I picked the right league opener to watch Friday. Andrew Moore threw an extremely well controlled no-no against Thurston. Just one ball left the infield and the two runners who walked were wiped off the basepaths by double plays. Nearly as impressive was Thurston's frosh Aaron Clift. Clift went five full innings before turning the ball over to TJ. Clift had a strikeout in each inning - a nice way to avoid big innings.
Coach Nicholsen had to be happy with laying down a sac bunt so early in league play this year. A batter did not lay a bunt down earlier in the game and I'm sure coach was thinking, "Oh, no. Not again this year." And, of course, Nicholsen had to be elated with Shawn Boehm's 3 run homer and the deep double by Kyle DeHaven - both with two outs!
Thurston coach Phil Dube had to be happy with his Clift. Clift didn't seem fazed by the pressure of opening the season at Swede. Dube couldn't have been happy with the Colt bats, but he knows a buzzsaw (Moore) when he sees one.
Pitchers ruled the day. Only two of the eight teams playing scored more than three runs. Willamette's Trent Waggoner had a nice day in his 7 inning, 2 hit win over Marshfield. One of my pitching keys is when a pitcher is reaching or surpassing a ratio of 4 strikeouts for every walk. Waggoner almost got to the magic 4:1 ratio with 10 k's and 3 walks. Marshfield's soph Doug Molzahn, was pretty efficient himself. Striking out 3 and walking just 1 in four innings. That's not overpowering, but pitchers have to avoid walks, and Molzahn did.
Willamette coach Jon Guldager will be hoping that soph Scott Kuvass's two doubles are a sign of good things to come. Even better, Wolverines Jalen Drath and Ryan Concannon each jacked one out. The Pirates only got two hits, which may be the situation the first round. The youngest team in the league and the Pirates have no seniors. I'm curious if any of the youngin's have started growing facial hair. Give them a round of varsity pitching and things will improve.
Following the pitching theme, the Sheldon - Churchill game had some strong pitching, but also wild pitching. Irishman Cason Cunningham went 7 innings, striking out 9, but walking or hitting 6 batters. Junior Lancer Jake Lessel also struck out 9, but in just 5 and 1/3 innings. But he too walked or hit 6 batters. If they don't get the walks down, teams will start really crowding the plate to take a few more hits on the arm. Time will tell. At the plate, Churchill senior Bryson Jones hit the lone homer in the game.
No recap, box scores or stats from the South Eugene win over Springfield. It was a 3-2 win by South. I heard it was Bates on the mound for the Millers, but no word on who pitched the gem for South.
Monday's round of games oddly don't feature any 1-0 teams facing each other. I'm going to try and make the Willamette 1-0 at Marist 0-0 game. Hopefully, it won't get rained out. The game will be a good opportunity to see what these two teams have on the mound. I've seen most of Marist's pitchers. It will be interesting to see if they can hold the Wolverines to less than the 5 runs Willamette scored against Marshfield. Willamette got seven full innings out of Waggoner against Marshfield, so they can throw anybody. If no one looks like they can go a lot of innings, it might be time for Willamette to only show their pitchers to the meat of the order one time through. Too bad the meat of Marists batting order is from 1 to about 7.
All of the other games are going to be interesting because I assume everyone threw their number one pitcher last Friday, unlike Marist who had a bye. South 1-0 at Churchill 0-1. There will be a total of 7 seniors dressed for this game. So we have two young teams. Pitching will probably drop off from opening day. I haven't seen Churchill, but I'm guessing their infield/outfield play is a little better than South's. The game should be decided at the plate, with both teams being giving the opportunity to hit the ball. If one of the teams' can pound it, they may put some pressure on the young defenses on the field.
North Eugene 1-0 at Springfield 0-1. Springfield's relatively inexperienced players at the varsity level are bound to have problems with the North lefties. High school age kids just don't see enough left handed pitching to catch on to how easy it is to hit them. This is a good opportunity for both teams to establish a solid number two pitcher on their staff.
Sheldon at Marshfield. Maybe Sheldon doesn't know the North Bend bridge is closed and you have to go around the bay. Would the Irish have to forfeit for not getting to the game? Last Friday, Sheldon squeaked by Churchill and Marshfield stayed close to Willamette. This is another game where we don't know what the falloff is in pitching to the number two pitcher. As stated earlier, the extremely young Pirates are likely to make Sheldon's number two look good as the Pirates view varsity pitching this first round of league games.
Thurston has a bye.
Looks like just as last Friday's scores reflected a lot of good number ones throughout the league, Monday's games could turn into some offensive outbursts. Hopefully, some number two's will emerge.
League stats are posted here - league stats. I received recaps or box scores from all but the South Eugene-Springfield game. If you can help out with those stats, please email me at mwlnow@yahoo.com
I haven't done a good job of teaching how the RPI works. Please take the RPI poll on the main page. The poll closes during the Willamette-Marist game.
I just noticed that three of four Monday games are at the three worst draining fields in the league. Can you guess which three?
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