The first game of May is a red-letter day for Jonno Moulton, who goes yard 3 times and knocks in 6 as we take down the Juice 10-7, although Dave Klasen giving up 4 runs on 5 hits in ½ of an inning’s work is less enjoyable. We run up 5 wins on the trot before losing the final game of a home series with Hilo, leaving the two of us tied in first place at 21-12, 4 ahead of Kahului.
Malone bombs out 2 HR and bags 7 ribsters in a game against the Bay Hawks, but there have been so many false dawns for Brian this season i don’t get ahead of myself by seeing this as the beginning of his turnaround. It’s not as if he isn’t contributing. This performance gives him 10 HR and 25 RBI in 34 games, which projects to 30 / 75 for the season. But that BA of his is stubbornly remaining in Mendoza land.
The good tidings continue when Rob Moore is finally cleared to resume playing. Bell is shuttled back to the Reserve Roster. But our results over the next week are mixed. The day after we smash the Sugar Cane 15-2, with Greg Collette going yard twice and driving in 5, Erik Edwards pitches 8 innings of one-hit ball only for Art Zachry to blow the save by giving up a 2-run walkoff HR. That sort of thing. Meanwhile, Hilo have put their foot down, going a torrid 11-3 in the leadup to the Draft. After our games on Draft Day they have slipped away from us by 3.
I’ll keep the editorialising about the Draft brief and just give you the 5 players we end up selecting, along with a brief description of each. We had the 92nd pick this time around.
- ROUND 1: LHP Steve Hart – we made the executive decision to use all 5 picks for pitchers, and Steve projects to be a beauty. His best pitch is a knuckler but his slider is also plus. Fairly handy with the bat as well. Will initially be on the RR waiting for injury or form to open up a spot for him.
- ROUND 2: RHP Junior Hoffman – will begin as a reliever but if he keeps coming along we see him as rotation potential. Either way he has an elite fastball and plus slider and splitter.
- ROUND 3: RHP Danny Gaiser – an absolute flamethrower who’ll take a few seasons to reach his peak. Scouting reports say he is a bit vulnerable to the longball but hopefully we can work on and eradicate that in the interim.
- ROUND 4: RHP Rich Valento – as you’d expect from these lower picks Rich will need for everything to go his way if he’s to have a meaningful future in this or any other professional league.
- ROUND 5: RHP Kyle Crewe – we’re gonna need a bigger stadium...
It is absolutely crucial that we don’t let the Volcanoes increase their lead. The best way of ensuring this is to keep winning. We get out of jail in one against the Juice. Trailing by 4 heading into the 8th after a rare shocker from Erik Edwards, Malone bombs one out with one on in the 8th and then rally again in the 9th with two more on singles by Strickland and Taylor to send the game into extras. Solo shots by Taylor and Collette in the top 11th put us ahead and the pen shuts them down to get us the win.
It looks like we’ve repeated the feat the following day when we score late to knot it at 3 and then post 3 in the top 10th. But Marc Struebing, who is having a godawful season (12.27 ERA...), gives up 4 runs as they win it walkoff. That forces my hand and I send him off for some R&R and call up Junior Hoffman. I also flip the underperforming Jonathan Paulsen and his .115 BA for Blaine Luecke, and bring Steve Hart into the bullpen in place of Gabe Bernal. While I’m at it I shop Ryan Vann around and trade him away for a handy backup outfielder by the name of Jonathan Parsons. Because we simply don’t have enough Jonathans in the squad already... He’ll keep on ice for a while as we see how things progress.
Next day we begin a key series at Hilo, who now lead us by 4. The opening game is perhaps our best of the season, a 17-5 romp as we rack up 21 hits (although, quite amazingly for this group, all but three of them are singles). Strickland homers and drives in 5 while Williams continues to give us plenty from the leadoff spot. We take them down again the following day by 11 to 8 and complete the sweep with a 4-1 win behind an excellent Tyler Canty start, with Hoffman pitching 3 scoreless to record his first save. We’re now just one behind Hilo, with the Sugar Cane still keeping us both within reach just 3 back from us.
After a league-wide three-day hiatus (I tell the lads to spend it thinking about anything but baseball, yet myself somehow pass it doing nothing but: do as I say, blah blah blah...) we get back amongst it with a homestand against Kapaa. We take 2 of 3 and then sweep Kahului as Malone finally strings some good performances together, homering in 4 straight games. That draws us level with Hilo going into the final game of the month, with us on the road to Lanai City. Unfortunately we drop a shutout loss and the Volcanoes win at home to the faltering Sugar Cane, leaving us one adrift again at month’s end. All in all, however, I’m pleased both with our 18-9 month and where we seem to be heading. If we can get Malone to keep improving then we are in this up to our proverbials.
HAL Batter of the Month: Mike Staron (Hilo) .351 / 8 HR / 24 RBI / 33 R
HAL Pitcher of the Month: Chris McCall (Hilo) 5-0 / 2.03 / 52 K / 48.2 IP