APRIL 28 GAME OF THE WEEK

WEEK 2 GAME OF THE WEEK: SATURDAY, APRIL 28 AT BARTHOLOMEW SPORTS PARK AT 7 PM FEATURES THE PALERMO'S THUNDER vs. THE 3 BLIND BROTHERS MUD HENS.

THUNDER TEAM RECAP FROM COACH CAREY WOLF .... 

Tryouts – “Wow, what a good looking pool of candidates!”

Drafts – “Coach are you as excited as I am?”

Team Meeting – “Sure feels like a nice group of players and parents”

First Practice – “Are you kidding me, I don’t think I have ever had a group look this strong from the very first practice.”

First Scrimmage – “They did what we asked, had fun and looked like they were in mid-season form.”.

3^rd Rainout – “Are you kidding me, we literally have a black cloud over our heads! Are we ever going to play?”

Even though the rains subsided and we played our first game, went down in defeat; the dark clouds were still there for the Thunder.

Unfortunately, early in our first game our “Rookie – 1^st year player” Chaunce Chaney had a collision and fall in left center field.

The result of that collision was a season ending hand fracture. 

We wish Chaunce a speedy recovery and hope that he will still come out and support his teammates.

Tuesday the 24^th – Thunder sit @ 2-1, now that the clouds had finally gone away, the sun continued to prevail and we played some baseball.

Thunder have a full week of baseball with back to back games on Tuesday & Wednesday and playing in the “Game of the Week” on Saturday the 28^th.

In just a few short weeks we have watched our players gel and consistently improve. 

They have decided to make life difficult on themselves and start each game by getting behind early in the first 3 games.

What they have done with this strategy is learned that the game is not over until the 3^rd and final out and that they know how to come back from a deficit.

Hopefully they can reverse this trend soon, and start to come out of the gate strong, and keep Coach Carey from graying anymore, than he already is! J

The Thunder pride themselves on having players that can play multiple positions on the field and hit from any spot in the batting order.

All of this versatility has already been a significant contributor to our first 2 victories.

Another strong characteristic of this group is that they all believe in each other and there is not that “1 Super Star”, that the team relies on.

As Coach Stone shared with us after our last game; “You scored 10 runs from the bottom 5 of your line up, that just doesn’t happen!”

Like I told the players, “That is because we do not have a bottom 5, we have Ball Players up and down our line up!”

We are all very excited about this week, this Saturday’s feature game and our entire season. 

We look forward to continuing our climb up the standings; and most of all having an outstanding EGBR 2012 experience.

Continued Success to all the coaches, except when they meet the Thunder, of course!

Let’s Play Ball!!!

Coach Carey, Stefan & Johnny

MUD HENS TEAM RECAP FROM COACH ERIC SARAGOZA ...   

2012 Mud Hens – Coach Eric Saragoza and Jess Marquez               

The 2012 Mud Hens started with 3 teammates from the 2011 Storm - Nick Cooling, Miguel Saragoza, and Denis Vajraca, and new pickup Anthony Alves. After the draft, the Mud Hens were rounded out with 15 year olds - Christian Janini, and Chris Winn, 14 year olds – Nick Bernett, Tyler Newbold, and Malik Williams, and new to EGBR 13 year olds – Nate Cornell, Stephen De Herrerra, Jacari Hudson, and Ian Madison.

The Mud Hens offense his highlighted by three players hitting over .300 – Tyler Newbold @ .500, Miguel Saragoza @ .400, and Malik Williams @ .444.  Right behind them are Ian Madison and Christian Janini, both hitting .286.  The Mud Hens have 8 extra base hits in the first four games, coming from Tyler (two 2B), Miguel (3B), Ian (2B), Christian (2B, 3B), Denis (2B), and Nick Cooling (2B).  RBI leaders for the Mud Hens are Miguel Saragoza and Malik Williams with 4 each, and Christian Janini and Nick Cooling with 3 each. As a team, the Mud Hens have an OBP of .445.  The Mud Hens ability to score runs have resulted in 35 runs scored in the first four games.

Pitching is led by Anthony Alves, Nate Cornell, and Miguel Saragoza.  All three pitchers have opponent batting averages below .300 with Nate Cornell holding his opponents to 0.231.  Miguel Saragoza has 15 strikeouts with only 4 walks, giving him a strikeout to walk ratio of 3.75.  Anthony Alves has pitched a solid 7 and 1/3 innings.  Ready to jump on the rubber, if necessary, are Tyler Newbold, Jacari Hudson, and Nick Bernett.

The Mud Hens go into the game of the week at 2 – 2, but could easily be sitting at 4 – 0 had it not been for 1 bad inning in each of the first two games.  In both of those games, the Mud Hens had a commanding lead, but free bases due to walks, hit batters, and errors led to 8 run innings in each of those games.   Coaching is a duo of head coach Eric Saragoza and coach Jess Marquez.  Both coaches are having a great time watching the Mud Hens play solid baseball, with a lot of heart, enthusiasm, and teamwork.  Go Mud Hens!!

Head Coach Eric Saragoza