. The Cardinals score four in the third: doubles-machine
hits a two-run homer. The Mustangs come back and
ties it on an eighth-inning home run. Mile High's bullpen pitches 12 shutout innings, but it's not enough: in the 16th, Boston's
April 17: Seattle 3, Nottinghamshire 4. In the bottom of the ninth,
Brendon Palmer crushes a 433-foot home run to dead center field, giving the Outlaws a walk-off win.
April 19: Minnesota 5, Dallas 6. The Berserkers, seeking revenge for last year's playoff defeat, come back from a late 5-1 deficit.
Juan Rodríguez doubles in
Matt Smith, tying the game in the eighth. The game goes into extra innings. In the tenth, Texan
Jeffrey McDonald doubles with one out. The next batter,
Bodil Larsen, hits a line drive to center that Smith loses in the lights. The ball lands four feet to Smith's right, and McDonald comes around to score the winning run.
April 20: Washington 2, Ann Arbor 17. Lorenzo Rodriguez leads the offense as the Barn Owls blow out the Capitalists. Z-Rod goes 5-for-5 with a double and a home run: he scores four times and drives in two. Ann Arbor sends 13 men to the plate in the fourth inning, scoring eight runs.
April 20: Montgomery 8, San Diego 7. Miguel Angel Ortíz tries valiantly to win the game for the Hops, hitting two home runs and driving in five. But the Mountain Cats hang with them and force the game into extra innings. In the 10th, Montgomery's
Eric Williams gets his fifth hit of the day, a single that drives in
Craig O'Day for the winning run.
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| Nelson Ingram |
April 21: Washington 0, Ann Arbor 2. Nelson Ingram (4-1), a 22-year-old southpaw from Alabama, has been a pleasant surprise for the Barn Owls this season. Against the Capitalists, Ingram takes a no-hitter into the ninth inning. Nerves appear to affect the youngster—he hits the leadoff batter—but he gets a groundball force-out to take him two outs away from being the first ABL pitcher to throw a no-hitter. Unfortunately, Ingram must face
Joe Leftwich, whose .417 batting average leads all of baseball. On a 2-1 pitch, Leftwich singles to left. With the no-hitter broken up,
Del Hubble comes in to close, and he promptly forces a double play. Ann Arbor sweeps the four-game series.
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| Pete Barrett |
April 21: Boston 0, San Francisco 6. The Cardinals, owners of the league's best record, send ace
Norm Jackson (0-2) to the mound to battle against the Earthquakes, owners of the league's worst record, and a 34-year-old retread making his first major league start. Naturally, San Francisco wins.
Pete Barrett (1-0), just promoted from Triple-A Antioch, allows a double on the very first pitch of the game, then goes 117 more pitches without allowing a second hit. He ends up pitching 8 1/3 shutout innings.
Tom Klein hits a pair of solo home runs. Jackson, winner of 20 games last season, remains winless this season.
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| Anthony Lewis |
April 25: Maple 7, Minnesota 6. Marauder
Anthony Lewis ties the game in the eighth by singling with the bases loaded. In the 11th, he walks, steals second base, and scores on a
Doug Smith single to win the game for the Canadians.
April 25: Montgomery 5, Eureka 6. The Hornets' magical April continues. Trailing 5-1 in the seventh, Eureka comes back. They score one in the seventh.
Mike Bergeron ties the game in the eighth with a 429-foot, three-run homer. With two outs in the ninth,
Andrew Padgett singles, steals second, and comes home with the winning run on an
Orlando Corrazo single. The 23-year-old Padgett is having a fine sophomore season, batting .347 with 11 stolen bases.
April 26: San Francisco 10, Minnesota 14. It's a slugfest in Minneapolis!
Bill Watson leads the Earthquakes by going 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs.
Peter Blanchard leads the Berserkers by going 4-for-5 with two home runs and four RBIs. The two teams combine for 36 hits.
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| Patrick Goff |
April 26: Montreal 1, Jersey 9. Some will tell you that
Patrick Goff's fourth-inning grand slam flew out of the Royal Court and landed a mere 471 feet away. Don't believe them. The FAA is still tracking his monster home run as it flies west over Pennsylvania.
April 27: Montreal 10, Jersey 1. Raúl Pérez (3-0) takes a no-hitter into the bottom of the eighth, but
John Woodward ruins it, hitting a fly ball 408 feet into the right-center field bleachers. That is the only hit that Pérez allows: he strikes out nine and walks one over eight innings.
April 27: Boston 7, Nottinghamshire 12. The Outlaws score an incredible 11 runs in one inning. With the Cardinals ahead, 5-1,
Peter Kelly leads off the bottom of the sixth with a single. The inning continues: walk, triple, single, strike-out, walk, three-run homer (courtesy of
Jim Crawford), single, single, hit-batsmen (Kelly again), strike-out, walk (driving in a run), walk (driving in another), single, and walk. The inning mercifully ends when, with the bases loaded, Crawford singles to left and
Joe O'Neal, trying to score from second, is gunned at the plate.
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| Jorge Cruz |
April 28: Montgomery 8, Mile High 0. Can
Jorge Cruz return successfully from elbow ligament reconstruction surgery and pitch like an ace once more? His first five starts gave Montgomery fans little reason to hope, but against the Mustangs, Cruz (3-2) breaks through, throwing eight shutout innings. He gives up three hits and one walk, while striking out six.
Andy Reynolds goes 3-for-4 with a double and home run.
April 29: New York 9, Boston 11. Interleague rivals battle. The Mafia take the lead on a
Bill Cahill two-run home run, and they enter the bottom of the eighth ahead, 9-5. But New York pitchers suddenly forget how to throw strikes.
Sixto Lavio walks the first three batters of the inning.
Bill Wells replaces him, walks in a run, then allows a pair of singles.
Manuel Lopez replaces him, walks in a run, and allows a two-run double to
Will Bauer. The Cardinals score six on three hits, and the Priests dispatch the Mob.
April 29: Eureka 1, So Cal 2. Smart baserunning wins the game for the Republic. The Hornets take a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth and hand the ball to closer
Brad Austin.
Rich Fraser singles and moves to second on a sac bunt.
Colt Smith ties the game on a dying quail to left-center. When the throw goes to the plate, Smith alertly takes second.
Lloyd Bray bloops a single to right, and Smith races around for the walk-off win.
April 30: San Francisco 3, Washington 7. The Capitalists come in to the game losers of 12 in a row.
Ben Kessler singles in a pair of runs, and
Joe Leftwich goes 2-for-4, raising his batting average to .416.
 |
| Jorge Mora |
May 1: New York 10, Boston 6. Young
Jorge Mora has really stepped things up and is providing the Mafia with a big bat in the middle of their lineup. The 24-year-old goes 4-for-5 with two doubles, improving his batting average to .348 in the process.
Bill Cahill and
Dave Hutchinson homer, and New York takes two of three from Boston.
May 2: Ann Arbor 1, Jacksonville 2. After starter
Ray Lewis is injured, recently promoted
Joe Fuller (2-0) steps up to pitch six shutout innings. After trading ace
Juan Fernandez to Nottinghamshire, the Jacks win nine of 11 and currently sit at .500, 16-16.
May 2: Kansas City 0, Seattle 1. The starters combine for 13 innings of shutout baseball, and the game goes into extra innings as a scoreless tie. In the bottom of the 10th,
Dane Moore lines one down the line that just gets over the wall.
 |
| Adrián Carne |
May 3: Maple 0, Ann Arbor 1. On the one hand, Ann Arbor has a losing record, 15-17; on the other hand, they still lead the Tommy Lasorda division. Young pitching has been the key to their success so far, with 22-year-old
Adrián Carne (3-1) leading the way. His best effort is needed today, as
Jesse George (3-3) makes just a single mistake: leading off the sixth, George's fastballl catches too much of the plate and
Ki-moon Pak homers to left. Carne rises to the occasion, shutting out the Marauders over eight innings, striking out nine while walking one and allowing only three hits.
 |
| Jesús Cruz |
May 3: Kansas City 13, Washington 8. The Tornadoes obtained
Jesús Cruz last season from South Carolina in the
Jayson O'Neill deal, and this season they gave Cruz the starting gig at first base. Today the young slugger shows what he can do, going 3-for-5 with a double, home run, and five RBIs. He's batting .308
May 3: Mile High 5, Montreal 3. Mile High snaps a nine-game losing streak.
Bob Armstrong (1-4) out-duels
Raul Pérez (3-1) by pitching eight innings and allowing only one run.
Len Brewer hits a two-run home run. Nevertheless, the Mustangs, who had hoped to compete for a playoff spot, find themselves with the second worst record, 10-22, in all of baseball.
May 5: Cabo San Lucas 3, Carolina 4. Through 32 games, Cabo pitchers have allowed 124 runs, second-best in baseball. The best pitching staff belongs to Carolina: they have allowed only
91 runs. The Toreros take the early lead, but home runs by
Chris Barrett and
Justin Wallace tie the game, 3-3. In the bottom of the 10th,
Miguel Pérez singles with the bases loaded, driving in
Greg Gordon for the walk-off win. Who would have thunk it? At 22-10, the Carolina Crush have the best record in baseball.
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