Around the ABL: April 8-April 14

Sergio Ramírez

April 8: South Carolina 4, Las Vegas 0. In a battle of the brains, Sergio Ramírez (1-1) outsmarts the Jokers offense and beats Professor Magee (1-1). Ramírez pitches eight scoreless innings. Orlando Bustamante and Gunner Smart for the Palmettos. Magee reportedly defeats Ramírez in a chess match held behind closed doors after the game.

April 8: San Francisco 7, Mile High 10. The Earthquakes—the best team in baseball for much of last summer—are shades of their former selves. They take an early lead, 5-0, but cough it up in the late innings. Mustang Francisco Morales wins it for Mile High by tripling down the right-field line with the bases loaded.

Tom Becker

April 9: Nottinghamshire 0, Montreal 1. Scott Prince (1-0) pitches eight scoreless innings, allowing the world champions only four hits, but Ed Gillespie (0-0) and the Bandit Bullpen keep pace with Prince. The game remains a scoreless tie until the 12th. Tom Becker picks this dramatic moment to hit his very first home run of the season—giving the Bandits a walk-off win.

April 9: Washington 5, Montgomery 8. The Capitalists cash in for five runs in the sixth: nine-hole hitter Ted King hits a bases-loaded double that plates three runs. The Mountain Cats pounce back, scoring seven in the bottom of the inning, and Montgomery gives D.C. fans another reason to hold a grudge against them. Washington nearly had an ABL franchise one year ago, but ownership bailed and the replacement owner took the team south to Montgomery.

April 9: Boston 5, Kansas City 2. Jasper Williams Watch! Boston's post-season hero is once again a backup, playing second fiddle to José Gonzáles. He got his first at-bat of the season today, pinch-hitting in the seventh with the game tied, 2-2, and a runner on first. What does Williams do? Double in the go-ahead run! Free Jasper!

April 10: Dallas 7, Seattle 8. Down 6-2 in the eighth, the Sasquatch rally. Oliver Davis hits a grounder that second baseman Jeffry McDonald can't corral: it bounces through his legs, and the tying runs score. George Sanders then wins it with a two-run walk-off homer.

April 10: Ann Arbor 9, So Cal 10. Stu Barnes of the Barn Owls burns Wayne Barham, the So Cal starter, with a two-run bomb out of the barnyard. Ann Arbor takes the early lead, 7-0. So Cal chips away at the lead, then grabs it in the seventh when "Watchatalkinbout" Willis Parks doubles in two runs. The Owls swoop back, with Z-Rod and H-Ram driving in runs in the eighth. With the game tied, it's left to Batman, Alfredo Yánez, to single in Bob Osborn for the winning run.

April 11: Maple 6, Georgia 0. The Marauders score five runs in the second on only two hits, both singles! Cale Hines and Julian Hutchinson begin the inning with a pair of singles: the inning continues with an error, two bases-loaded walks, another error (scoring two), and a ground out (scoring one). Jesse George (1-1) pitches a complete game shutout.

Dan Smith

April 11: Kansas City 1, Cabo San Lucas 5. Wilfred Brooks (1-0) pitches a complete game. He strikes out 11, walks two, allows four hits, and one run. Boring old Dan Smith boringly doubles with the bases loaded to drive in three boring runs. Kansas City's hitters continue to struggle. The current batting averages of the first five hitters in tonight's lineup? .167, .154, .156, .235, and .167.

April 11: Eureka 6, Boston 9. The Hornets have started the season strong, but no team has been better than the Cardinals. Boston batters explode in the first with a flurry of singles and doubles, scoring six. Eureka closes the gap, but the sixth inning sees Will Bauer double in two more runs, and the Cardinals show the Hornets why they lead all of baseball in wins last season.

Aurelio
Ramírez

April 12: New York 0, Carolina 1. The Crush have gotten off to a fine start this year, but how does a team go 8-4 with an offense that has scored fewer runs, 30, than any team in the ABL? By having the best pitching in baseball. Crush pitchers have allowed only 24 runs, 18 earned, and have a team ERA of 1.50! Aurelio Ramírez (2-1) pitches 8 1/3 shutout innings, striking out seven and walking one. Doug King hits a solo home run. The Crush win, 1-0.

Steve Cherry

April 13: Dallas 12, San Diego 13. Steve Cherry played A-ball last year, but he managed to win a spot on the Hops ball club. On April 9, he got his first major league start. He's making quite the first impression. In his first career game, he goes 2-for-4 with a home run. In his second career game, he goes 1-for-2 with two walks. Today, in his third career game, he goes 4-for-6 with a grand slam!

The Hops needed it, too. The first eight Texans reach base, and San Diego starter Senzo Heida (0-0) leaves the game without recording a single out. After only two innings, Dallas leads, 9-0, but Cherry's slam caps a nine-run third inning that ties the game! The scoring slows down after that, and the Texans take an 11-10 lead into the bottom of the ninth. Stan Sanders doubles in Mario Vásquez to tie the game. The game goes to extra innings.

Miguel Angel
Ortíz

In the top of the 11th, Texan Matt Welch hits a solo home run. In the bottom half of the frame, Cherry singles, advances to third on an Armando Iliharco double, and scores on a Vásquez fly ball. Finally, in the bottom of the 13th, Miguel Angel Ortíz crushes a Kent King fastball deep into the left-center-field bleachers. The Hops players celebrate at the plate, and the San Diego fans go wild!

Ron Hamm

April 13: Washington 13, Seattle 8. Ron Hamm is the hottest hitter on one of the hottest teams in baseball. Today he blisters Sasquatch pitching by going 4-for-5 with a pair of home runs and a double. He scores four times and drives in a whopping seven. Hamm ends the second week of the season, leading all of baseball with seven home runs and 22 RBI.

April 13: Eureka 5, Georgia 4. The Ghost Busters get a trio of home runs early, courtesy of Steve O'Donnell, Joseph McKee, and Ed Hill. Eureka scores a few, and in the seventh Orlando Carranzo scores the tying run on a Domingo Rivera balk. Both bullpens shut things down—Georgia's Gary Payne pitches 4 2/3 scoreless innings—until the top of the 14th inning when Michael Brown doubles in Jesús González.

April 14: Nottinghamshire 5, Montgomery 4. Brendon Palmer hits a pair of two-run home runs. The latter comes in the seventh and gives the Outlaws the lead. The Mountain Cats fall to 0-5 in one-run games.

Orlando
Bustamante

April 14: South Carolina 8, Boston 1. Orlando Bustamante hits a pair of solo home runs off Boston's Norm Jackson. All nine batters in the Bomber lineup get a hit, and South Carolina snaps Boston's nine-game winning streak. Johnny Ratzlaff (1-2) allows one unearned run over 6 1/3 innings and picks up his first career win.

April 14: Minnesota 0, So Cal 2. What's the matter with Minnesota? The team with the best record last year in the Clemente League drops to 4-8 on the season. The Berserker offense lays a goose egg against converted reliever Jim Holt. Jim Brady (0-3) surrenders a two-run homer to Bob Osborn for the games only runs. Holt (1-1) gave up 10 runs in his first two starts of the season, but here he pitches eight shutout innings.

April 14: Dallas 10, San Diego 8. Remember Steve Cherry? Now in his fourth major league game, Cherry goes 3-for-3 with two home runs and two walks. (For those keeping track at home, in 15 major league at-bats, Cherry has 10 hits and four home runs.) It's not enough, however. Ex-San Diego star Francisco García goes 3-for-6 and Ryan Erickson goes 2-for-5 with 4 RBI to power the Texan offense to victory.