American Association Insider: Thursday August 20th Takeaways

Kevin Luckow

(non member of IBWAA)

Six series wrapped up tonight. The playoff picture is not any more clear than it was when Sioux Falls and Fargo-Moorhead started the week off with a lone standing game on Monday. It was nearly a historic night, let's get right to it, 

Gary SouthShore 10 Chicago 0

If this is how things go for Chicago teams in Indiana, the Chicago Bears may want to reconsider where they're going to build a new stadium. The RailCats wrapped up a three game sweep where they outscored the Dogs 43-3 out hitting the Dogs by a 58-14 margin. But the story of the night was Deyni Olivero nearly twirled the first RailCats no hitter since Karl Triana threw one against Kansas City on June 2, 2016. I was at a Hairball Concert when Tanner Hoops gave me the no hitter alert while Hairball was playing Kickstart my Heart. I kept tabs on iScore until the ninth when I tuned in with Tom Sawyer playing in the background. Sam Biller barely beat out an infield single. A liberal scorekeeper could've gone with an error, but this was the right call. Ethan Wilder followed with a single that made it a moot point with Biller thrown out at third base to end the game by the time Hairball switched to Alice Cooper. Three different RailCats drove in two runs including Elvis Peralta with a solo home run. 



Sioux City 11 Fargo-Moorhead 3

In a game that had a must win feel to it for the Explorers, the X's pounded out 12 hits to get a needed win to avoid a sweep at the hand of the RedHawks. It was a 5-3 lead for the Explorers before a six run sixth inning allowed the X's to pull away. Henry George got into double digits for home runs with his 10th and D'Shawn Knowles had a four RBI night to lead the X's attack. Nate Mertens won his third straight decision going six innings allowing three earned runs. Mertens in his short time in the rotation has become a very reliable arm. 

Cleburne 8 Lake Country 1

With the RailCats nipping at their heels, the Railroaders got an impressive win and a series win on Thursday night. The Roaders scored six in the first two innings, the big blow, a three run home run in the second inning. With the Railroaders losing three big bats in the lineup, Tostado has stepped up and embraced the pressure. First a walkoff on Sunday and now tonight. Tostado now has 16 for the season. Austin Krob, acquired from Kansas City, won his debut going six innings, allowing one run. 

Kansas City 8 Lincoln 4

After spotting the Saltdogs three runs in the top of the first, the Monarchs scored the next eight runs, highlighted by the 19th home runs of the season by Grant Richardson, a solo shot, and Luken Baker, a three run home run. Those two are now tied for fourth in the league in home runs. Baker is just going to run out of time trying to catch up to Joshua Mears. Sawyer Allen settled down after the first allowing the three runs in six innings. The Saltdogs now sit 5.5 games behind Sioux Falls. Unless Sioux City makes a heck of a run, the Canaries will have to be the team the Saltdogs will need to overtake. The last four games of the season for Lincoln are in Sioux Falls. It'll be their duty in the next two weeks to make those games meaningful. 

Sioux Falls 5 Winnipeg 4

"Cam Hassert, you are the man!!!" was the call from Tanner Hoops after Hassert in his second game with Sioux Falls hit an opposite field home run to walk off the Goldeyes. Anthony Hall was the hero the inning before hitting a game tying single setting up the Hassert heroics. Hassert had three hits from the lead off spot for Sioux Falls. Noah Marcelo drove in three runs to lead the Goldeyes. Marcelo's 79 runs batted in keeps him third in AAPB. 

Kane County 7 Milwaukee 5

Coming off their first win versus the Milkmen on Wednesday, the Cougars got their first series win versus their East Division rivals. Tied at one in the sixth, the Cougars scored five runs, three of them on the strength of a Matt Bottcher bases loaded triple. The Milkmen struck back for four in the seventh inning, but the Cougars bullpen shut the door from there. Zane Spinn added a huge insurance run on a seventh inning home run. Griffin Doersching had three hits and Edrick Felix drove in three for the Milkmen on a bases clearing double in the seventh. With wins the last two nights, the Cougars are now two games out of first base and one game out of second base with the second place DockHounds coming to Geneva for four games over the weekend. If the Cougars take care of business and Cleburne can do some damage in Milwaukee, the Cougars could be in first place by Sunday night. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

American Association SUNDAY Insider: Speaking in terms of "what if?"

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) What was once a rumor passed between league colleagues, has now been reported by media. The story being the potential move of the Kane County Cougars and Cleburne Railroaders to the Frontier League, soon to be renamed National Association of Professional Baseball. The move would be made for the 2027 season. A real blow to an American Association that has ambitions of expansion.  To get a real feel for what this would mean to AAPB, let's go all the way back to 2006. In the Fall of 2005, the St. Paul Saints, Sioux Falls Canaries, Sioux City Explorers and Lincoln Saltdogs all departed the Northern League. Philosophical differences between ownerships being cited as a major reason for the defection. But a four team league was not going to cut it. Enter the St. Joe Blacksnakes as a stopgap, a team that likely would not have long term stability but filled an immediate need.  Enter Texas. The Texas-Louisiana League was winding down. So the five...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: The underpaid, overworked liaisons of the American Association

Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA)  The idea of this Insider came to my head on Thursday night as I was watching a game in Cleburne. It was the 750th American Association broadcast for voice of the Railroaders, Brad Allred. The Railroaders produced a video for Allred with numerous colleagues from the past, former players and current players paying tribute to Allred.  It got me to thinking just how important the play by play men are to the teams which they are employed. Teams in the AAPB do not have local newspapers following the teams on the road. Often times it is the play by play guys that may put a game story on their team website that the local newspaper picks up to condense into a tiny part of the newspaper. Not to discount the media relations director who also do gamers with no byline given if the newspaper picks it up.  For myself this goes all the way back to the Northern League. Although St. Paul had great coverage from Mike Augustin (mentioned a few weeks ago in...
Read more

American Association SUNDAY Insider: American Associaiton returning to Minnesota

Image
 Kevin Luckow (non member of IBWAA) It's been funny. I've seen stories, thoughts and opinions all around about the announcement of an American Association team in Blaine. They are nice recaps, crosses the t's and dots the i's. But all from an outsider perspective. There's a phrase I like to use when people refer to me as knowledgeable about the going ons in Independent Baseball. It's not that I'm smart, it just means I've been around a long time. For this story I think we have to go back to September of 2020. The St. Paul Saints were playing their final game of the Covid season against the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. It was in front of a relatively sparse crowd. A weeknight in mid to late September and there was nothing at stake outside of who was going to win the American Association batting title. Drew Ward would end up edging Correlle Prime after Prime was robbed of a base hit late in the game. After the game I talked to Jeff Bittiger who was traveling w...
Read more