Wichita storm through week 2, sweep home opener series
Games 6, 7, & 8: @San Antonio
Aviator fans felt the regression towards the mean after the first game at San Antonio. Tied at 1-1 mid-2nd the Outlaws had bust the game wide open with three runs in the bottom of the second and another two in the third for a 6-1 lead. We never recovered from that and went down 3-9, our few fans left snapped off the radio and uttered the favoured catchphrase “them Aviators are shitty”. The dream was seemingly over for another year as far as Wichita’s flaky fans were concerned. Starter Lane Aldridge had one of his really off days going just two innings before he was hooked, he had given up five hits, six runs and three walks. ”John John” Bowen made his bat count once more, going 2-4 with two RBI.
Game two of the series saw Alex Ramirez & Matt Chambers go yard, back-to-back, for a 2-0 lead. It was a 3-2 lead after three innings but San Antonio scraped two runs from three hits in the fifth and took their first lead of the game. The 2042 Aviators are resilient though and Chambers hit his second homer of the game in the sixth to tie the game at 4-4. The game was settled in the eighth, Wichita only had one hit, but two walks and two sac flys helped them to score twice, winning the game 6-4. Chambers was the star going 3-3 with a walk, sending his first two BBA homers over the fences. Abe Colbert, Jr pitched 2.1 innings, giving up just one run and recording his first win of 2042, in his 13th BBA season.
Game three therefore was for the series. Aviators flew out of the blocks, sending nine to the plate in the top of the first. Ramirez’s 2-run shot was half the offence as we headed for the bottom of the first with a 4-0 lead. Alex Ramirez hit his second 2-run homer of the game in the top of the second and Wichita had a winning 6-0 lead. The fans weren’t convinced though, they remembered giving up a 7-0 lead at Phoenix to lose in extras. Even when the Aviators scrambled two runs in the fifth to make it 8-0 the fans listening on radios weren’t convinced; when the Outlaws picked up six hits in the bottom of the sixth, including a 3-run homer off starter Kidano Cherono, their fans nightmares seemed to be coming true as Outlaws closed to 8-4. The bullpen held on though, pitched three scoreless innings and Cherono picked up his first win as an Aviator. Ramirez went 3-3 with two walks, two homers and four RBI as Wichita secured their second series win of 2042.
4/7 @ San Antonio L 3-9
4/8 @ San Antonio W 6-4
4/9 @ San Antonio W 8-4
Games 9 & 10: vs Charm City
Opening Day in Wichita had the happy fans streaming in for a change, the Aviators were 5-3 and not bottom of the Frontier. 39,878 turned up to see a real barnburner of a game as the Aviators continued their hot start. In the bottom of the second Wichita turned two double and a single into three runs and they were on their way to winning the home opener. An Outlaws triple in the seventh helped them close the score to 1-3, but another Chambers homer in the bottom half of the innings restored the three-run lead. San Antonio tried to make it tight in the ninth, leading off with back-to-back homers, but despite getting runners at first & second with two out Miroslav Tomanek came on to record his first Aviators save and ensure that Wichita won its home opener.
In Game two of the two-game series the Jimmies tried to get revenge, they led 2-0 after three innings, 3-1 after five, but just couldn’t hold it. In front of 40,042 the hometeam Aviators tied it at 3-3 with a Hector Garza 2-run bomb over the left field fences and sealed in in the bottom of the eighth when a Garza triple drove in two more runs. Hector Garza’s 2-4 with a homer and four RBI had won the home opening series for Wichita
4/11 vs Charm City W 4-3 (39,878)
4/12 vs Charm City W 5-3 (40,042)
Game 11: vs Montreal
Wichita welcomed the Blazers into town as the first-place team in the Frontier Division. With Lane Aldridge on the mound they didn’t play like one, with two out in the second a Lineu Aldo Grand Slam made in a 6-0 lead for Montreal and knocked the struggling Aldridge out of the game. Long-man Adam Simons came out of the bullpen and steadied the ship, pitching 3.2 scoreless innings, giving up one hit, four walks and striking out six. In that time the Aviators turned the game on it’s head, Duane Whitley’s 2-run third innings homer started a three-run third, two more runs in the fourth made it 6-5 and the icing on the top was back-to-back homers from Matt Chambers and Jim Gouzzie that gave the Aviators a 7-6 lead. Juan Roman added a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth for the insurance run. Doug Clément took the mound in the top of the ninth and sent hearts racing as he walked the leadoff batter. The cheers filed the stadium though as he got the next batter to ground into a doubleplay and coaxed the final batter to fly out to centre. Roman had gone 3-4, scoring twice and driving in one with that homer, Wichita were still top of the Frontier riding a five-game winning streak, now we had three more games against Montreal at Thomas Magnum Field to stay that way.
4/13 vs Montreal W 8-6 (39,905)
Standings as at April 13th
JL FRONTIER DIVISION
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB | L10 | Stk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wichita Aviators | 8 | 3 | .727 | - | 7-3 | W5 |
| San Antonio Outlaws | 8 | 4 | .667 | 1/2 | 6-4 | W2 |
| Phoenix Talons | 7 | 4 | .636 | 1 | 7-3 | W1 |
| Edmonton Jackrabits | 7 | 4 | .636 | 1 | 6-4 | W2 |
| Boise Spuds | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2 | 6-4 | W1 |
| Mexico City Aztecs | 6 | 6 | .500 | 2 ½ | 6-4 | W5 |
| Las Vegas Hustlers | 5 | 6 | .455 | 3 | 4-6 | W3 |
| Calgary Pioneers | 4 | 7 | .364 | 4 | 3-7 | L3 |
Record v Johnson League
| Frontier | HW | HL | AW | AL | Atlantic | HW | HL | AW | AL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boise | - | - | - | - | Atlantic City | - | - | - | - |
| Calgary | - | - | - | - | Brooklyn | - | - | - | - |
| Edmonton | - | - | - | - | Charlotte | - | - | 2 | 0 |
| Las Vegas | - | - | - | - | Charm City | 2 | 0 | - | - |
| Mexico City | - | - | - | - | Jacksonville | - | - | - | - |
| Phoenix | - | - | 1 | 2 | Montreal | 1 | 0 | - | - |
| San Antonio | - | - | 2 | 1 | New Orleans | - | - | - | - |
| Wichita | X | X | X | X | Rockville | - | - | - | - |
| TOTALS | - | - | 3 | 3 | TOTALS | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |