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Life in the Minors Brendan Sagara |
Sometimes those darn
games get in the way of
making deadlineAs I showered up Friday night before our game against the Windy City Thunderbolts here at Price Cutter Park, I was searching for a topic for my column this week. The past week had been very kind to us, as we were able to sweep a three-game series from the front-running Rockford Riverhawks.
After dropping two of three on the road against the Mid-Missouri Mavericks, our sweep of the Riverhawks brought a welcome change of fortune for us, as we looked to put together a midseason run at the top spot in the Frontier League's West Division.
With all the good that comes with gaining three games in the standings, there was not any one thing or singular moment or experience that stood out. So there I was, pulling up my royal blue stirrups over my sanitary socks on my chair in my corner of the coaches' office, searching for something to write about as I searched for my No. 29 jersey hanging up on the clothes rack.
With my stories running every Sunday, my deadline comes each Friday night, when I usually sit in front of my trusty iBook after a game and tap on the keyboard for a while until I finish putting my thoughts together. Tonight, I was hoping that something would come to mind.
Well, sometimes I guess I should watch what I ask for.
I got my topic ... and about six hours of baseball.
When I stepped out of our clubhouse at about 6:50 p.m., dressed and ready to warm up our starting pitcher for the night, it was apparent that the skies of the Midwest had something brewing.
With jet black skies covering the area just outside our outfield wall and our grounds crew huddling together discussing their game plan and the radar reports, it seemed pretty obvious that it was gonna dump on us.
The skies held up for about another 40 minutes or so until 7:30, just enough time for the national anthem and our right-hander Rodrigo Miralles to quickly retire the first two batters before a pair of runners reached base on a single and an error by our shortstop.
When the rains came, our grounds crew sprinted onto the field and quickly applied the field tarp, beginning an hour-and-a-half rain delay in which we sat in the dugout and exchanged stories and philosophies. Our team owner of the past four years, Mike Hayes, snuck into the dugout and hung out with the guys for a while too.
The tarp got pulled at about 8:25 p.m., and we re-started the game about 20 minutes later. With Rodrigo back on the hill, we quickly proceeded to pick up where we left off last night, when we lost to Windy City while allowing eight unearned runs.
Following the two-out boot by our shortstop tonight, we allowed three unearned runs, before the top of the first ended mercifully with a strikeout. We failed to produce any runs in our half of the frame, despite loading the bases with one out, driving all of us in the dugout a little crazy, as you can imagine.
After retiring Windy City in order in the second, we put together a rally of our own, with Josh Landon's single to center scoring our first run of the night.
With a 3-1 lead and two out, Thunderbolts starter Kris Regas was potentially a pitch away from exiting the inning against our third batter, left-handed Steve Haake. With the count 3-1, and the Windy City bullpen firing on all cylinders, I figured that Regas would probably challenge Steve with a fastball.
He did, and Steve was up to the challenge. As I sat in the dugout next to Kaliko Oligo, who was on chart duty, I watched as Steve connected on an inside fastball and made that special sound maple can make when it connects with an 87-mph fastball at just the right moment. As Windy City right fielder Peanut Williams continued to drift back toward the wall, we in the dugout and the 3,000 or so Duck fans in attendance held our collective breath, and watched in awe as the ball cleared the fence by a good 10 feet.
We were up 4-3, the T-Bolts were going to their bullpen, and a weight seemed to be lifted from our shoulders. After kicking the ball around a bit last night and failing to capitalize on numerous big inning opportunities in our 9-4 loss, there was no doubt our hitters were feeling the pressure to score just a bit.
Well, we went on to bring home two more runs in the second, and then skated through the next six innings in what appeared to be fast forward, going scoreless while allowing just a run on a solo homer in the top of the sixth.
A big two-out strikeout by our hard-throwing side-armer Nathan Stone with runners in scoring position in the top of the seventh, and another two-out punchout by our closer Randy Vanderplow with a runner on in the eighth set the stage for the ninth.
Taking into account that the ninth inning started at about 12:30 a.m., the 800 or so faithful who stuck around to watch the end of the game helped give our guys some needed extra energy. Windy City went down in order in the ninth, as our All-Star Vanderplow used his 89-mph fastball and his knuckle curve to post his 10th save of the year and lower his sub-1.00 ERA just a little more.
By the time I walked out onto the infield for our victory handshake line and completed my game charts and completed my postgame reporting and recording and had my postgame shower and threw my laundry into the appropriate laundry bins in the clubhouse, it was about 1:30.
Needless to say, by the time fellow Springfield-Ozark Duck Bryce Uegawachi and I made the drive home after the game, all that was open in the area were IHOP and Wal-Mart. While we usually make a run through the drive-thru at Wendy's or McDonald's or the like after a home game, tonight we got stuck with microwave dinners and some ice cream sandwiches.
So after inhaling my Chicken Tuscany meal, I situated myself here to work on this story at the ripe hour of 3 a.m.
With the clock now reading 4 a.m., and my "Kings of Comedy" DVD blaring on the television, I am thankful for two things, our six-hour victory ... and Vanilla Coke.
Brendan Sagara, a former University of Hawaii-Hilo pitcher, is in his first season as pitching coach with the Kenosha (Wis.) Mammoths.