Week Two: Summary of Series

Sass fall in another heartbreaker
Slumps in hitting and pitching key to loss...again
By Beth Sass / hereforthesass.blogspot.com

MINNEAPOLIS -- For the second week in a row, the Sass have lost the series to their opponent, in this case, the Waukesha Nosaurs, with a 4-7 final score.

"We were doing so well up until the very end, and then on Sunday our pitching went awry--Matt [Guerrier] gave up sixty bazillion hits, raising our WHIP. I mean, we knew we had no chance in the saves or holds, but we figured we had all the other stats down pat. And starting on about Friday, our hitting went on vacation, and we lost a couple of those by one!" Beth lamented late Sunday night.

Pitching gave the Sass team three of their four points, winning in the categories of Wins (7-2), Ks (34-33), and ERA (4.25 to 7.31). However, the Nosaurs picked up the points in Saves (0-3), Holds (1-2), and WHIP (1.42-1.33). Hitting was a little bit further behind, prompted mostly by a surge by the Nosaurs and a stumble by the Sass. The Sass only won one category--BBs (24-20). The Nosaurs took the Runs (37-31), RBI (27-28), SB (3-6), and Average (.289-.358). Both teams had 9 home runs.

"If I had just hit one more home run," Sass outfielder A. Dunn lamented, "We could've won the home run, tied the RBI--or even gone ahead if someone was on base."

Dunn, incidentally, led the team in home runs--hitting 5 of the team's nine home runs. Both Dunn and outfielder J. Dye had 5 walks to lead the team. Dunn scored a team-leading eight runs, and Dye had a team-leading seven RBIs. Infielder C. Guillen, Dye, and outfielder R. Johnson each had one stole base. The highest batting average was by Johnson at .667.

As far as pitching goes, All five starters had one win (K. Benson, R. Johnson, K. Lohse, T. Ohka, C. Silva), as well as relievers J. Mateo and B. Looper. The team had no saves, and J. Duchscherererer had the only hold. Among the starters, Johnson led the team in ERA (1.80) and WHIP (0.80), while Ohka led the team in strike-outs (7). Among the relievers, Duchscherererer and Mateo had lowest ERA (0.00), while Mateo had the lowest WHIP (1.00). Duchscherererer and Looper had 3 strike-outs each.

"It's still early in the year," Silva said. "I'm definitely not at my top form. I'm hoping I can get command of my fastball and really pitch like I did last year."

Beth and Dawn were disappointed in their loss, and made public apologies to E. They said they would not be yelling at their team.

"The boys played hard," Dawn said, "No one slacked off--we just couldn't get any hits later in the week."

To encourage the team to do better, the team is taking time Monday morning to go shopping at Home Depot's paint department to pick out new colors for their locker room. As a team-building exercise, the entire locker room will be redecorated. Sass outfielder J. Encarnacion and Sass pitcher K. Benson have embraced the idea.

"The colors in here are so last week," Encarnacion said, "It will be nice to have an updated look."

Benson agreed, "Every time I walk in here and try to imagine painting any walls in my house that color. I couldn't picture it."