Three games to end it all
It was a real shock that we ended up splitting the final series of the season to equal last years tally of 59-103. Currently we’ve turned a $19.6 million loss in 2041 into a $2.3 million profit We believe after weeks of intense negotiation we have quite possibly agreed a deal with Maldonado, he wouldn’t budge an inch on his demands, begrudgingly allowing the final year to be a team option rather than a player option. Any attempt to move any of the other yearly figures resulted in him asking for a five-year deal that was pretty much $19 million a year. We just couldn’t agree to that, we have to replace virtually the whole rotation next year and we need every penny we can find for that.
Game 160, 161 & 162 vs Boise Spuds
9/29 vs Boise W 9-8 (30,436)
9/30 vs Boise W 7-6 (33,459)
10/1 vs Boise L 7-9 (31,654)
Having lost game one of the series against the Spuds on a walk off Grand Slam, there wasn’t much hope for the rest of the four-game series that would end the 2042 season. Having managed to keep level at 2-2 after the first innings of the week Aviators were soon 8-2 down mid-fourth innings. Hector Garza’s seventh inning single drove home the sixth Wichita run and surprisingly back to back eighth innings homers by Luis Maldonado & Jason Bowen tied the game at 8-8. /the few fans that stuck by the team were congoing around the bleachers when Jorge Rincon tripled later in the eighth to drive home Clive Timberlake for the winning run. Wichita had snapped the nine-game losing streak. The second game of the week and the penultimate game of the season saw the lead swap hands a couple of times. Juan Hernandez hit a fifth innings triple to drive in two runs and send Aviators into a 6-5 lead. There was plenty of frustration among the small crowd though when Boise tied the game at 6-6 in the top of the ninth and the trickle going to the exits turned into a stream. Down to their final out Wichita had runners on second & first thanks to two walks when Luis Maldonado came to the plate and drove the fifth pitch he faced past first down the right field line. Matt Chambers turned on the afterburners from second and glided home to walk off the game. The Aviators had equalled the 2041 tally with a game to spare, if only they could keep this mini win streak going, we had a chance of beating the tally as we went into October and the final game of the season. After three innings the dream was still alive, Aviators were ahead 2-1, but then the bubble burst. Going into the seventh innings the tide had turned and Boise had streaked ahead to 9-2 on the way to the win they desperately needed to confirm their wild card slot. We managed to pull five runs of that back but we weren’t really close to grabbing that 60th win
Final Regular Season Standings {October 1st)
Record v Johnson League
| Frontier | HW | HL | AW | AL | Atlantic | HW | HL | AW | AL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boise | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Atlantic City | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Calgary | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | Brooklyn | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Edmonton | 2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | Charlotte | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| Las Vegas | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Charm City | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| Mexico City | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | Jacksonville | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Phoenix | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | Montreal | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| San Antonio | 1 | 6 | 4 | 3 | New Orleans | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Wichita | X | X | X | X | Rockville | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| TOTALS | 17 | 29 | 22 | 30 | TOTALS | 12 | 20 | 10 | 22 |
Batter of the Week was 23-yr-old Hector Garza who got 14 AB’s in the three games and collected six hits including a homer. He scored twice and drove in five runs