Saturday May 19,2012- The Cendana Keinath Inc. Threshers visit the One on One Judo Club of Wilton Sand Gnats at Bartholomew Sports Park for a 7pm Game of the Week contest featuring those two American League Clubs.  The visiting Threshers come in off a 23-4 crushing of the MudCats on Wednesday night.  Coach Wackman expects the Club to continue that hot hitting and good defensive play on the "big stage" Saturday night.  The Sand Gnats started the season well with big wins and had an very good battle with the RiverCats this week for 7-7 tie against that elite club from the National League.  The Sand Gnats now feature their supplemental player, Nick Pruitt (COHS) and expect that he will give the Gnats a 2nd half boost.  There will be a Snack Bar run by Board member Larry Stone

This should be a great rematch of this years earlier game where the Sandgnats beat the Threshers by one run in a back and forth game with a wild finish.  Should be fun! 

Threshers Coach Mike Wackman

This Saturday May12, 2012, The Gormley's Retirement Home Red Wings host the Salazar Heavy Haul River Dogs at Bartholomew 7pm is game time. The River Dogs at 6-3-1 will be playing the second game of their double-header. Redwings at 1-8-1 are in every game they play and pledge to give the River Dogs all they can handle.  Note that, Larry Stone will be operating the Snack bar behind home plate for both the 4pm and the 7 pm games.  The Red Wings feature a number of good players including Willie Gormley (a Tyler Routt All Star) pictured here. According to Coach Gormley, their record indicates they have been snake bit, but these kids play with a Spartan attitude. They play each game with a No Retreat, No Surrender style of play. The team has had injuries and this great group of kids has filled in where needed, learning as they go.  The team has been thin on pitching depth but is led by the power pitching of Robert Espinosa who has 23 strikeouts in 15 innings of work and the control of Willie Gormley who issues few walks and relies on his defense in 24 innings of work.  The offense is improving each week and is powered by the lefty trio of Espinosa who is batting .500 with a .710 OBP; Anthony “Teixeira” Gentile batting .319 and leads the team with 2 triples; and David “Cubbie” Bustamante who has a .410 Avg. and 7 RBI’s.
The River Dogs have a formidable line up including Sam Splinter another Tyler Routt All Star this year.  Donny Penney has been booked to provide what Red Wings Coach Scott Gormley describes as the Irish tenor approach to the National Anthem and Mike Steele  has been asked to provide his consistently outstanding approach to announcing and score keeping.

Ironbirds Try to Shoot Down Mudcats

The 2012 Ironbirds are lead by veteran manager Chris Allen.  He is supported by assistant coaches Robert Ortega and Larry Stone. 

The Ironbirds (4-2-1) currently lead the 'National League' by percentage points over the Thunder.  Close behind are tonights opponents, the Mudcats. 

Like many teams this season, the Ironbirds have had moments of brillance and others where humility is quickly reinstilled.

The starting pitcher for the Ironbirds tonight will be #6 Matt Flores who has been a reliable arm all season and leads the team in innings pitched.  After Matt, several players including Ben Ortega and Yoseph Tadesse will handle mid-relief and left Joel Barragan will serve as the closer. 

The Ironbirds bring a lot of speed to ther offense attack and some thump to back that up.  Dominick Babich and Joel Barragan are always threats to steal a bag once on and Matt Flores, Yoseph Tadesse, Bobby Koehn and Ben Ortega have been reliable RBI men.   In the most recent come from behind victory over the Galt Rockies, the bottom of the order including Victor Ventura, Matt Moberly, and Maurice Brewster helped fuel an 8 run rally which sealed the 12 - 8 win.

The Mudcats are formidable opponent and this looks like a 7 inning battle ahead.