Opening Day - Wild, Wild mid West

Wow, it looks like this season is going to be everything I hoped it to be. Everyone, and put Marshfield in that word, is in it - at least for a playoff shot.

I ended up on a MWL tour Monday due to the Springfield game being moved to Churchill and the Pirates showing up late to Willamettte. That made three games within eight miles of each other and I just couldn't resist trying to get opening day photos of the pitchers.

Opening pitch for me was by Sam Kiesse of Churchill. Junior Kameron Bates would counter for the Millers, who were bumped off of Hamlin by a flood. Although the game was moved, Springfield remained the home team. Both pitchers looked in command when I left in the bottom of the second, although Churchill stranded runners at second and third with one out. Bottom line for this game is that Springfield has joined the upper MWL echelon along with Thurston, North and Churchill. Blaine Dudley and Ryan Helfrich were both 2 for three. Bates k'd 8 while yielding just 3 hits. Tommy Hubbard closed.... Churchill didn't get in many non-league games and should be looking forward to the three game a week MWL routine.

Next up was Marshfield at Willamette. Einstein Elliot Aurdahl started for the Pirates. Trent Waggoner got the nod for Willamette. When I was in Coos Bay, and Aurdahl was a frosh, he used to tell me that a pitcher can win with a 70 mph fastball if he understood the elements of gravity, air drag, the Magnus force and the coefficient of viscosity. You'd think Elliot is an Eagle Scout. That's because he is. Now a senior, Elliot K'd 13 with his 70 mph'er and earned the 5-3 nine inning win. The Pirates remind me of Springfield about a year ago. The players know what to do on D and a lot more of them are agressive at the plate and have good strokes. Marshfield is another program on the way up. By the way, Aurdahl's apparent only flaw is that he is headed to Beaverville instead of Duck town.... Willamette's D held the Pirates to 3 runs through eight. That's enough to win, so beware the Wolverines.

Got to North late. Thurston was up 5-2 after their at bats in the top of the 6th. I missed seeing North's Moore, who started with four scoreless innings and K'd 10, but gave up four in the fifth. I also missed most of the Colts Dawson Phinney's six inning performance. What I did catch was an incredible bottom of the 7th. North was trailing 5-3 and Coach Dube put in Tyler Johnson to close. I believe it was a double, single and a walk later that Dube went to the mound to talk to TJ with the bases loaded and no outs. The next batter was a lefty, which meant a pulled fly ball would score a run and advance the tieing runner to third. Whatever Dube said to Johnson, Dube should save for a book, because Johnson K'd the next three batters, the last two looking.

So at the end of opening day, all three Eugene teams are in the league cellar. The cities of Springfield and Coos Bay are in first. How often does that happen in baseball? This won't last long as the Millers travel to Thurston Friday. One of them will be 2-0 and still at least tied for the league lead after they face off. Most, if not all of the teams, threw their staff aces Wednesday. Friday will be an interesting day to see if any team has a second ace up their sleeve. Several teams have one pitcher who is good for five to eight wins, but does any team have two of those?

I'll be at Thurston Friday to see the 1-0 teams duke it out. The defending state champs will be trying to send a message to the Millers that Springfield is a Colt town. Is it?

PS. You might want to try Twitter via your cell phone. I keep the tweets to mostly game updates. You can click on the Twitter logo on the main page and see what you would find out while sitting at a game. I'm an old fogie and I figured out Twitter. So can you.
If you don't Tweet, you can still the the tweets on the MWL website by clicking on the Twitter logo. So when you get home, just click on the Twitter logo and you'll see the scores before I get home and post to the web page.