Around the ABL: June 1-June 30

June 1: Nottinghamshire 19, Carolina 4. The Outlaws score 10 runs in the seventh inning. Amazingly, they score them on only five hits—all of them singles! How'd they do it? Seven walks, including three consecutive walks with the bases loaded. The inning proceeds: walk, wild pitch, single, steal of second and catcher throwing error (scoring one), single, single (scoring one), walk, sac fly (scoring one, first out), pitching change, walk, single (scoring two), walk, walk (scoring one), walk (scoring one), walk (scoring one), pitching change, single (scoring two), strike out (second out), and ground out. Jim Crawford goes 3-for-4 with two singles, a triple, four runs scored, and four RBIs.

June 3: Las Vegas 11, South Carolina 6. The Outlaws aren't the only team to score 10 runs in an inning this week. Not only do the Jokers score 10 in an inning, they score 10 before the Bombers even get a chance to bat. (Bad night for the home team fans.) The inning proceeds: ground out (first out), double, walk, single (scoring two), single (scoring one), walk, walk (scoring one), single (scoring two), pitching change, walk, single (scoring two), strike out (second out), a Colin St. John home run (scoring three), single, pitching change, strike out. The home run is St. John's 20th of the season.

June 3: Dallas 4, New York 3. Mafioso Marvin Bowman ties the game with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth. The game stays tied until the 13th inning when Texan Ken Hines homers to left.

Jamie Perkins

June 5: Boston 0, Jacksonville 1. In his first 10 starts of the year, Jamie Perkins posted a 3.27 ERA but did not win a game. Four times this season he has pitched seven innings and given up just one or two earned runs, but all he has to show for it is a loss and three no-decisions. "It's frustrating," said Perkins before the game, "But all you can do is pitch your best and trust that good things will happen if you do."

Today, the Jacks offense once again failed to support him. They score just one run: Eduardo Liñares hits a fourth inning home run. But Perkins pitched his very best. he goes 8 2/3 shutout innings, using his knuckle curve to strike out six Cardinals and earning his first victory of the season.

It was a great performance, but it almost wasn't enough. In the ninth, Perkins gets Will Bauer to fly out and Alex Austin to strike out. To everyone's surprise, manager Harvey Gilbert decides to pull Perkins, who has thrown only 90 pitches, in favor of closer Art Murdock. Murdock gives up a triple to Matt Sanford. "All I could think is 'Not Again,'" said Perkins, "I couldn't watch." The suspense doesn't last long, as José Gonzáles grounds out on the next pitch, but questions remain.

Rumor has it that Perkins is very unhappy right now. "Let's just say that I wanted to finish what I started," said Perkins, "I think I earned the chance to do that."

June 5: Maple 1, Eureka 2. The Hornets score a run in the first: Clement Milford runs home on a Mike Bergeron groundout. They proceed to wait 13 more innings to score another run: with the bases loaded, Milford hits a sac fly. Luckily for the Hornets, in between those runs, Royce Butterfield and three relievers hold the Marauders to one unearned run.

Bill Flynn

June 7: Eureka 2, Jersey 4. The Jesters go into the bottom of the ninth down, 3-1. The Hornets turn to their feared closer Brad Austin, who enters sporting a 2.70 ERA and 16 saves. But it's Jester's Hat Night at the ballpark—not baseball caps, mind you, but red and black jester's hats with bells at the tips—and when 50,000 fans don the rally cap to end all rally caps, well, obviously a rally must occur. A walk. A fielder's choice, one out. A double off the bat of erstwhile circus strongman (and a man who truly needs to grow a handlebar moustache) Patrick Goff. With one out and two on, Bill Flynn comes to the plate. Flynn, the Iowa farmboy who taught himself to hit by swinging at corn kernels with a broomstick, hammers the ball to left-center. It lands eight rows back in the bleachers, and the Royal Court erupts in cheers and a jingle-jangle that can be heard from Newark to Camden.

June 8: Georgia 4, Jacksonville 3. Tommy McCauley's 10th-inning solo home run gives The Georgia Grays an extra-inning victory.

June 9: Georgia 5, San Diego 4. Steve O'Donnell's 14th-inning solo home run gives The Georgia Grays an extra-inning victory.

Carlos Martínez

June 10: Cabo San Lucas 11, Montreal 7. In the league that bears the name of a catcher, the Thurmon Munson League, Carlos Martínez reigns as the top backstop. Tonight, he wastes no time showing why he deserves that title. In the first, Martínez slugs a three-run homer. In the second, Kieran Simmons and Martínez hit home runs on back-to-back pitches. The Toreros grab the early lead and never relinquish it. Meanwhile, Montreal cannot get Martínez out: in his last four at-bats he singles and draws three walks.

June 10: San Francisco 12, So Cal 2. Apparently, 10-run innings are all the rage these days. In the top of the first inning, the Quakes send 15 men to the plate and score 10 runs. The inning proceeds: walk, single, steal of third, walk, grand slam (courtesy of Valentín Cabrera), double, walk, double (scoring one), pitching change, single (scoring one), double (scoring two), sac fly (first out), double, strike out (second out), single (Cabrera again, scoring one), pitching change, single, fielder's choice.

Maurice Gould

June 10: Dallas 1, Las Vegas 5. Maurice Gould (8-2) strikes out 10 en route to a complete game victory. He allows only one run (a home run off the bat of Jeffery McDonald). With his eight wins, 98 strikeouts, and 2.28 ERA, nobody can accuse Gould of having a poor season, but, for the first time, cracks have appeared in his game. His May was decidedly mediocre: over one four-game winless stretch, he allowed 15 earned runs in 27 2/3 innings of work (for those scoring at home, that's a 4.88 ERA). For the first time in his career, he is striking out fewer than 10 batters per nine innings. It's a testament to the greatness of Gould that, despite a subpar season, he still ranks, at worst, as one of the two best pitchers in the game (Rich Bussell is having another superb year).

Anthony Lewis

June 11: Seattle 1, Maple 9. Anthony Lewis leads the Marauders to a rout of the Sasquatch. Going 4-for-5 on the day, Lewis hits two home runs (including a three-run blast in the second) and scores three runs. Ray Lester (3-3) pitches seven innings and allows only one run. The veteran Lester came into the game with a 7.04 ERA, but he appeared to have discovered his old form.

June 13: Seattle 9, San Francisco 11. Seattle batters hit four solo home runs, but San Francisco batters smartly save their home runs for when men are aboard. Alek Afendulov (whose name spelled backwards is Voludnefa Kela) hits a three-run homer in the second. In the seventh, with the Quakes trailing, 9-7, pinch-hitter Luis Santos hits a grand slam.

June 13: Minnesota 3, Georgia 4. Jake McGee's 10th-inning single drives in Tommy McCauley to give The Georgia Grays a walk-off extra-inning victory.

June 13: Eureka 1, Dallas 2. Rich Bussell strikes out 12, walks none, and pitches 9 1/3 innings, giving up just one unearned run—and earns himself a no-decision. The Texans win the game in the tenth: Luis García leads off with a triple, and Bodil Larsen singles him in for the walkoff win.

June 13: Jersey 3, Texas 4. The last of Texas's big three batters, now that Juan Ramírez and Chris Collins have been traded, Craig O'Day hits a two-run homer in the third. Unfortunately for the Gunners this season, O'Day has spent as much time on the disabled list as he has off it. The Jesters come back and tie the game: pinch-hitter Jack Johnson hits a two-out single in the ninth inning that scores Patrick Goff. In the bottom of the 10th, a soul-patched, 23-year-old, rookie pinch-hitter named Mike Watkins hits an opposite field home run, giving the Gunners a walkoff win.

June 14: Minnesota 6, Georgia 7. Terry Sterling's 12th-inning double drives in Francisco Alfonso to give The Georgia Grays a walk-off extra-inning victory.

Jason Bolyard

June 16: San Diego 9, Cabo San Lucas 0. The Toreros come into this game with an impressive 24-8 record at home: it's well known that visiting teams often spend too much time drinking margaritas on the beach and not enough time preparing for the game. But Jason Bolyard (5-5) is a hard-nosed, blue collar son of Cleveland, Ohio with no inclination to lounge on the sands. His paradise is pitching a complete game win.

Bolyard not only won, he shutout Cabo's feared offense, holding them to just three hits. Teammate Brian Caldwell staked him to an early lead with a three-run homer, and the Hops never looked back. When asked, after the game, what he planned to do these next two days in Cabo, Bolyard stated that he hoped to find a local construction crew and fit in some relaxing hammering.

June 17: Boston 2, Minnesota 3. Boston takes a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, handing the ball to fearsome closer Brock Maddox. He gives up a double but gets two outs, bringing up Rich Fraser. Maddox quickly gets two strikes, and Minnesota is left one strike away from defeat, but everything changes when Fraser yanks a Maddox fastball to left field. The fly ball just clears the wall, and the Berserkers win on a walk-off home run.

Stu Yarbrough

June 17: So Cal 5, South Carolina 12. Rookie Stu Yarbrough hits his first major-league home run, a three-run blast in the second that travels an estimated 446 feet. Yarbrough (no relation to Glenn Yarbrough, the folk singer who contributed tunes to the animated versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King) is only 21 years old, and Bombers fans hope that the patient young catcher will be slugging home runs for years to come.

Teammate Miguel Torres also makes a big impact. In the seventh with the game still close, 8-5, Torres pinch-hits with the bases loaded. The ball rockets off his bat to deep right field, bouncing off the upper-deck overhang—a grand slam!

Aurelio Ramírez

June 18: Maple 0, Carolina 1. Carolina's Aurelio Ramírez can stand tall today. Of course, Ramírez can always stand tall (the northern California native is a 6'5", 225-pound human redwood) but today he gives one of the best performances of his young career. He shuts out the Marauders for 10 innings, yet, as the fates would have it, he gets a no-decision.

Ramírez and Pat Sellers pitch dueling shutouts. Sellers leaves after eight innings of work, but Ramírez hangs in for 124 pitches, striking out seven, walking none, and allowing just five hits. He lowers his ERA to 2.50 and appears to be headed to his first All-Star game.

The Crush wait until the 12th inning to score the game's one and only run. With the bases loaded, Bo Hall singles to left, driving home Greg Beard.

June 18: Montreal 3, Georgia 4. Andy Miller's 11th-inning double drives in Jimmie Morris to give The Georgia Gray a walk-off extra-inning victory.

Charles Luce

June 18: San Diego 0, Cabo San Lucas 4. Charles Luce (8-1) is hot. Two starts ago, he gave up one run in seven innings. The previous start, he pitched 8 1/3 shutout innings. Today, he pitches eight more shutout innings: he strikes out eight, walks none, and allows five hits. For the record, that makes 20 consecutive shutout innings. Cabo's ace lowers his ERA to 2.33 and wins his eighth game. Emílio Guerrero and John Robertson homer.

José Serrano

June 20: New York 3, Eureka 1. In 2012, New York made José Serrano their first-round pick in the inaugural draft. The 23-year-old had tremendous potential, but he struggled in the majors, going 8-12 with a 5.96 ERA. His 2013 season ended almost before it began: in late April he tore his rotator cuff, and he was told that it would be a year before he pitched again. Serrano vowed that he would pitch within a year, but, at this point, many in the New York media were ready to write off Serrano as a bust—another young arm lost to injury and relegated to stories of what might have been.

But Serrano never doubted himself. Born in Havana, Cuba, Serrano defected in 2010 when playing in a baseball tournament in Acapulco, Mexico for Cuban national team. Having already overcome the challenge of securing his freedom, Serrano knew that he could overcome the challenge posed by his shoulder injury.

As fate would have it, his first game took place in the city where he had gained his freedom. Pitching for the Triple-A Acapulco Bandits on April 10, Serrano lost his start against the St. John Stingrays. But pitching again, and doing so a few weeks before the year anniversary of his injury, was a huge victory. A month later, he returned to the Mafia. He struggled in his first few outings, but on May 27 he pitched 8 1/3 innings of one-run ball, and he's kept on winning since.

Tonight, José Serrano (4-1) wins his third consecutive start, pitching 7 1/3 innings and allowing only one run. He strikes out six, walks none, and lowers his ERA to 3.21. The Mafia already have a solid rotation and a lights-out bullpen: their pitchers have allowed fewer runs than any team in the Clemente League. Add to this mix Serrano, who has the potential to be the best pitcher on the team, and the Mafia suddenly appear very, very scary.

June 20: Georgia 6, Washington 4. James Bush's 12th-inning double drives in Tommy McCauley, and Terry Sterling's single drives in James Bush, together giving The Georgia Grays an extra-inning victory.

Francisco
Morales

June 20: Mile High 9, Ann Arbor 8. Francisco Morales had a poor 2013: while he did hit for the cycle, he batted only .227 and had an on-base percentage below .300. In 2014, the 26-year old is proving to be a solid contributor in 2014. His bat may be average, but he plays a gold-glove third base—one of the weakest positions in the ABL.

Tonight the Venezuelan provides the heroics. Twice. The Barn Owls take a lead, 5-3, into the ninth. Callum Ritchie homers, setting the stage for Morales. With two outs, Morales ties the game with a blast to left-center. In the 10th, the Mustangs take the lead: Ritchie walks with the bases loaded. The Barn Owls answer when Elliott Hawkins triples and then scores on a sac fly. In the 14th, Morales comes to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. He triples off the center-field wall. The Mile High win moves them past Kansas City into sole position of first place.

June 21: Georgia 8, Washington 5. Dan Blankenship's 11th-inning three-run home run gives The Georgia Grays an extra-inning victory.

June 23: Washington 10, Nottinghamshire 9. A slugfest goes into extra innings. Washington takes the early lead, 6-0, but Nottinghamshire comes back. Byron Bryant goes 5-for-6 with a home run, his 20th on the season, and three RBIs. In the top of the ninth, with the Capitalists down, 7-6, Tom Becker comes to the plate. He fouls away pitch after pitch, then hits his 20th home run of the season. The game goes into extra innings. Each team scores in the 11th, and the Capitalists take the lead for good in the 12th when a Joe Leftwich ground out drives in Nate Davis.

June 23: Dallas 4, Montreal 6. Chris Collins hits a two-out, three-run home run in the seventh to lift the Outlaws past the Texans. Eric Ware goes 3-for-4 with a solo home run. Collins may not be able to replace Tom Becker, but he's been gangbusters since arriving from Texas. The ugliest man in baseball is batting .364 with 15 home runs and 62 RBIs.

June 23: So Cal 10, Texas 7. All ten Republic runs come via the longball. Alfredo Yánez goes 4-for-4 and hits a grand slam in the third. Juan Marín hits a three-run home run, also in the third. Ron Hutchins hits a solo home run, and Chance Everett hits a pair of solo home runs.

Byron Bryant

June 25: Washington 3, Nottinghamshire 12. Byron Bryant had a strong rookie year last year. At the age of 20 he hit 25 home runs and posted an .830 OPS. This year, he has raised his game to a new level and emerged as the Outlaws' one true slugging threat.

This afternoon at Trent Bridge, Bryant hits a two-run home run in the fifth, a three-run home run in the sixth, and a two-run single in the seventh—giving him seven RBIs in just three innings. His batting average stands at .341, and today's two home runs give him 23 for the year: that is, with less than half the season completed, Bryant has nearly equalled last season's home run total! He is the only Outlaw to have reached double-digits in home runs. With on-base machines Jim Crawford, Danny Burris, and Leslie Whitney hitting in the 1-2-3 spots, Nottinghamshire is counting on him to drive in runs. So far, so good: his 85 RBIs lead baseball.

June 25: South Carolina 9, Jacksonville 1. A tense pitching duel turns suddenly into a rout. Starters Aaron Nelson and John Ritter (2-6) each allow a single run over the first eight innings, but the Bombers explode for eight runs in the ninth. Ritter allows a leadoff single to Jayson O'Neill, then gets the hook. The rest of the inning proceeds: two-run home run (courtesy of Orlando Bustamante), walk, double, pitching change, double (two runs score), walk, ground out, double (two runs score), double (one run scores), double (O'Neill again, one run scores), pitching change, hit batsman, fielder's choice, and ground out. Final tally: 13 batters, four pitchers, eight runs, seven hits (five of them doubles), two walks, and a hit batsman.

Evan Warner

June 25: So Cal 7, Texas 0. Evan Warner (6-6) struggled in his first three starts since being traded from Georgia to So Cal, but he looked good in his previous start and he looked great tonight. Warner pitches eight shutout innings, striking out seven and walking none. He hits one batter, picks off another, and allows only one one baserunner to reach scoring position.

Salvador Salgado

June 26: Seattle 9, So Cal 5. It's Salvador Salgado's world and we're all just living in it. Seattle trails in the seventh, 4-3, when Salgado singles in Derrick Meadows. The game remains tied until the 12th, when Salgado hits a solo home run to deep center. In the bottom of the 12th, the Sasquatch get the first two batters out, but the Republic's Nick Parks doubles and Ron Hutchins walks. Earl Cook singles to center. Parks scores, but Noel Patton throws out Hutchins at third. In the 13th, Salgado comes up with the bases loaded. He turns on a 2-1 pitch and skies a 437-foot shot to right field—a grand slam!

June 26: Boston 8, Maple 7. The Commissioners' teams battle. The Marauders knock out Boston starter Nathan Wilson (he of the recent no-hitter) in the second inning, and they take a big lead, 7-2, into the eighth. The Cardinals rally. They score six runs on two singles, a double, four walks, and a hit batsman. Alex Austin's double drives home the tying run, while Will Bauer's single scores the leading run.

June 27: Kansas City 2, Mile High 1. Bitter rivals! Pitchers's duel! Extra innings! Tornado ace António Gómez allows one run over eight innings of work, but Mustang ace Manuel Ruíz shuts out the Tornadoes for seven innings, but leaves the game in the eighth after a sac fly ties the game, 1-1. The bullpens hold until the 13th, when Jorge Rivera doubles and Takaaki Hirayama, a ninth-round pick in the 2012 amateur draft, singles him in. It's only Hirayama's second major league RBI, and it moves Kansas City to within one game of the division lead.

June 28: Kansas City 1, Mile High 2. For the second night in a row, the Tornadoes and Mustangs go into extra innings, tied 1-1. This time, it's the Mustangs who emerge victorious. In the 12th, tiny Jeff Wade—Denver's 5'7" singles-hitting machine—singles to right. He moves to second on a walk and then to third on a fielder's choice. Giant Alejandro Pérez—Denver's 42-year-old, 6'4" singles-hitting grandpa—singles to right. Wade comes home, and the crowd goes wild.

June 28: Carolina 11, Texas 10. Eric Williams goes 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs, staking the Gunners to a 10-7 lead. Carolina rallies in the ninth behind a flurry of singles. With two outs, Chris Barrett singles in the tying run. Two batters later, George Gilliam singles in Barrett to take the lead. Crush center-fielder Justin Wallace goes 4-for-4 with a home run, three runs scored, and two RBIs. Texas is in a free fall: they lose their ninth consecutive game.

June 28: Washington 3, New York 16. The Mafia put a hit on the Capitalists, scoring nine runs in the first inning. The inning proceeds: single, triple (scoring one), back-to-back home runs by Jorge Mora (scoring two) and Joe Herman (scoring one), single, triple, pitching change, sac fly (first out), single, walk, walk, double (scoring two), ground out (second out, scoring one), pitching change, fly out. In total: thirteen batters, eight hits, two walks, and one left on base. Rookie Kyle Dyce, in just his 13th major-league game, goes 5-for-6 and three runs scored: all five hits are singles. Herman Campbell goes 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple, and four RBIs.

Ki-Moon Pak

June 28: Ann Arbor 10, Montreal 3. Ki-Moon Pak emerged last year as one of the Clemente League's better second sackers: he batted .293 with 17 home runs while providing solid defense. Listed at 6'0", he might be 5'10", but what Pak lacks in height he makes up for in energy, earning him the nickname "Spitfire." This afternoon, Spitfire hit for the cycle.

In the second, Pak hits a solo home run to the left-center field bleachers. In the fourth, he doubles, then scores on Javier García's home run. In the fifth, he comes to the plate with a man on first, and he triples to left-center. In the seventh, he singles to left, completing the cycle in four at-bats. Teammate Michael Frost, the Barn Owls' über-prospect, contributes two home runs and four RBIs, giving him 23 dingers on the season.

June 29: Seattle 4, So Cal 5. The Sasquatch take a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but the Republic rise to the occasion. Rich Sweet hits a solo home run. With two outs, Juan Marín hits a solo home run, tying the game. Ron Hutchins doubles, and it's left to the nine-hole hitter, Steve Lewis, to ground a single through the right side of the infield. Hutchins, running on contact, makes it home easily, and the Republic defeat their division rivals.

June 30: Maple 2, San Francisco 4. Pinch-hitter Stanton Poole hits a two-run home run in the bottom of the tenth. The Quakes win in walkoff fashion, beating their division rivals and finishing June with a 2 1/2 game lead in the Billy Martin Division.

Raymond Moor

June 30: Eureka 0, Cabo San Lucas 8. Charles Luce (10-1) continues his hot streak: he has allowed two earned runs in the last five games. He and reliever Derek Sears combine to shutout the Hornets. The Toreros get help from rookie center-fielder Raymond Moor who hits a two-run homer in the fifth and triples in another run in the seventh.

Moor, 27, was picked up by Cabo in mid-April and signed to a one-year contract. He has had a roundabout road to the majors, as he has been signed and released by three different organizations prior to signing with Cabo. Initially drafted by Kansas City in the 101st round, he posted a 135 OPS+ for their Single-A club in 2012. They released him in the off-season, and not one of the other 23 clubs thought to give him a chance until Mile High signed him in August of 2013. In 51 Double-A at-bats, he posted a 121 OPS+. Nevertheless, the Mustangs released him. Georgia signed him in the off-season, but management changed and the new regime decided that Moor didn't fit with their plans: thus Moor was released less than a month after being signed. Cabo took a flyer on him, signing him on April 15. In 142 at-bats this season, he is hitting .289 with seven home runs and 24 RBIs. He may not be a star, but it sure looks as if Moor is in the big leagues to stay.

June 30: Kansas City 4, Georgia 5. Tommy McCauley's 11th-inning single drives in Jake McGee to give The Georgia Grays a walk-off extra-inning victory. Georgia won 13 games in June. Of those, eight were won in extra-innings.