9-News: 38.094 – Nine Hitters Double Trouble

[RonCo]

Perhaps its mostly an indicator of the team’s relative health all season, or perhaps it’s just something in the new water treatment plant the city installed a few years back, but the Yellow Springs Nine have now accomplished an interesting little trick: Every hitter on the roster has now clubbed at least ten doubles.

It’s a feat that a few other teams will get close to accomplishing, but it appears at present than none will. To give the full context of the situation, also, the club is only one John Ginn and Andy McKinney homer, two Aljandro Rodriguez homers, and three Brian Sullivan dingers away from each player on the roster also clubbing double digit home runs—except, of course, shortstop Miguel Padilla, who somehow managed to hit 7 homers last year, but we figure he did it by making a pact with the devil. Padilla makes it up with triples, however, and he has eight so far this year.

With 38 games remaining on the schedule, it seems that milestone is achievable—though Sullivan may need to duplicate his two-homer day sometime to pull it off.

The team leads the Frick league in slugging, and (naturally) extra base hits (second in homers, third in triples and doubles). As a result, they also lead the league in OPS and in runs scored.

“We’re built this way,” explained manager Bill Inkster. “We don’t really have the three or four superstar core that some teams develop their offense around. Instead, our offensive concept here is centered around the idea that we use everyone on the roster and that we expect everyone can thump the ball. We know can score runs from anywhere in the lineup. So I have every confidence in our guys as long as I can keep them playing in places where they can succeed.”

As a result, the team is becoming fun to watch, and Yellow Springs leads the league in attendance per home game.

“It’s a great group of guys to be around,” said second baseman Bob Frazier. “We have a pretty good time trying to figure out who is going to be the hero every day, because then that guy has to buy pizza for the rest.”

[HoosierVic]

A pizza powered lineup? This is a concept Huntsville needs to explore!