[Westheim]

We’ve waited for months for this – the 1991 season is about to start!

Raccoons (0-0) vs. Crusaders (0-0)

Game 1 was a matchup between Kisho Saito and Luis Andrade. The Crusaders scored first on two line drive doubles off Saito in the top 2nd, both just fair up the left field line. It was no issue for now, for David Vinson hit a leadoff home run in the bottom 2nd, but Matt Higgins was thrown out at home on a Saito single to end that inning. Bottom 3rd, Tetsu Osanai hit a 2-out, 2-run home run and the Raccoons led 3-1, pulling ahead for the first time this season. Saito ended up going seven innings, scattering seven hits, but no more runs and held the 3-1 lead. He was pinch hit for in the bottom 7th with Quinn on first and two down, but Bob Arnold grounded out for him. The top 8th saw the first agony of the season. Matthews came in and three of the four men he faced reached base. A run scored, two men in scoring position, and only one out. Lagarde entered to hopefully get a K from Benjamin Butler and go from there. It didn’t qork quite that way, as Butler popped out to Higgins, but Lagarde struck out Dale Hunter to hold on to a 3-2 lead. In the top 9th, Phil Burnett led off with a bunt base hit against Grant West and got to third base with two down. Manuel Flores took West’s first pitch to him hard to left – and Mark Dawson CAUGHT it!! For 37 years old he could launch his body at a ball pretty well, and he had at least a 50% share in the save. 3-2 Raccoons. Osanai 2-3, HR, 2 RBI; Saito 7.0 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-2;

Jason Turner faced Raimundo Beato in the middle game. Turner went to full counts on the first three batters he faced and labored through a 30-pitch first inning, finally starving two runners, but had two more full counts in a 1-2-3 second. The Raccoons had no offense against a stellar Beato, and Turner held a scoreless tie through four, but then was broken up in the fifth. Dawson made an error, Turner himself made an error, line drive double, bloop single – two unearned runs scored thanks to a timely double play to get out of it. Turner managed to go seven innings after a few better (and quicker!) innings, but trailed 2-1, the only run having been batted in by himself (but no RBI, since he also killed the inning with a double play). But a W was not yet off the table for Turner. Arnold was plunked to start the bottom 7th, and Salazar hit a 1-out single to put two men on. Beato tried to pick off Arnold, but threw the ball to center field and the runners moved up with Johnston at the plate. But Johnston fouled out, and Daniel Hall grounded out, and NOW a W was off the table, and the game was, too, possibly. The Raccoons’ offense was certainly not locked in so far. Bottom 9th, still down 2-1: O’Morrissey managed an infield hit with one down. Salazar fouled out, before Johnston was plunked. That brought up Hall, who had made the final out with two men on twice already in the game. He flew out. 2-1 Crusaders. Salazar 2-5; O’Morrissey 1-2; Turner 7.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K, L (0-1);

Opposite Hector Lara, Robert Vázquez made his Raccoons debut in the rubber game. Vázquez got the chance to be his own offense with runners on the corners and two down in the bottom 2nd, but flew out, then misfielded a bunt by Lara in the top 3rd, trying to get the lead runner at second base, which he didn’t. Luckily, the inning ended quickly and without damage. The Raccoons managed to score in actuality in the fourth. Osanai socked a home run, and three more Coons reached base after that, eventually scoring two more runs in the inning (and Vázquez took part with a sac fly. Bottom 6th: Vinson, Quinn, and Higgins all hit singles to start the frame, bringing up O’Morrissey, and he hurled a 2-run single up the middle. We got a bit antsy here and Higgins and O-Mo got sign number 16: double steal – and they made it! Vázquez was at the plate, and then knocked a single into shallow right, another RBI for him! He was also stellar on the mound after his early mishap, eventually going eight innings with ease. The Raccoons won handily thanks to stellar pitching and some boom outta them bats. 8-0 Raccoons! Johnston 2-5; Quinn 2-3, BB, HR, 2B, 2 RBI; Higgins 2-3, BB, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-4, 2 RBI; Vázquez 8.0 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, W (1-0) and 1-3, 2 RBI;

Offensively, Jorge Salazar and Daniel Hall so far have not set the world on fire. Hall is 1-12. Uh-oh. But it’s early. He hit a few balls hard, but into outs. Things are gonna turn around.

Please things, turn around.

For the moment, at least Pedro Vázquez cleared waivers and was assigned to AAA again.

Raccoons (2-1) vs. Condors (2-2)

Were the Condors the strongest team in the CL South or were they second to the Knights? Well, the latter started 0-3, while the Condors tied their series with the Aces. To open the series, we faced a left-hander for the first time this season, and had Quinn bat leadoff, with Reece and Gonzalez in the lineup for Johnston and Salazar. Let’s see how that works out.

Not well. Before the lineup could ever go to work, the Condors torched Scott Wade for four runs in the top 1st. But the rally started soon. A leadoff walk by Vinson in the bottom 2nd set things in motion against pitcher Jose Macías. Reece and Gonzalez had hits, Quinn had a double, bringing the score to 4-3 before Higgins and Hall went deep into the outfield, but not deep enough. Upon exiting in the sixth with a man on third, Wade trailed 5-4 in the game. Burnett got the final out. Well, actually Higgins got it with a leaping grab. Ultimately, it didn’t help a lot. The Raccoons had only one more chance to score, but Reece was thrown out at home to end the eighth, and by then they trailed already 9-4 after damage done to Burnett and Carrillo. The score remained unchanged. 9-4 Condors. Quinn 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Reece 3-4; Gonzalez 2-3, 2B, RBI; O’Morrissey 2-2, 3B;

An RBI single by Hall got the Raccoons on track in the bottom 1st of the middle game, which was Berry’s first call to do his job this season. After that, the Raccoons missed plenty of scoring chances, but Berry held his ground, dominating the Condors with wicked stuff. That was, until the seventh. The Condors had two leadoff singles through Ira Houston and Felix Velez after being held to one hit so far, then executed a successful double steal and Berry walked Cipriano Ortega with one out. Bases loaded, trouble. Gilberto Alaniz fell 0-2 behind, but then sent a soaring flyer into deep left. Hall caught it, but Houston tagged and scored, tying the game. In the bottom of the inning, Higgins hit a fluke 1-out single, then stole second base unopposed when catcher Andres Manuel couldn’t get a grip on the ball. Mark Dawson was at the plate, 0-11 so far in the season. Woody Roberts threw him a pitch he liked, and it became a huge 2-run homer, #301 and counting. Berry got in trouble again in the top 8th, putting the tying runs on. With one out, Ira Houston was barely retired when Hall made a sliding catch in shallow left. Grant West entered to face a left-hander, time to get four outs and a SV here. Unfortunately, the Condors sent oldie Thomas Martin to pinch hit, a right-hander, and he singled to right. Bases loaded, but West got to Manuel, striking him out to end the inning, but then started the ninth walking Ortega on four straight, and Alaniz doubled over Johnston’s head. Harold King walked, bases loaded and nobody out. West got César Báez to fly out to shallow right, the runners held. Oscar Riley came up to pinch-hit. Grounder to Salazar, to Higgins, to Osanai – ballgame! 3-1 Raccoons. Salazar 3-4; Osanai 2-4; Higgins 2-4; Berry 7.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K, W (1-0);

The fan base was irate after the game. Bobby Quinn had been hit with a pitch by Woody Roberts and had left with an injury. Initially it looked like a broken thumb or something, but it was only a thumb contusion. “Only”. He would be out for about a week, which was bad, since a DL stint didn’t make sense here.

The Raccoons in game 3 had runners on second base twice early in the game, but didn’t score, but that changed after a leadoff double by Hall in the bottom 4th. Higgins with one out singled to right, scoring Hall for the go-ahead run, but they left two on. Kisho Saito had been perfect through four innings, but Tadanobu Sakaguchi’s infield single in the fifth sunk all hopes for one for the record books. An error by Mark Dawson on the next play eventually netted the Condors two unearned runs. The Coons offense remained inactive until the bottom 7th, where John Douglas, renowned for his wildness, walked Dawson and Reece to start the frame. Saito would have been taken out under other circumstances, but here we had him bunt the runners over and leave Salazar with the task to hit a single somewhere nice. Instead, Salazar walked, Johnston flew out so poorly that the runners had to hold, and Hall came up with the sacks full and two down. He struck out. Next thing you know, the Condors ripped Saito apart in the eighth as they added three runs. Lagarde surrendered two more. 7-1 Condors. The Raccoons were left with only five hits. Johnston 2-4;

Things are going great here. Really. If that game had ended after seven, I would have foamed about how if we were losing such kind of games, we could stop play and take sixth place right away. They actually managed to make it worse after that.

Raccoons (3-3) @ Bayhawks (4-2)

Game 1. Kisho Saito may not have lost his last start on unearned runs, but Jason Turner had. Time for some improved defense. And offense. The Coons got a run in the first, then went snoozing. Turner was left to fight for himself, which only partially worked, as the Bayhawks tied the game in the fourth. The top 6th with Salazar reaching base on a 2-base throwing error. If only we could have found someone scoring him. To be fair, Osanai hit a 2-out single, but it wasn’t long enough, and Arnold popped out to end the inning. Turner went seven strong innings of 1-run ball, not getting into a winning position, and was removed for PH Mark Dawson to start the top 8th, who fouled out. With Salazar on first and one out, Johnston grounded to 3B Tim Benson for what looked like a double play, but Benson had the ball fall out of his glove not once, but twice, and we had two runners in scoring position with one out. Hall – DOUBLE INTO THE CORNER!! The runners scored as Zahid Mashwanis hurried after the ball. Osanai was put on intentionally, but it didn’t help the Bayhawks, who came apart now. A pinch-walk by Vinson loaded the bags, and Higgins and O’Morrissey drove in three with hits. With Flores at the plate, the Bayhawks had a good chance to end the misery, but instead a passed ball scored another run. A 6-run inning got Turner into position for the W after all. 7-1 Furballs. Hall 2-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Osanai 2-3, BB; Vinson (PH) 0-0, BB; Turner 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, W (1-1);

But the offensive plague continued for the Raccoons in game 2. They missed a chance to score in the first inning, then trailed 1-0 when Robert Vázquez surrendered the first earned run of his Coons career. Daniel Hall hobbled off the field in the second inning with an ankle injury, and things continued to go more so-so. While the Coons tied the game in the third, they left the bases loaded when Bob Arnold lazily popped to second base. The go-ahead run in the fourth scored only on a wild pitch by Rafael Espinoza. The game dragged into the seventh. The Coons had runners on the corners and nobody out and were on a good way to so not score, until the Bayhawks did not go for a play at home on a 1-out, bases-loaded grounder by Arnold, and instead got Arnold at first. A run scored, and Higgins came up and FINALLY a clutch hit, a huge 2-run triple to deep center. The story of the day however was Antonio Gonzalez. He pinch hit for Vázquez in the eighth – and homered to right. The Raccoons put up another rally in the ninth, bringing up Gonzalez with two on and two out – HOME RUN!! This time to left. That was quite an impressive feat for a bench player. The Raccoons ended up winning convincingly despite crawling through half the game, 10-1 Raccoons. Salazar 3-4, BB, RBI; Johnston 2-5; Higgins 3-5, 3B, 2 RBI; Flores (PH) 1-1; O’Morrissey 3-5, 3 2B, RBI; Gonzalez (PH) 2-2, 2 HR, 4 RBI; Vázquez 7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, W (2-0) and 1-3;

Matt Higgins was caught stealing in the fourth inning of this game. Last year, he went 24/24 or something like that before getting nailed the first time. He is 4/5 now.

Daniel Hall had a very mild ankle sprain. It was bad enough to hinder him a bit for a week or so, but didn’t appear like something that couldn’t be fixed with tape and not going nine innings every day. For starters, he sat out the last game of the series, with Dawson playing in left field.

Heading into game 3, Scott Wade’s ERA of 7.94 was 60% higher than that of our other four starters COMBINED. So, a solid start, six innings, two runs, that would be something to get him into shape. Wade indeed started well into game, allowing one hit through five innings. Meanwhile the offense … well, they had eight hits through seven innings and had about as many double plays to kill any possible inning. Wade then crumbled in the bottom 7th, loading the bags with nobody out in the scoreless game. He struck out Charlie Foster, but catcher Jose Ortiz got through on the right side for an RBI single. Wade struck out the pitcher Chris O’Keefe, then yielded for Albert Matthews to get Diego Rodriguez, but surrendered a 2-run single. Pedro Villa was next, and his short grounder was thrown away by David Vinson. A 5-run inning, out of the blue. O’Keefe went the distance with a rare 10-hit shutout. 6-0 Bayhawks. Salazar 2-4, 2B; Arnold 2-4, 2B; Vinson 2-3, BB;

In other news

April 7 – SFB INF Roberto Rodriguez (7-21, 1 HR, 6 RBI) sprains his thumb in an on base collision and will miss at least three weeks.

Complaints and stuff

In an instant, I could name several issues that we have had so far. They all have names, but you can find them below.

And what are the Loggers doing in first place? Is it Easter already?