Hawks Stumble, Maintain Lead
Lopez Lost for Season
by Caitlen Sullivan
Halifax Chronicle Herald Sports Editor
May 1, 2025
Three weeks into the 2025 season the Halifax Hawks have opened up a four game lead in the Johnson League Atlantic Division. Meanwhile, Louisville and Brooklyn are battling for second with Greenville in the cellar as expected by most.
High Points
- Clearly the biggest high point of the first three weeks is the hitting of left fielder Edgar Jones. He has 7 home runs and leads the MBWBA in RBIs with 23. He can’t keep up that RBI pace as it would result in an unbelievable 196 for the season, but it sure is a nice start. He’s hitting .397 too with a .779 slugging percentage.
- Somewhat unbelievably, the Halifax bullpen has the lowest ERA in all the MBWBA at 1.47. Closer Tommy Gardner has four saves in four tries plus a win while Jesús Gonzáles also has looked very good. Fernando Rivera has racked up two wins. Bobby Gutherington may look best of all; he has allowed just three hits in six innings and has eleven strikeouts against three walks.
- The starters overall have pitched very well. All five have two wins, so no one is standing out, but aside for the odd bad outing, all have looked effective. Meanwhile, Daniel Jordan continues to get regular work down at Montgomery (AAA).
- The three way battle for third base continues apace: So far Keith Young and Wilton Sanders have both looked good at the plate as Ben McLaughlin awaits his opportunity, and he may get it at second base instead of third. See below.
- Superstars Bo Jordan and Elroy Hinson are off to rather slow but not glacial beginnings, and you can be sure both will be doing better than their current .250-ish averages before long.
- Barry Allen is not setting the world on fire offensively as the center fielder, but he picked up the pace over the last week. He has a nice +2.8 zone rating so far at the critical outfield spot
Middle infielders José Rivera (2B) and Vicente Trevino (SS), both who did so well last year, are off to horrible offensive starts with BA’s below .200. That is especially a problem for Rivera who bats in the critical leadoff spot. Could Ben McLaughlin get a tryout at 2B? That would require very good hitting because McLaughlin is much better at third than at second.
Next up for the Hawks: the finale at Havana to try to avoid a Sugar sweep. Then it will be on to Atlantic City before returning home to face Montreal and Carolina. All three of those teams have losing records at we write this. That could change.