May 22, 1920
Attention has turned to high school baseball this week as the regular season wraps up and a three game final begins. The participants this year were Crimson Forest High School and Southern Salt Quarter Academy who had a hold on the top two positions for the majority of the season.
Crimson Forest won big in the opening game but the Southern Salt Quarter Academy struck back with an extra-innings victory in game two. SSQA's SS Alwin Weisen almost had a perfect Homer Simpson moment with a run-scoring hit by pitch to put them up by one. Sadly, I think it needs to be a walk-off hit by pitch to count.
With a game three forced, it wasn't looking great for the Crimson Forest Lions but a big 7th inning got them over the line to become the first Amelia High School champions.
Most of the most promising players aren't seniors yet so expect names like Ozzy Maricic, Chase Lambert, Dallas Nolt, Austin Pendleton, and Grayson White to take a while to take some time to percolate before they make their way into COBRA.
May 24, 1920
Any catcher fans out there? You're about to be devastated. Whiskeytown's Joel de Vries is
out for 5 weeks with a fractured hand sustained when he was hit by a pitch. The Ducks currently sit at 23-27, and that kind of absence from their star player has pretty much put an end to any playoff hopes.
Dustland Catcher Kian Lehn's hit streak is over at 23 games. He went 0-2 with two walks against the Spice District Roosters in a loss.
Final news for today: the Penguins and Falcons battled it out for 21 innings today! We can blame and thank Salt Quarter's LF Ernie Morris, blame him for hitting the home run that tied it up in the 7th and then thank him for hitting the home run that finished it all off in the 21st.
Salt Quarter put its starters out there in the end, including 5 innings of Dimitri Balanchin who was awarded player of the game for his pitching in the death. The 36 year old Balanchin started the season off as a reliever before getting placed in the rotation. Now that he has pitched enough innings to qualify for the ERA title, he is absolutely killing it with a 0.32 ERA and 1308 ERA+ so far.
May 25, 1920
Oh my god the Penguins and Falcons went to the 15th inning today before the Penguins finally walked it off. Salt Quarter's Shawn Marsh pitched 11.1 innings after contributing two in the game yesterday. The only run that he conceded was unearned. That win puts the Penguins into prime position in the West Division (though with an upcoming series against the Saffron Turtles we'll see if they can hold on)
May 26, 1920
OK some kind of mania has descended upon the teams of COBRA because four of the six games went to extra innings today. Another featured a walk-off sac fly. The only people who largely went drama-free was the Penguins and Falcons.
Luke Benson gets the nod as the best performer in a day full of pitcher duels with his 2-hit 10 inning effort against Hadestown.
May 29, 1920
After dominating the regular season with a 30-6 record the Saffron School of Magic Sluggers have lost the University Championship to the Northlands College of Technology Wildcats.
Many were calling them the Invincibles after a season of domination but anything can happen in a three game series. Disaster struck the Sluggers early in game three when they lost their star pitcher Ellis Bishop to injury after only three pitches (he was attributed the loss because one of those pitches was a single that eventually turned into a run). The Wildcats pounced and demolished the Sluggers side 15-4 to claim the win and trophy.
Will we ever see such a good university side again?
Saffron will be losing senior RF Logan Jackson (12 home runs to lead the league) and 2B Jack Barfield (15 steals to lead the league). Juniors SP Ellis Bishop (2.43 ERA to lead starters), SP Alex Vaughn (11-0 for the season) and 1B Jake Buckett (9 home runs and 37 RBIs good enough for third only behind his teammates) may also be tempted by the draft.
Two players who will stick around will be closer Carson Turner who put up a 1.24 ERA/1.07 WHIP over his 29 innings for a 500 ERA+. His 10 saves (out of 10 opportunities) was also more than triple anyone else. His efforts at the death were a critical part of the side.
Big hitting 3B Kaiden Burchett will also stick around. He's the current front-runner for the MVP prize.
The Wildcats will be losing their catcher Daniel Irvine who hit for .398 and provides some critical leadership and outstanding defense at catcher. They will be keeping hold on 1B Ken Weiss who led the league in batting average with .406
Players have until the 5th of June to declare for the draft.
The Standings at the end of May. The Roosters have started to cement a nice lead in the East while in the West, the Penguins were briefly top of the table but a 4 game losing streak to finish the month off has them fall to last place and gifts the Turtles top spot back.
