, before Kozak batted for Murdock and drew a walk. Asplund still remained in the game and gave up a single over the head of Seul to Morris. Crumble had no intention of stopping from second base and scored, 3-1, but Lonzo and Starr flew out and that was as good as it got. McDaniel and Carrillo pieced the eighth together; the latter gave up a double to Goodwin with two outs that led nowhere for the Sox, except that Goodwin tore out a leg and left the game for backup catcher Zachery Norwood to take over. Carlisle retired the side in order in the ninth to break the spell against the Sox. 3-1 Furballs! Crumble 3-3, 2 2B, RBI; Fox 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (5-2);

The Sox announced that Goodwin (.261, 9 HR, 40 RBI) would be out for a while with a hip strain, but the Coons had no news on White by Sunday.

Rich Read (0-0, 7.71 ERA) was optioned back to AAA to bring on a starter for Sunday – and it was the major league debut of 23-year-old #95 prospect Jeff Applegate, who had a 5-4 record and 3.21 ERA in St. Petersburg. Applegate had been the principal return for Tipsy Bobby and Nick Robinson AND Angel Perez to the Capitals last July. The young lefty had a 5-pitch mix with a 93mph heater and a curve and fork as his best options. His control was decent for a southpaw of his development stage. He also had earned himself the nickname “Punk” at this early stage of his career, so that was that.

Game 3
DEN: CF Lauterbach – 2B Seul – 1B Joyner – RF Whitlow – LF J.D. Johnson – C Norwood – 3B Clover – SS L. Palacios – P Mongillo
POR: CF Kozak – RF Campos – 3B Monck – LF Crumble – 1B Starr – SS Lavorano – C Arellano – 2B Bean – P Applegate

Applegate walked Joyner and threw a wild pitch in the first inning, but didn’t allow a run and might yet find himself on a career trajectory like Chance Fox – mostly competent, but regularly annoying. He also walked Clover in the second inning before getting his first K against Palacios to end the inning. Singles by Crumble, Starr, and Arellano then also gave him his first 1-0 lead in the same inning. Bean and him both grounded out to prevent more runs from scoring. Lauterbach walked in the third inning and was left on base, and the Sox finally got a hit off him with a Whitlow single in the fourth, but he was doubled off and the Sox remained off the board. Mongillo left the game in the same inning with an apparent injury.

Denver remained 1-0 behind through the middle innings, not getting another knock, although Lauterbach drew another walk in the sixth, only to be stranded in scoring position. Clover singled with two outs in the seventh, but Palacios found Lonzo with a grounder to end the inning. That was it for the debutant, who was hit for in the bottom 7th with an insurance run (Arellano) on second and one out against ex-Coons southpaw Justin Rocco, who grounded out Morris and Kozak to keep the score at 1-0.

Unfortunately, there was no fairytale ending to the debut – Matt Walters was taken deep by Lauterbach in the eighth, tying the score, and that took the W away from Applegate obviously. It went to Pohlmann in the bottom 8th; the righty had finished the top 8th after Walters bungled the lead, then saw Monck double off Rocco and Starr go well yard to right for a 3-1 lead. The Coons stayed with Pohlmann, who retired the Gold Sox in order to complete the sweep in the ninth inning. 3-1 Critters! Kozak 2-4, 2B; Crumble 2-4; Starr 2-4, HR, 2 RBI; Arellano 2-3, RBI; Applegate 7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K;

In other news

June 4 – Blue Sox OF/1B Tony Roman (.218, 3 HR, 10 RBI) could miss the rest of the month after spraining his ankle in a game against the Buffos.
June 4 – The Cyclones win a game – yay! – even though it takes them 17 innings to put the Capitals down 2-1.
June 5 – CIN INF Jorge Munoz (.177, 0 HR, 8 RBI) was going to miss at least three weeks with a strained hamstring.
June 5 – The Warriors beat the Scorpions, 4-3 in 17 innings. From the 8th to the 16th innings, the two teams played an entire regulation game without scoring.
June 5 – PIT OF/1B Kelly Konecny (.308, 0 HR, 10 RBI) hits a seventh-inning double for the only Miners hit in a 3-0 loss to the Rebels’ Jeff Crowley (3-4, 4.10 ERA) and Mike Gunter (3-0, 0.75 ERA, 7 SV).
June 6 – Las Vegas beats the Falcons, 3-0, but takes 12 innings to do so.
June 7 – The Crusaders trade 1B Jared McLaughlin (.248, 7 HR, 14 RBI) to the Scorpions for veteran outfielder Dan Martin (.143, 0 HR, 3 RBI).
June 9 – Dallas OF Chad Pritchett (.300, 6 HR, 30 RBI) was down with an oblique strain. The Stars would have to make do without him for a month.
June 10 – OF/1B Kelly Konecny (.307, 0 HR, 12 RBI) is traded from the Miners to the Cyclones in exchange for OF Manny Sauceda (.239, 1 HR, 13 RBI).
June 10 – The Thunder take ten innings to walk off against the Wolves, 1-0, when OCT LF/RF Randy Hummel (.281, 2 HR, 15 RBI) singles home Omar Lira (.248, 4 HR, 22 RBI) with the game’s only run.

FL Player of the Week: PIT INF Nick Nye (.297, 7 HR, 28 RBI), hitting .517 (15-29) with 3 HR, 9 RBI
CL Player of the Week: MIL SS/2B Fidel Carrera (.288, 11 HR, 41 RBI), poking .500 (14-28) with 1 HR, 8 RBI

Complaints and stuff

Jeff Applegate was Player of the Game on Sunday. When asked about whether he expected the honor by NWSN’s designated sideline tool, his reply was “Damn right I did”. You better go 17-5 for a season with that attitude.

Rich Monck raped the Loggers for five homers while batting “only” 6-for-18 in that series, then followed that up with a 1-for-10 showing against the Gold Sox, which means he dropped six points of batting average in a week in which he drove in a dozen runs (all against Milwaukee). The barrage put him tops in home runs (16) in the CL, three ahead of the competition. The ABL lead is 17 by the Miners’ Nick Dingman, while his 52 RBI are second only to Armando Montoya’s 56 in the whole league.

Speaking of Monck, the Raccoons had great news this week that was not related to the on-field product directly, announcing that Rich Monck had signed a 4-year, $20M extension that would buy out his last two arbitration years and then two years of free agency. Overall he was now locked up for his age 27-30 seasons in the brown shirt. While we were paying double for him in those arbitration years, $5M might be a bargain in the last two years of this deal.

Huzzah!

The Coons are back out East next week with three games in Richmond and three in Indy on the way home.

Fun Fact: The Raccoons tied the all-time score against the Gold Sox with this week’s sweep.

It’s now 63-63 in regular season games, which means there are only two FL teams against which the Coons have an all-time losing record: the Stars (68-70) and the Warriors (54-57). Neither of them are on our schedule this year – the last interleague week in August sees us play the Wolves and Miners.