The only constant is change.
Posts tagged ironpigs
Playoffs, Game 3: All good things must come to an end.
Jul 24th
For our last game of the season, we faced the Oakdale Royals. Again.
We faced these guys in the Summerfest tournament, where they beat us 11-2 in round 1 on the way to the championship. Then we saw them again in the last game of the regular season, where they beat us 21-1. They’ve been riding two really good pitchers in every game we’ve seen, and we saw them again this time around. Just like in the Summerfest tournament, their starter pitched three and came back to close it out, with their shortstop pitching the 4th, 5th and 6th. The two of them combined for a no-hitter. We got just two baserunners all game – Alex worked a walk to start the 3rd (batting in the 7th spot in the order this time), and Nate beat out a dropped third strike in the 5th. Both of them stole 2nd and 3rd, but we couldn’t get them across the plate.
As you might guess, since we didn’t score any runs, we didn’t win. Alex started and pitched well, giving up 6 runs in three innings (and yes, an 18.00 ERA for a single game is good against this team!). He started the 4th, but he was tired and not finding his release point, so Craig pulled him and put in Marco after Alex walked one of the Royals on 4 pitches, two of which were over the catcher’s head.
The guys played well in the field, but the Royals are great hitters, and kept hitting the line drives into the outfield. We missed a couple of plays and gave them some extra outs, and they didn’t return the favor. We stuck with it, though, and kept them to 8 runs, giving us our best showing against them defensively all year.
Final score: Royals 8, Ironpigs 0
Season record: 9-3, 6th place
Tournament record: 1-2, 4th place
Playoffs, Game 2: The #1 seed
Jul 20th
Game 2 of the playoffs had us facing the #1 seed, the Oakdale Red Sox. We saw these guys in the Summerfest tournament, where they beat us 15-3, so we knew they were good.
Like game 1, we were playing in very hot weather – 95 degrees and high humidity, so it feels even hotter. One of the parents set up a sun-shield for the bench, which was awesome – having some shade was a lifesaver.
Since the Sox were the higher seed, we batted first, and managed to score a run. They got four back in the bottom of the first, and that pretty much set the tone for the game. As we saw in the tournament, they’re good hitters and they have good pitching. They don’t seem like a very solid defensive team – and with pitchers like they have, they don’t need to be in order to win games – but they made some great catches, robbing us of at least three hits. We gave them a couple of extra outs with defensive misplays, which are understandable in the heat, but unfortunate.
Final score: Red Sox 9, Ironpigs 4 (better than the last time we played these guys, at least)
Tournament record: 1-1
We’re still playing on the weekend, but now we know we’re playing for 3rd place rather than the championship. Pretty darn good for our first year at this level.
Playoffs, Game 1: The one I missed
Jul 20th
In past years, Alex’s end-of season tournament has been on the last weekend in July. This year, there are 22 teams in the A league (despite being the Maplewood Athletic Association, there are only 3 Maplewood teams – we have 2 from Little Canada, 5 from North St. Paul, 5 from Roseville and 7 from Oakdale). This means that the playoffs started on Monday night.
This also means that I missed game 1. I scheduled a work trip to Los Angeles about a month ago, figuring that I’d miss a practice. Oops.
When the game started, I was in the Phoenix airport, waiting for a connecting flight to Burbank. As it turned out, the airplane was delayed – some kind of maintenance thing – so I got to follow the game via text message. The plus was that I was sitting in air conditioning, instead of out on the field in 95-degree weather with a heat index well over 110. I’d rather have been there.
We’re the 6th seed in the tournament (out of 12 teams in the “American League” bracket of the A league – with 22 teams, the playoffs were split into two sections), so we faced the 7th seed, the Roseville Giants. This is the team that beat us 12-3 to start the season. Christina says they came in feeling kind of cocky, probably because they beat us before. That changed fairly quickly.
Alex started and gave up a run in the top of the first, with the defense making some good plays behind him. We came to bat in the bottom of the 1st and scored 7, and that was pretty much the game – the Giants realized that they were going to lose and gave up. Alex settled down and cruised through two more innings, and we put at least one run on the board in every inning. The Giants came to life in the later innings, as everyone was getting hot and tired.
Final score: Ironpigs 14, Giants 5.
Tournament record: 1-0. We’re playing on Sunday, either for the championship or for 3rd place.
Game 12: Better than it seemed at the time.
Jul 13th
We came into game 12 in high spirits, despite losing Monday. We stayed in that game and played hard, so we didn’t get down.
Our opponent was the Oakdale Royals. We played these guys in the Summerfest tournament, and they beat us 8-2. We were looking for a payback game, and the Royals were fresh off their first loss of the season, to the Maplewood Hooks, a team we beat already this season. So we knew we could beat them.
We didn’t. The Royals batters were on fire – their coach said they had not had a game like this in weeks – and their pitchers were as well. The few balls we managed to put into play found fielders waiting for them.
Alex started and had his worst outing of the season, giving up 7 runs in 3 innings. I think he doubled his run total for the season in this game. At that, he did the best of our pitchers; the Royals were relentless at the plate, 7-running us in one inning and coming close in another – 6 runs in and bases loaded with two out when we finally managed to close out the inning.
We managed to keep from being shut out, but that was all we could pull off.
The best part of the game, though, was that the guys didn’t get down; we came to bat in the bottom of the 6th (and final) inning trailing by 20 runs, and I could hear Luke Pasiuk shouting “Let’s score 20 and get back in it” from the bench all the way over at 3rd base. The whole team was on their feet, cheering on their teammates at bat in the final inning. After the game, Tyler said “that was a fun game” and he actually meant it.
Yeah, we got beat, and beat bad. But we got to play baseball. And we’ll get ‘em next time.
Final score: Royals 21, Ironpigs 1
Season record: 9-3
Still no word on when our playoff games are; I’m hoping we don’t play Monday or Tuesday because I’m out of town and I don’t want to miss a game.
Game 11: Streak breaker
Jul 11th
We’ve been riding a streak of wins all season; since losing our first game we’ve won nine straight. Tonight, we faced our strongest opponents (based on record): the Roseville Nationals. With an 8-2 record, they started the night in 5th place, right behind some guys called the “Ironpigs” who are 9-1. :)
The Nationals were also +71 in run differential – we were at +56, so we knew they could hit. They showed that in the bottom of the first inning, with a couple of ringing singles to the outfield, along with some aggressive baserunning, scoring early. We fought back and forth all game, both teams putting the ball in play and creating runs.
It came down to the top of the 7th; the Nationals had scored a run in the bottom of the 6th to put them up 7-3. We got our first two runners aboard, and Jack came through again with a double to score two runs. 7-5.
We got a runner on a hit batsman, and another hit to score one more, making it 7-6, and Tyler came to the plate needing a single to tie the game, with Jake leading off third. Tyler fouled off several pitches and worked the count full, but the pitcher got one past him for the strikeout to end the game.
It was a fun game and a well-played one; losing is never fun but the guys had their spirits up. There’s no shame in playing hard and losing to a team that’s on top of their game. Another day we’d have come out on top, and maybe we’ll get a chance to get one back in the playoffs.
Final score: 7-6 Nationals.
Season record: 9-2.
Speaking of playoffs, this was the last game that counted for playoff seeding; we have two more games left in the season, but seeds need to be set tonight to provide schedules for games starting next Monday. We were in 4th place starting the night, facing the 5th place team, but with the loss, our positions are reversed – we have the same record, but whether the tiebreaker is run differential or head-to-head record, we lose either way.
Game 10: Sometimes, pitching and defense win games.
Jul 10th
For our 10th game of the season, we faced the Maplewood Hooks. They came in with a 6-3-1 record, making them a solid contender, in the top half of the league. They have some big guys, too – a couple of 7th graders who were as tall as the coaches.
We’ve been in a bit of a batting slump these last couple of weeks – our best hitters haven’t been making good contact. Fortunately, our middle-of-the-lineup guys have been coming through with hits, which is awesome. It reminds you that baseball is a team sport. Jack was the hero of this game, with a huge 2-out, 2-RBI double that gave us our first runs and the lead. He also made some great plays at second, and caught for two innings, doing a great job of blocking the ball behind the plate and keeping the runners from advancing. We managed two more runs with some aggressive stealing and baserunning.
Alex pitched three scoreless innings to start, facing just 10 batters (1 BB, 1 double). In the third, after giving up the double, he picked off the runner trying to steal 3rd.
Patrick pitched two innings and gave up just one run, and Luke P pitched two scoreless innings to close it out.
There is something electric about double plays at this level. They’re great at any level, but they’re rare things for us – we have not had many this season. This game, we had two:
- 4-6-3 (second baseman fielded the grounder, threw to shortstop covering second for one out, throw to first to get the batter)
- 4-6 (second baseman caught a pop fly for the first out, then threw to shortstop for the force, since the runner had taken off early).
Final score: Ironpigs 4, Hooks 1
Season record: 9-1
Game 9: Back in the groove
Jul 6th
After a long break (what Coach Craig calls the All-Star Break, over the long 4th of July weekend, when we have no weekend practice and missed a Monday game because it was the 4th), we returned to action facing the Roseville Marlins. Sporting a 4-4-1 record, the Marlins bring a pretty good team to the field. They’ve faced some tough teams, and kept the scores close in most of their games. Their run differential is -13, meaning they’ve given up 13 more runs than they’ve scored. For comparison, ours is +55 at this point in the season. The first-place team, the North St. Paul Red Wings, possessors of an 11-0 record, is +138. Yow.
We were the home team, so we took the field first, with Lucas Bergstrom pitching. He managed three strong innings, giving up just two runs. We scratched out three runs of our own to take a 3-2 lead. Lukas Pasiuk came in to pitch the 4th and 5th, and our defense faltered a bit. We gave up a run to tie it in the 4th, and then two more in the top of the 5th to fall behind 5-3.
In the bottom of the 5th, our bats came alive and we got some runners on base. The guys run like madmen, stealing bases with wild abandon, and we managed to score three runs on passed balls to take a 6-5 lead.
Alex came in to close, pitching a scoreless 6th, and we scored four more runs in the bottom of the 6th to make it 9-5. Alex threw just 7 pitches in the bottom of the 7th – strikeout, runner thrown out trying to stretch a double into a triple, and a popup.
Ironpigs win.
Final score: 9-5
Season record: 8-1
Game 8: Eight is enough
Jun 28th
After our Summerfest adventures, we returned to regular-season action on Monday night against the North St. Paul Scrappers. Like us, they’ve had a couple of games postponed due to rain. Unlike us, they haven’t been able to put together both hitting and defense in a game, resulting in an 0-5 record.
The Scrappers lived up to their name, though, keeping the game scoreless for the first two innings. We finally pushed a run across the plate, scoring from third on a passed ball, and that broke the logjam. We battled back and forth, but took a 5-3 lead to the bottom of the 7th inning, due in part to a really strong 5th inning from Marco – he took just 10 pitches to get three outs, without allowing a single baserunner.
We sent Alex to the mound to close out the game in the 7th, and it did not go well. The day had started out warm, but a cold, gusty breeze had come up about the 5th inning – the forecast called for rain starting about 8 or 9, so we were watching the skies. Alex didn’t have much of a chance to warm up, and he was leaving pitches up in the strike zone. Alex lives on hard fastballs at the bottom of the strike zone – when he’s on, he’s a machine, throwing unhittable strike after unhittable strike, with opposing batters swinging and missing or just standing there frozen.
That was not his 7th inning. He gave up two solid hits and a walk, and the Scrappers ran the bases well, scoring two runs to tie the game. In our league, ties are acceptable, but at the umpire’s discretion, if the time limit has not been reached, play may continue to resolve the tie.
When we got the 3rd out, it was 8:05. Time limit is 8:15 – no new inning may be started after that time.
“Blue! Are we going to play another inning?” I asked. On the field, all umpires are named Blue, just as all coaches are named Coach. It’s a baseball thing.
Blue (whose name off the field is Michael, I am given to understand) said yes.
We scored two runs, and Alex came out to pitch the 8th. This time he was warmed up; he threw nothing but strikes, striking out three batters in a row. So in his first save opportunity of the year, he racked up a blown save and a win. That’s starters for you. :)
Final score: Ironpigs 7, Scrappers 5.
Season record: 7-1
Summerfest game 3: All good things must come to an end.
Jun 25th
Game 3 was against the Oakdale Red Sox at 10am on a Saturday morning. The Red Sox lost to the Maplewood Muckdogs in the first round, putting them in the consolation bracket (like us), but on Friday night, they beat the Oakdale Phillies 26-2 while we were beating the Oakdale Cardinals by a more reasonable score.
The guys were tired after three days in a row of baseball, and they didn’t bring their best effort today. Alex started and pitched well, holding the Red Sox scoreless in the bottom of the first, but they got through for three runs in the second. We held them scoreless again in the third, but we couldn’t get runs. The Sox scored two more in the fourth to make it 5-0. We finally broke through and put a run on the board in the fifth, but the Sox came back with 5 more in the sixth, and it was pretty much over.
We’ll get ‘em next time.
Final score: 15-3 Red Sox
Tournament record: 1-2, eliminated in the third round.
Summerfest game 2: Stayin’ Alive
Jun 24th
The Summerfest tourney is double-elimination, meaning that if we lose twice we’re done. Since we lost our first game, we came into game 2 needing a win to stay alive.
Our opponents were the Oakdale Cardinals, possessors of a 3-2 record and 10th overall in the leage (we’re in 5th place). We should have played them already, but got rained out – we’ll make up the game at the end of the season. They came to the field with 8 guys tonight, due to some untimely vacations. They played hard, though, and kept us honest.
We lost the coin toss, so we were the visitors. We started off with two quick runs, they responded with one in the bottom of the first, then added another in the bottom of the second. We made it 5-2 in the top of the third, then 7-runned them in the fourth to make it 12-2. They got one back in the fifth, and then somewhere in there I lost count.
We had some great plays in the field, excellent pitching, timely hitting and heads-up baserunning. The guys played a great game tonight, and they won. I’m very proud of them, and we’re headed into tomorrow morning’s game ready to play.
Final score: I’m not sure, something like 15-7
Tournament record: 1-1
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