Week Nine: May 26th – June 1st
Game 52 @ Boise Spuds
5/26 @ Boise L 4-5 (F/11)
Boise completed the sweep over us, but at least they had to break sweat for it. Middle of the fourth the Aviators were 4-0 up, but the Spuds had worked their way back to 4-4 after seven innings. The bullpen kept them off the board until the bottom of the 11th when a one-out solo homer walked it off for Boise. Damon Tipping continued his unlucky season, pitching six strong innings, only giving up five hits, two walks and two runs but once more couldn’t get a winning decision. Lead-off batter Jorge Rincon went 3-5 scoring twice.
Games 53, 54 & 55 @ Atlantic City Gamblers
5/27 @ Atlantic City W 1-0 (F/13)
5/28 @ Atlantic City L 4-11
5/29 @ Atlantic City W 8-7
Continuing their road trip Aviators headed for Atlantic City and worked only their second winning series of the month. Game one was the second marathon 1-0 win that Wichita had pulled out in extras. Calgary were beaten in 12 innings, but it took 13 to overcome the Gamblers. Aviators managed four hits in regulation and Gamblers seven, neither team able to do anything with them. On to extras we went and still scoreless the breakthrough finally came in the 13th innings a single & a hit batter got Hector Garza into scoring position on second base. Luis Maldonado stepped into the batter’s box and was able to slash the ball past first to enable Garza to scoot home from second for the only run of the game. Two solo homers in the top of the second gave Aviators a 2-1 lead in game two, but they soon needed three singles in the top of the fifth to score two and tie the game at 4-4.Sadly after that the game got away in the final innings, Aviators pitchers doling out plenty of runs & walks again. There was plenty of runs in game three too, as Wichita clinched the series with the odd run in 15. A 3-run homer in the third innings by Duane Whitley Jr giving Aviators their first lead of the game and three more station to station runs in the fifth virtually sealing the game. Gamblers ran a run in in the sixth & seventh innings but still fell a run short. Juan Hernandez had a stormer, going 5-5 with a triple & four singles, scoring twice while Whitley, Jr’s homer helped him to a 2-5 record with four RBI and scoring twice. Te retiring Abe Colbert Jr collected his second win of 2043 and just, by a tick, kept his ERA under 9.00
Games 56 & 57 @ Rockville Pikemen
5/31 @ Rockville w 6-4
6/1 @ Rockville L 3-6
In the first game at Rockville Luis Maldonado hit a 2-run shot in the top of the first, but the Pikemen replied with their own 2-run shot in the bottom of the first. Jim Gouzzie added the third 2-run shot of the game in the third innings before Jason Bowen’s solo shot added to the power frenzy in the sixth. Rockville were able to close up to just a run behind, but there was still time for Duane Whitley Jr to hit an eighth innings solo homer to set the exclamation point on the win. In the second game there wasn’t a lot of hits, only six each, but Rockville kept on scoring runs. Aviators scored two to level the game at 2-2 and another run to tie at 3-3 but were left behind after that. The only bright spot was Hedde Aalbers going 2-3 and driving two runs in.
Regular Season Standings (June 1st)
2043 Record v Johnson League
| Frontier | HW | HL | AW | AL | Atlantic | HW | HL | AW | AL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boise | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | Atlantic City | - | - | 2 | 1 |
| Calgary | - | - | 2 | 1 | Brooklyn | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Edmonton | - | - | 2 | 2 | Charlotte | - | - | - | - |
| Las Vegas | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | Charm City | - | - | - | - |
| Mexico City | 1 | 5 | - | - | Jacksonville | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| Phoenix | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Montreal | 0 | 3 | - | - |
| San Antonio | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | New Orleans | - | - | 0 | 3 |
| Wichita | X | X | X | X | Rockville | - | - | 1 | 1 |
| TOTALS | 4 | 15 | 10 | 12 | TOTALS | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
Pitcher of the Week: 33-yr-old Tony Alomar stepped up this week to something like his 2042 form. Getting into four games he pitched 8.2 innings and recorded two saves. He allowed four hits, no walks, no runs while striking 10 batters out.
Batter of the Week: 30-yr-old Luis Maldonado had a week where he played as we pay him for. In five games he hit three homers and drove five runs in. He walked twice and his triple slash was .250/.348/.700.
