The managers of the Illowa APBA League convened in the west suburb of Downers Grove, Illinois to play our May games. Friday was a roller coaster kind of day for me personally. It was my last day of work at the University of Illinois. One minute I was having a farewell lunch with the campus CIO then the next, I was on a bus to Chicago.
One emotion I didn’t expect over the weekend was jubilee from winning games. I came into the month with a disappointing 21-27 record. I had already gotten two series finished with Dennis and John who weren’t going to be in attendance. My Thunderchickens went 2-4 against Dennis’ Global Glaciers and 4-2 versus John’s Missoula Ospreys. But we were only getting started.
For the weekend, we went 12-6. That included a 4-2 series mark over Chuck’s Northside Hitmen and a 3-3 series against Rob’s Chicago Highlanders. Then, the coup d’etat versus Nick and his Wisconsin Wallbangers was what helped put us back into contention. We won five out of six against the ‘Bangers.
The big contributors
For the 30 games of May, we had some big contributors…
- Vladimir Guerrero collected 39 hits and scored 20 runs. Not bad for slow guy.
- Both Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill had over 30 hits. So did Jeremy Pena.
- Machado led the team with seven dingers.
Bailey Falter (C) had a 2.45 ERA from the hill over five starts. His 2-2 record would have better had he not lost a 1-0 game. Max Fried (BY) is looking better and better as he went 3-2 with a nice 1.97 ERA over five outings. That included one shutout.
It gets better. Hunter Greene (BX) went 3-1 with a shutout and minuscule 1.61 ERA. Michael King (BX) went 3-2 with a shutout of his own and tablulated an ERA of 1.59. In fact, four of our 18 wins were complete game shutouts.
When called on, closer Eli Morgan (AZ) got the job done. In 8 1/3 innings, he didn’t allow a run and collected five saves. Honestly though, we were able to use up a lot of our D innings since some games were out of reach.
We rolled well and sometimes our opposition did not. We only hope that our luck with the hot dice will continue.
By the end of the month, our team batting average was up (from .224 to .235) and our team ERA was down (from 4.78 to 4.17). We are now sitting with a 39-39 record and feeling better about our chances.
With the next coming months, I will begin to rest my players. I am grateful that most of my starters can play most of the season but there’s no better time to get some resting in.
Here are just a few photos from the weekend
Thanks for the pictures Tom, sure missed being there.
Chuck does not look happy about the T-Chix’ success LOL. The Highlanders are 14-10 so far on the weekend, and a couple standout pitching performances on the year (72 games played): Tarik Skubal is 11-1, and Ryan Walker has 32 saves.