Thread: Spring Valley Baseball (Mogul)
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Old 06-10-2014, 08:29 PM   #23
Suicane75
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Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: NJ
1976 Lambertville Tigers Season Recap

Before the season even began we got some minor bad news as Catcher Bryan Brazzel tweaked his knee helping a buddy move. He'll miss the first week of the season, not a huge deal.

We opened the year winning 2 of 3 in Newtown. We played OK. Stryska lost in a matchup that favored us heavily. Not much to say other than we weren't that sharp and I'm worried about our pen outside of Withey but we won 2 of 3 so I can't complain too much.

We took 2 out of 3 from Flemington, both wins being come from behind victories that we pretty much pulled out of our asses. We've had some timely hitting but for the most part we seem listless. Our starters aren't going deep and our pen isn't very good. On top of that, Frederic Thornill twisted his knee in that game hand is out for a couple of weeks, that could be a major blow. Vince Micone who's been with us before and has 5 total at bats in two seasons will join the team and step in at 3rd Base. We're 4-2 so I can't complain too much, but I am worried.

We took 5 out of 6 from A New Hope team that just isn't very good. We're playing better and pitching better save for 1 atrocious game from Todd Parnell where he gave up 11 runs in 3 innings. Ooof. But I can't complain. We have 3 days off before starting a series at home against Flemington. We're 9-3 and they're 7-5, two games behind us in 2nd place, so we can start putting some distance between us and the rest of the division with a good series. We'll have Freddy Thornhill back, so that's nice.

Well we lost 2 out of 3 in a very tight series with Flemington, really disappointed right now. We're 10-5 with a 1 game lead but the division is tight and we blew a pretty big chance to put some distance between us and everyone else. Tyrer and Stryska have yet to really have a strong 1-2 effort on the season and I'd like them to start getting dominant toot sweet.
We have 4 days off before we start a series with Buckingham so we can reset our rotation. On the PA side of things Buckingham and Doylestown are tied for first with both teams at 6-6. It's a bit of cluster of mediocrity over there.

We won 2 out of 3 Buckingham in another series where we pretty much got outplayed but put together a good inning here or there to win a game. Tyrer was solid, Stryska got bombed, so we still can't put together a good back to back effort from those guys. But we keep winning so hey. We're 12-6 but still just a game ahead of Flemington. Doylestown is 10-8 and leads the PA Division, and we have them next up for a 6 game home and home.

We took the first 3 games of the set at home and allowed a grand total of 1 run in the series. Todd Parnell threw a shutout in game 1, Glen Tyrer hurled a complete game 1 run effort in game 2 and Shawn Stryka & the bullpen combined on a shutout in game 3. Now that's what I'm talking about.

Some good news and very bad news from the 2nd series in Doylestown. First, the good. We won 2 of 3, winning the 2nd and 3rd games when we moved Tyrer and Stryska up so we could get them each a start before 3 days off.

Now the bad news, Catcher Bryan Brazzel, having his best season ever, tore his ankle up and is done for the year. We add former Tiger Robin Burbridge to the team. He and Matthew Vickers will split time at Catcher for the rest of the year although neither one of them are very good. That really sucks because Brazzel was really coming into his own after being pushed last year by the addition of Vickers. The other bad news is that RF David Rath will miss the upcoming series against Buckingham with a strained back, not nearly as big a blow obviously.

Looking at how our team has performed so far, Nate Ward leads the team with a .422 average, just having another monster year. The interesting thing is that due to Saul Waners down year, just .232 and 6 RBI, Ward has only scored 12 times, which doesn't even lead the team, but thanks to a solid bottom of the order he does lead the team in RBI. It's all upside down. Adam Wells and David Rath are tied for the team lead with 4 homers and have a combined 25 RBI.

On the pitching side of things Tyrer (2.20), Stryska (3.26) and Salomone (3.03) are all pitching fantastic. Parnell at 4.20 looks worse than it is because of 1 real bad outing. Our bullpen has actually been magnificent as well. Withey has 9 saves and a 0.56 ERA while Vinny Tindalls 3.52 ERA is the worst on the staff outside of Charlie Leighs 11.57 ERA in just 2.1 innings of work.

We're 17-7 and have a 3.5 game lead on Flemington. Those 2 series against Doylestown were easily the best baseball we've played all year so let's try and keep it rolling. Next up is a series at home against PA leading Buckingham before we get another 3 day break so we'll be able to throw Tyrer and Stryska 4 more times in the next 6 games. The Bears are 14-10 and lead the division by 1.5 games over Newtown.

We stole 2 out of 3 from Buckingham in a wild series. Glen Tyrer got chased after just 2.1 innings in the first game which we lost, Saul Waner went 0-5 with 5 K's in that one, so not a good start. Stryska righted the ship in a game 2 win and then in game 3 we trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the 9th and scored 3 times to pull out the win. We're 19-8 and have a pretty insane 5.5 game lead over Flemington. After 3 days off we have another home and home, this time with Stockton. Buckingham sits at 18-12 and leads the PA division by 2.5 games over Newtown. If we were to play them in the championship series I think it would be a pretty good contest.

We took 2 out of the first 3 against Stockton at their place, our only loss coming in a bullpen implosion by Bill Auld and Clinton Withey, ruining a great Shawn Stryska effort. Todd Parnell pulled his quad and will miss a week so we'll throw Tim Malorgan out there for a spot start in his place. game one of the 2nd was a classic pitching contest between Allan Salomone and Stocktons Joshua Parks that went in the 10th inning scoreless before we pulled it out. In game 2, Tim Malorgan, making his first start in 2 seasons, pitched a gem. He tossed a 3 hit, complete game shutout. Nice. We took game 3 despite an average outing from Glen Tyrer. So we take 5 of 6 from Stockton to put us at 24-9. We have a 7 game lead in the division so we can clinch astoundingly early with a couple more wins.

The MVP race is pretty much a 2 man battle between Nate Ward and Joel Hornstein of Newtown. Up until about a week ago I would have said Hornstein, who's had a great career but never gotten an MVP nod, was the clear winner, but Nate has been on fire lately and is making it a discussion, though Hornstein wins going away in counting stats.

Our next series is against Newtown. who trail Buckingham by 2.5 games in the PA division.

We won the opening game of the series and clinched the division with a 5-4 win. Now the race is on both claim most wins in a season, 27 is the current high shared by us and New Hope, and perhaps even become the first team to win 30 games. I can rest some people and get my rotation set for the championship series so it's all good in the hood. We split the last two games and stand at 26-10. Buckingham has a 3 game lead in the PA division so it's looking like we'll face off with them in the championship series. Up next is a home and home against West Amwell to close out the season.

We took 2 out of 3 at home against West Amwell, putting us at 28-11 so we have a good shot at 30 wins although we will be resting some people up. We get two days off before our final series of the year in West Amwell. Saul Waner tweaked his knee and he'll miss a couple days but he'll be good to go for the championship series.

After winning the first game of the final series we dropped the last two games to come a win shy of 30 victories. Oh well. We're set to go against Buckingham in the League Championship Series.

Despite losing the final two games of the year we still finished with a league record of 29-13 and an astounding 9 games ahead of second place Stockton. That's just crazy. The thing is, I don't even think this was our best team ever, we just got on a major roll in May.

Nate Ward continued to be a wizard at the plate, leading the league in hits with 71, 11 better than the next guy. Rath, Gault, Thornhill and Wells all had really productive seasons. Wells 7 homers was tied for 4th in the league. Insanely enough we had nobody who placed in the top 10 in RBI or Runs. Saul Waner did struggle and you can see that he's declined a bit from where he was and where we thought he'd end up. Bryan Brazzle who we lost for the year a few weeks back also had a real solid year. Our lineup top to bottom may be the best it's ever been.

On the mound, nobody had a blowaway year but everyone was very solid. Allan Salomone (2.48), Todd Parnell (3.00) and Glen Tyrer (3.11) all placed in the top 10 in ERA. Tyrers 54 K's and was good for 8th best and his 6 wins was tied for 2nd. Clinton Withey once again lef the league in saves with 12. Only Bill Auld and Charlie Leigh had ERA's over 4 on our entire staff. I think this may have been the end of Charlies time on the team, he just doesn't have much left.

The series against Buckingham is going to be a dogfight. Their ace, Sean Junker, is going to win Pitcher Of The Year. He has an amazing 1.31 ERA over 96 innings and an 8-1 record. He and Tyrer will match up in what should be a classic game 1. Their next 2 starters, Gerrit Roberts, who led the league in strikeouts, and Jorge Moran, both lefties, have the ability to be just as good and they negate Adam Wells, so I know we're in for a war, but I can't wait.

Lambertville Tigers 1976 Team Statistics
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