Aviators fly high
The idea of this year’s Florida Prospect League roster was to see who would be likely to be in AA or A next year as I haven’t seen any of the players. The roster was perhaps then more experienced than we would normally pick, and it showed maybe in the early FPL results.
When watching Palm Bay go down 6-2 at home to Aztecs in the season opener, I had visions of last year’s 8-20 league finish. Were our minors really abysmal? We had decided though to put some pretty strict pitch counts on all of our staff, partly to prevent injuries, but probably more importantly to try and ensure that all the staff got to rack up the IP’s and not just the SP’s going deep all the time.
It didn’t quite finish that way though, the Aviators burst out and went on a 6-0 tear. A couple of close wins were coupled with a couple of real blowouts. No-one of our players made the leaderboards this week, it was a real team effort everyone contributed, and our team stats backed that up. Our team batting average (.355) led the FPL while our OBP (.414), SLG (.580) & OPS (.994) all came in second in the league. In a team batting effort Palm Bay scored the most runs (63) on the most hits (93) and swiped the most bags (14). Our pitching staff didn’t have that great stats, but we anticipated that when we made the decision to give the staff as many IP’s rather than stick with the hot arms.
So, here’s a quick recap of our opening seven games in this year’s FPL
Game 1 v Cocoa Beach L 2-6. Missed the chance to go up in the bottom of the first when we left runners at the corners and paid for it when the visitors hit a 2-run homer next innings. Never recovered from that and 2-runs in the top of the ninth gave a flattering look to Aztecs win.
Game 2 @ Pompano W 9-6. Three runs in the top of the second gave Aviators a 3-1 lead and 4-3 after four. It took a solo shot by Cesar Lucero in the ninth to send it to extras before Aviators sent eight men to plate in the top of the 11th to score three runs. Noberto Acuna tied the FPL extra innings game record for runs with 4 and Paul Cash went 0-5 with five K’s.
Game 3 @ Bradenton W 20-7. After we coughed up 4 runs in the bottom of the first innings it looked grim … until Aviators sent 13 men to the plate in the top of the second and scored eight runs. Bradenton responded by closing the scoreline to 8-7 after two, but three in the 4th & 5th by us broke the game open. Four in the 8th put the seal on a blowout win. Both Aloisio Prudente & Paul Cash tied the Palm Bay regular season record for runs scored with 4 runs.
Game 4 v Tampa W 3-2. A nip and tuck game saw Palm Bay take a second innings lead but fall 2-1 behind in the 5th. Runs in the 6th & the 7th took the Aviators past the Hustlers again for their third straight win.
Game 5 v Miami W 19-0. Another blowout as Aviators shut the visitors out and kept them to just 4 hits. Seven runs in the 5th and eight in the 6th destroyed the Mounties and Cesar Lucero became the latest Aviator to tie the regular season game record of 4 runs. Only one Palm Bay homer but they legged out two triples amongst their 21 hits.
Game 6 @ Niceville W 7-1. With the game tied at one the Aviators struck the killer blow in the third with a Paul Cash 2-run shot included in the three runs in the innings. Opening Day starter Taito Kimmonen made up for his loss there as he pitched 6.1 innings to take the win.
Game 7 v Apalachicola W 3-2. Palm Bay were 2-0 down after the top of the third but had levelled it after four innings. With two Aviators on base in the bottom of the 7th a single by Kinara Cobley drove in Luis Ayala for the deciding run.
FPL Standings (Southeast Div) as at Dec. 1st
