Lumberjacks win first annual Santa Cruz Classic!

This has been an exciting weekend for the Lumberjacks. In the first tournament our team has ever been involved in, we took first place.

The final game come down to the wire. Javier started the game, despite having thrown a 9-inning complete game the *day* before, and also pitching the 9th inning of the early morning game.

Down 2-0 in the bottom of the 4th, Juan Cervantes got the Lumberjacks on the board with a leadoff home run to left field, Javier had a solid single, and Tom Macari a deep double to eventually get the game tied at 3.

The game would remained tied until the top of the 11th inning, as the Soquel Stars scored on a sac fly to center, making the score 4-3. In the bottom of the inning, Josh Silva grounded out, and Juan Hernandez drew a tough walk, putting the tying run on first with 1 out. Melvin Perdue hit a hard line-drive to right-center but it was caught, putting 2 outs on the board. Juan reached second base on a wild pitch, and Juan Cervantes drew a walk, putting the tying and winning runs on base with 2 outs. Brad Shannon followed with a shallow fly to center which barely evaded the glove of the diving center fielder, and the game was tied with the winning run reaching third base! Javier Gonzalez, who had thrown *all* 11 innings in the game, was up, and hit a sharp grounder to third base. The third baseman fielded it cleanly, threw a one-hopper to first, but the first baseman bobbled the ball, Javier's hustle beat out the throw, and the winning run came in from third!! It was a hard-earned come-from-behind extra-inning victory for the Jacks!

Pictured above are the tournament award winners: Javier Gonzalez received a bat for the tournament MVP, Brad Shannon for the most tournament RBIs, Melvin is representing for first place in the tournament, and not pictured is Jay Almendral for most tournament home runs. Brad Shannon also won the tournament home run derby Saturday evening with 5.

Lumberjacks win stunning walk-off win vs Indians

Coming off a tough loss the Expos Saturday night, the Lumberjacks took a 4-2 lead in the second inning as Brad was hit by a pitch, Mike Taylor singled, Tom Macari singled, Brian Karst reached on a throwing error, and Barrett Price singled.

In the top of the 5th inning, the Indians scored 4 runs and took a 6-4 lead, and the Lumberjacks responded with a run in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI Sac Fly from Tom, cutting the deficit down to 6-5.

In what would ultimately end up in a slugfest, the Indians scored another run in the top of the 6th, and 3 more in the top of the 7th, giving them a comfortable 10-5 lead.

The Lumberjacks have shown resiliency against the Indians in games past, with two walk-off wins about a month ago, and tonight was no different. In the bottom of the 8th with 1 out, down 10-5 and Indians ace TJ Christianson was still on the mound, Danny Rico was hit by a pitch, and Barrett Price hit a solid double down the left-field line. Melvin Perdue hit a solid double into the right-center gap, driving in both runners, and cut score down to 10-7, giving us hope for the 9th inning.

The bottom of the 9th will not be soon forgotten. TJ was driven out of the game, and the Indians brought in a new left-handed reliever for the save. Jay Almendral greeted the new pitcher with a solid line drive to right field for a single to open the frame, and Mike Taylor followed with a walk, suddenly putting the tying run at the plate with no outs. Andre White grounded out to first-base, moving the runners to second and third. Tom Macari hit a hard grounder to the right side, pulling the first baseman way off the base, and legged out a single, bringing in a run and cutting the score down to 10-8 with runners and first and third. Danny Rico struck out but Tom, the potential tying run, advanced the second on a wild pitch, giving us two outs with runners on second and third, down 10-8. Barrett Price worked a tough high-pressure walk, loading the bases and putting the winning run on first. Melvin Perdue then forced in a run on catcher's interference, allowing him to advance to first base, and more importantly putting the winning run into scoring position with Barrett at second. Jake Holt, the team leader in RBIs, then stepped up to the plate with 2 outs and the opportunity to be a hero, and he obliged with a sharp clutch single up the middle scoring Barrett on a very very close play at the plate for the walk-off win! This was one of only 20 league games for the Lumberjacks, making the victory that much more sweet.

Lumberjacks vs the Oakland Expos

In game one, the Lumberjacks were out of sync and suffered a one-sided loss to the Expos. When the smoked cleared, the final score was the Expos 15, Lumberjacks 4. A few bright spots were Brad Shannon's home run down the left field line and deep double off the left-center wall. Another positive was the 2010 debut of Jeremy Hernandez, Jay Almendral, and Luke Heil late in the game.

Game two started well with 5 runs in the 3rd inning after a triple by Jeremy Hernandez and base hits by Melvin Perdue, Brad Shannon, and Tom Macari, resulting in an early 5-2 lead. Orlando pitched very well but had to leave in the 6th due to a strained oblique muscle. With a 5-4 lead, 2 outs, and runners on second and third, the Expos pitcher hit a shallow popup which landed just off the right-field line, scoring both runners and leading to the victory for Expos.

Next game: Tuesday night at 7:00pm vs the Fairfield Indians (League game) at the San Leandro Ballpark.

Good luck to our pros

Congratulations to Wayne Franklin and Melvin Perdue for being offered professional contracts. Wayne was one inning away last season from qualifying as the league-leader in ERA in the Golden Baseball League, and has been invited back to pitch for the Chico Outlaws. Melvin Perdue has signed a pro contract in the United League. Way to go guys!

Jacks sweep on opening day

The Lumberjacks met up with the San Jose Haystacks and beet them 4-0 in game 1 and 13-2 in game 2 at the San Leandro ballpark.

In game one, Mike Taylor and Jasper Smith each pitched brilliantly and did not yield any runs, and just when the Haystacks perhaps thought they'd catch a break in game two by seeing new pitching, they had to face former Major-Leaguer Wayne Franklin who threw 7 sparkling shutout innings earning the victory. At the plate, Orlando Kelly hit his first home run of the season, and the Lumberjacks cruised to a 13-2 win.

The Lumberjacks get right back at it with a tuesday night league game at 7:00 at the San Leandro Ballpark.

Peace of mind about playing time

When I played for the Indians, despite hitting well, I'd often attend a double-header, which of course could go a good 6-7 hours, and I would get one late-inning token at-bat, because there were so many guys. This came to a head when Scott and I went to Humboldt with them to play the Crabs. We spend about 5 hours driving up, brought our families, spent good money on a place to sleep, etc., and he and I each played less than a full game out of the 3 over the weekend. At this point, we were taking the 5 hour exodus back home, vowed to not put ourselves through that again, or anyone else, and decided to start our own squad called the Lumberjacks (as we were driving through the humboldt redwoods). I absolutely hated to have to count the number of guys at the part before each game, and do the math in my head knowing that I would only start if there were only 9 or 10 guys there (despite hitting well!).

So... Scott and I have put together a smaller roster of very talented players. We never want to have more than about 15 total hitters on the squad (so up to 6 guys can be out and we still have 9), so we can give everyone pretty equal playing time. Each hitter was specifically and carefully selected/invited to play, and we are delighted that each of you have agreed to come aboard. We have confidence in each of you. We feel that any 9 of you could score enough runs to win off anyone.

I know that up until now, we've done our best to give everyone a good amount of playing time, and I appreciate those who have brought it to my attention about others not getting very much playing time. Moving forward, we want everyone to know, that if you have payed your money (only a few people haven't yet), then we will make sure you can show up to a double-header and have the peace of mind that you will play at LEAST 6-8 innings (because we play one 9 inning game, and one 7-inning game). If we forget for some reason to put you in, just tell us, we won't get upset, and we'll get you in, because we know how you feel! We've intentionally kept the roster small and turned away over 14 hitters now to accomplish this. I love this year's squad, and I'm confident we can take league this year!

Tom

Sat April 24th: Lumberjacks vs the Express

The Lumberjacks continued to prepare for Opening Day in the Sacramento Rural League with a scrimmage against the East Bay Express from the MSBL Tri-Valley league. We didn't keep stats, but Brad Shannon, Barrett Price, and Tom Macari each had solid doubles into the gap, and Mike Taylor threw 6 or 7 shutout innings, looking very impressive. Javier Gonzalez also looked extremely solid as he shut down the Express in the final innings to secure the win. The Lumberjacks also flashed a little leather: with the bases loaded and no one out, Tom Macari made a nice sliding catch in right field, and fired the ball in before the runner could tag from third, and Brian Karst snagged a line-drive from the next batter and doubled up the runner at second to get Mike Taylor out of the inning unscathed. We were especially happy with how the day went because we got a lot of good defensive practice in before the game, and implemented signs as well.

Tom