From The Bleachers

Paints Hang On In Short Road Trip

2010-06-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Butler 5

Finding a way to win is what it really comes down to when you play baseball and it doesn't matter how you get that win. While the bottom of the ninth inning in this game was less than desired, the Chillicothe Paints did come through and they did leave Pullman Park with a win. Down 6-2 going into the ninth inning, the Butler Blue Sox decided not to go away so easily, and with a few hits here and there, they scratched and clawed their way back into this ballgame, but all they had to work with was the last batter, or the 27th out, and that was more than enough time for the Paints to close the window, so to speak.

I have to comment once again on the setup of Pullman Park just like I did last year, and I have to say that Pullman Park sounds like such an interesting place to play in. I do believe it's a shame that they basically tore up the old version of Pullman Park, the same place where Yankee greats had played for their minor league stints, but overall, I wouldn't bash the new version at all though. I believe it's a great place to see a game. I love the quirky ballpark dimensions of the place because quirky dimensions such as what Butler has gives that ballpark some sort of character, which is something that I believe is being lost in today's new "state of the art" (really?) ballparks of MLB.

Anyway, let's talk about this game. For the Chillicothe offense, second baseman Torsten Boss had a single and a double. Right fielder Jeff Holm had two doubles and an RBI. Catcher Payton Bieker, hailing from the University of Purdue, had a triple. DH Ryan McMillin got an RBI off a groundout. Left fielder Brandon White had a double. Centerfielder Cody Elliott had a single, an RBI triple and a stolen base. Shortstop Grant Goodwin had two singles and an RBI.

Average Runs Per Game: 6.25

Once again, the Paints did a great job of scoring runs. The offense looks to be a cohesive unit as time goes by in this season. We'll have to wait and see what will happen to this offense when critical stretches arise, but so far you have to like what you hear from these road games. It's also comforting to know that the offense will put up enough runs on the board which will set up your pitching and defense to seal the deal. Good job, guys.

For the pitching, Blake Mascarello made the start for the Paints. He would pitch six innings of baseball and he would give up 6 hits, a walk and two runs. He would strike out two batters. Newcomer to the Paints club was F. FJ Lucchetti, and I apologize for not catching his full name even though I was listening closely to the internet radio broadcast, and Lucchetti did a pretty good job overall. He was solid in 2 and 2/3 innings of work, but he did hit major bumps in the road towards the end of his relief outing. He gave up 5 hits and a walk. He gave up 3 runs total off a hit from Ryan Lindquist, who would eventually end it for the Paints. Lucchetti did strike out two batters and he did perform well early on, and this was his first appearance, so it will only take time for Lucchetti to improve and get the wheels going, so to speak.

This was another nice win for the Paints, although it was too close for comfort at the end. The Paints return home for a game against the Slippery Rock Sliders.

Another Nice Game Played

2010-06-06T18:44:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Nashville 2

I want to apologize for another blunder that I have made early on this season. The name of the starting third baseman for the Chillicothe Paints as of now is not Jeff Corfman, but rather Joe Korfman. The funny thing is that he's listed as Jeff Corfman in the scorecard and I went off of the scorecard even though announcer John Wend clearly called out the name Joe Corfman. I was a bit perplexed trying to figure out which name was the real one, or if Joe was actually using Jeff as some sort of alias. Oh well. We all swing and miss at some point!

Speaking of Joe Corfman, the starting third baseman got in a single to lead off the second inning in this ballgame. For the offense overall, the Paints did yet another great job of getting the hits in when they needed to come in, Second baseman Torsten Boss had quite an interesting game as he would have two RBI singles and two stolen bases. Torsten really showed off the great speed that he had in this game and it was a pleasant surprise. Centerfielder Cody Elliott had an infield single. Right fielder Jeff Holm had a double and a stolen base. Designated hitter Anthony Wieber had a single. Shortstop Ryan McMillin continued to impress as he would have another solid game. He had an infield single, an RBI double and then capped it off with another single.

The Chillicothe Paints got to do this against one of the newest teams in the Prospect League, the Nashville Outlaws, and yes, I'm talking about Nashville, Tennessee. The Paints did get some help to drive some runs in because of the fact that the Outlaws were being a little bit sloppy on defense. The Outlaws had eight hits and eight errors in this ballgame, so that probably reveals just what went wrong for Nashville here. They had as many hits as they did in the error department. In spite of that, the Outlaws did lead once in this game, but that was a very early 1-0 lead in the first few innings. The later parts of the game were where the Outlaws started to come undone.

For the pitching, starting pitcher Ryan Robertson had a good outing for the Paints as he would go on to pitch six full innings of baseball, giving up eight hits and two runs, but he didn't walk any batters and when you think about it, giving up just two runs when you give up eight hits isn't bad at all. Robertson would strike out three batters. The Chillicothe bullpen did pick Robertson up very well as reliever Jared Messer pitched 1 and 2/3 innings, giving up three walks and plunking a batter, but he struck out a batter and didn't give up a single hit, and of course not a single run. Keenan White went the rest of the way for the Paints, pitching 1 and 1/3 innings and giving up only a walk. He struck out a batter to cap off the pitching side of things.

Average Runs Per Game: 6.5

I have no idea why I want to keep track of this certain stat, but it seems to me that it's an interesting enough stat to keep an eye on when I consider that the Paints are hitting the ball as well as they have. They have done a really good job and they are looking impressive, but nonetheless, don't look too far ahead. 4 games doesn't make a season. Averaging 6 and 1/2 runs a game is a great start, but just be careful. One Paints fan told me that this could be a reminder of the 2006 go-around for the Paints organization when the team won their first 10 games even though they were going through some issues such as the injury bug. We'll just have to wait and see if this season is like that season.

Paints Rally To Win Third Straight

2010-06-05T19:12:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 7, Richmond 3

The Chillicothe Paints won their third consecutive game to start off the 2010 baseball season the right way so far, and although it is still very early in the season, you do have to be impressed by how well this team has played. It's very surprising but it's pleasantly surprising. Going into the start of this season, I clearly had no idea what to expect from this new batch of players, but I have been very impressed so far. Paints field manager Brian Mannino has these young men playing tough and playing well, and for this game in particular, the Paints had to come back from behind to win.

Through just three games in this year, the Paints have averaged 7 runs per game, and that's an interesting stat to keep track of already. The Paints on offense have done a tremendous job and it seems as though things will keep going as they have been going because in this game, the Paints have been using their muscle to try to drive the ball clear out of the ballpark, and needless to say, the Paints used their muscle at Don McBride Stadium, the home of their natural baseball rivals Richmond. Oh, and before I forget and talk about the stats of the Paints players, I have to say that I usually get thrown off track when it comes to the team name of the Richmond team. I should remember to call them the River Rats and not the Riverrats or any other variant of the name because River Rats just looks better when read. Chalk that one up as a "my bad."

Starting pitcher Andrew Richardson only pitched three innings for this game, and there was a legit reason for that. Andrew was having an off night as he gave up three runs to the hometown River Rats. He would give up five hits and two walks, but he would record a couple of strikeouts. Kyle Schepel and the rest of the Paints' bullpen arms did a really great job giving Richardson some help as Schepel would pitch three innings of relief. Schepel wouldn't give up any runs at all and he would go on to strike out two batters, giving up just one walk and one hit. For the rest of the way, the Paints bullpen basically shut down the River Rats after Richmond got out to an early 3-2 lead, and therefore the bullpen let the offense get back in it....

...and get back in it the offense did.

For the offense, second baseman Torsten Boss had an RBI single. Centerfielder Cody Elliott had a single. First baseman Ian Nielson had three hits, and two of those hits were homerun shots. Nielson went deep twice for two solo homeruns. Right fielder Jeff Holm went deep for a two-run homerun shot back in the first inning. Left fielder Anthony Wieber had a single. Catcher Payton Bieker had an infield single. Designated hitter Brandon White had a hit and run single. Shortstop Grant Goodwin, a player from Division III Wittenburg University, joined the Paints earlier in the day and he did make an impact on his first day as a Paint. He successfully pulled off a suicide squeeze that scored a runner in the sixth inning.

Overall, this was yet another good game played by the Paints, and this is a good wave of momentum to have. It never hurts to generate early momentum in the season, so let's hope that this keeps going for a little bit longer. I am currently enjoying what I'm hearing from the radio broadcasts. It has been a treat to listen to the Paints play hard against their opponents.

Paints Hang On To Win

2010-06-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Lorain County 3

The Chillicothe Paints returned to the home ballpark of their Ohio rivals the North Coast Knights...scratch that, the team in Lorain have changed their team name to the Lorain County Ironmen, and that team name wasn't just thought up on the fly, but more on that later. The Paints returned to the Pipe Yard and they played a solid baseball game against the Ironmen. The Paints did win, but towards the end it got a bit tight. I guess there's nothing like getting used to your surroundings as a Summer Collegiate baseball player. It's only the second game of the season and the only hiccup worth mentioning was the bullpen.

Eric Heckaman made the start for the Paints, and being only one of three returning Paints from last season, Heckaman has a better grasp of what to do in a Summer Collegiate league. He did a pretty good job in this game as he would go on to pitch six innings of baseball, giving up six hits, a walk and two runs for the night. Eric didn't record a strikeout but he didn't need to while he was in there. Ryan Robertson from Rio Grande University pitched an inning of relief and he did record two strikeouts. Jared Messer from Malone University pitched an inning of baseball and he had the most trouble of all the pitchers for the Paints, but he did enough to keep the Ironmen down. He gave up three hits, a walk and one run, but the Paints had one spare run in their pocket so Messer was okay, striking out a batter in the process. Keenan White pitched the ninth inning and shut down the Ironmen, striking out a batter.

Now for the offense, centerfielder Cody Elliott had a good night, getting two singles while one RBI and one stolen base tagged along with his stats. First baseman Ian Nielson also had a good night, and he only needed one hit to make his statement. He went deep for a 3-run homerun in the third inning that gave the Paints what they needed to win this game. Right fielder Jeff Holm had an RBI single. Third baseman Jeff Corfman had two singles. Catcher Brandon White, another one of the returning three Paints players from last year, had two singles and an RBI. Shortstop Ryan McMillin had a single. A few runs that were scored in this game were unearned, so that will explain why you won't find some RBI's in this review.

One thing I do have to note about the season that's going to unfold would be the odd number of teams once again. As I've mentioned before months ago, the Prospect League now has 15 teams, a number that's up from 11 last year. An odd number of teams means an oddly formed schedule, so there will be times where your team will be away for some time and then all of sudden they'll come back home and play at home for some time, and then there will be times where numerous one-game and two game sets will pop up, making the overall grind of the season pretty interesting, in my oopinion. Odd schedules aren't a bad thing at all, and in fact, I quietly like odd schedules, but it would be helpful to have an even number of teams in the future.

The Start of a New Season

2010-06-03T19:24:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 8, Richmond 2

Now I may be a bit rusty when it comes to writing articles such as this one because I have been busy with other things during the offseason and there has been some new developments since I last reported news on this blog. I hope that for those who still want some baseball news from this blog will be reading this latest installment. It gives me such good pleasure to write these articles for your enjoyment.

Now without further a do, let's get this article up and running. Welcome to the 2010 baseball season for the Chillicothe Paints of the Prospect League. This will be the second year in the Prospect League for the Paints, and to recap what happened for last year, the Paints made it to the Prospect League Championship Series but only to lose to the eventual PL Champions, and a very classy and respected baseball organization as a whole, the Quincy Gems. However, everything went pretty smooth for baseball in Chillicothe in year one of the Prospect League. That leads one to wonder how well will the Paints do in year two of the Prospect League era.

June 3, 2010 marked the beginning of the second year and it didn't take long at all for the Paints to make some noise and to give their community something to cheer for. Opening Night at the friendly FieldTurf confines of V.A. Memorial Stadium was a blast to put it in a nutshell. Infielder Torsten Boss, a newcomer to Ross County, went deep on the very third pitch of the game (and I somehow kept track of that fact even though I'm not very good at catching those details), and Torsten's solo homerun shot pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night, and that tone was definitely a positive tone.

Before I forget, I do have to note that the Chillicothe Paints organization, led by team owner Chris Hanners of course, have given V.A. Memorial Stadium some improvements such as a brand new roof for the stadium. For those of you who have been to the V.A., you probably know why we needed a new roof to be installed. The thing was that the old roof was starting to fall apart for the diehard Paints fans. The old roof has been leaking water for some time now whenever there has been heavy rainfall, and take it from me, who has been sitting near the most direct spot of the leaking, I believe a new roof was definitely needed. The old roof didn't make it feel like Niagra Falls, but sometimes outsiders could have gotten that impression. I love the new roof. It's very sturdy and strong. It's just what the doctor ordered. Oh wait...

As for the game itself, the tone had been set already within the first three pitches, and the hometown team didn't look back after that first solo homerun shot. Infielder Ian Nielson had a single for the night. Infielder Jeff Holm had a single and a stolen base. Outfielder Anthony Wieber and an infield RBI single. Catcher Payton Bieker had a great game. He hustled his way to third base for an RBI triple and he would also get an infield single. Returning outfielder Brandon White had an RBI single. The largest amount of what I guess I would like to call "Bat Thunder" would be made from shortstop Ryan McMillan. In the bottom of the sixth inning, McMillin would hit a well hit ball over to the scoreboard in left center field, clearing the official yellow line for a 3-run homerun, and it was this homerun shot that further separated the Paints from their opponents the Richmond Riverrats and cemented the victory for the Paints.

Of course, while you do need runs from your offense to get you the win, you also need a solid contribution from the guy who's on the bump pitching for you, and for the Chillicothe Paints on Opening Night, they got a solid contribution from the youngster from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Matt Barnes. Barnes, who is also a newcomer to Ross County, pitched a dandy of a game to start his Paints stint. He went six innings deep in his start and he would only give up one run while also giving up just three hits and three walks. Barnes had four impressive looking strikeouts in this first start.

Returning pitcher Blake Mascarello pitched two innings of relief and he would give up just one run off of four hits. He struck out a batter and he did a good job of basically holding down the opposing offense, and that's all you could ask froma relief pitcher in a situation like this. The game is well in hand, so there are no worries. If only I had that one word from the movie The Lion King to help me describe the feel of this game. I believe the character Timone said something that meant "there ain't no worries for the rest of your days."

Kyle Lindquist came in for the ninth inning and shut the Riverrats down, making quick work of the Richmond bats and sending the Paints fans home happy. I have to say that I was more than impressed with the results of this first game, and note that I said "results" and not "result." We got a good win, but I'm looking at what our players did to get us that first win. They played very well in this game and hopefully this game will help set the tone for what is to come for the rest of the Prospect League season.

Returning to the field of play

2010-01-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

This is Steven Vitte reporting, and I would like to announce that I will be coming back to give you reports from the Prospect League, an up and coming summer collegiate baseball league, for the 2010 baseball season. I admit that it's been some time since I've last reported on anything baseball related, but rest assured, there has been stuff to talk about, and I believe it's time to report again. Now I enjoy doing what I do. I do enjoy writing articles, but I have found a new passion in the field of writing, such as scriptwriting and making stories, so it's been rather interesting to see how I've progressed as a writer in general.

Now as mentioned previously last year, I had often wondered what the Prospect League would do when it came to the first round of expansion for 2010. In 2009, there were 11 teams playing in the league, which was an odd number, and that led to an interesting looking schedule where one team would sit out for a day or a few days while the other 10 teams would play. Having an even number of teams would seem to be essential and prefered, but after this round of expansion in the offseason, it turns out that the league still has an odd number amount of teams, at least for the moment.

The Prospect League has added four more teams to make the league grow from 11 to 15 teams. The West Virginia Miners, the Terre Haute Rex, the Dekalb County Liners, and the just recently added Nashville Outlaws are the four newest teams to the Prospect League. Since it's now a 15 team league, the Prospect League has expanded from two divisions to three divisions of 5 teams each. The Eastern Division will consist of the Chillicothe Paints, the Butler Blue Sox, the NoirthCoast Knights (but they have been labeled as Lorain, so stay tuned...), the Slippery Rock Sliders, and the West Virginia Miners. The Central Division will consist of the Danville Dans, the Dubois County Bombers, the Nashville Outlaws, the Richmond RiverRats and the Terre Haute Rex. The Western Division will consist of the Dekalb County Liners, the Dupage Dragons, the Hannibal Cavemen, the Springfield Sliders, and the defending Prospect League Champions Quincy Gems.

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20100122/SPORTS/1220326/1006/rss02

Here's the Chillicothe Gazette story on the Nashville Outlaws joining the Prospect League, and I have to say that this was an addition that clearly came from left field, but then again, I probably shouldn't say that since the home of the Nashville Outlaws has a huge wall out in left field. The Outlaws will play their home games at Hawkins field, and that's located in the Nashville that you're thinking of. Nashville, Tennessee is in the Prospect League. That's what makes this addition rather interesting because I personally wasn't expecting to hear of this news. I wasn't thinking of Tennessee when I thought of the Prospect League's map, but this just so happens to be a confident summer college wooden bat league that's willing to take on teams from some ways for one season, and then supposedly bridge the gap later on.

Here's what league president, and close friend, Bryan Wickline had to say about the Outlaws:

"Nashville had everything the league was looking for when discussing expansion. Nashville has a rich baseball history, a terrific venue in Hawkins Field and experienced ownership to make the Nashville Outlaws a successful franchise in the Prospect League."

The Outlaws are owned by a group of three executives in Brandon Vonderharr, Jason Bennett and Chris Snyder, and they make up the Nashville Baseball Club LLC.

The addition of the Nashville Outlaws really catches my eye because this could signal some other additions in the future that involve either the state of Tennessee or nearby states, such as Kentucky, more exploring in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. I have often wondered if Michigan and Wisconsin will join the Prospect League party eventually, but that remains to be seen because there haven't been any reports of possible teams setting up shop in those places. I remember going down to Tennessee for a bus trip, and believe me, I can't wait to tell you how that trip went. It was great. That was the thing that really stood out to me this past offseason. I went down to Jackson, Tennessee, the home of the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, to see an old friend. Tennessee is a great baseball state, in my opinion, and I have read some stories about the past of baseball in Tennessee, so when I find the time, I'll be sure to tell you a story or two about that.

As for the other three additions to the Prospect League, I believe that these are very sound and logical additions. I have always wanted to see my hometown team, the Chillicothe Paints, take on a team from the state of West Virginia, but we haven't been able to do that at all, but that will change this year as the West Virginia Miners will come to town often. The Dekalb County Liners are an interesting case. I'm interested in knowing how they came up with the name "Liners" for the team, so I'm hoping I'll get to find out sooner rather than later. I have read some stories about Terre Haute, Indiana wanting to be in the Frontier League if that could be done, but apparently with the addition of a Prospect League team, that doesn't seem so likely anymore.

Certainly, the look of the Prospect League has changed quite a bit in just one offseason, and this adds some intrigue as to what will develop from here. Once there's something else to report on the Paints or on the Prospect League, then I will do just that, like always.

Frontier League changes player rules

2009-11-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

Starting next season, a team can have three veterans and three two-year players, an addition of one two-year player.

In another, likely very popular, move, a club can have one player older than 27 (up to age 30) if that player has been under contract with the team for at least 100 games in the previous two seasons.

New Manager

2009-10-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Here is a link to a story about Fran Riordan being hired by the Lake County Fielders in the Northern League.
http://www.northernleague.com/cgi-bin/dist/news.cgi?id=1255382572

Does anyone think that this could mean the move of Kalamazoo to the Prospect League? Thus leading Fran to move on to the Northern League. Just a question?

A night of milestones

2009-08-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Last night we attended the Washington at Windy City game. Washington's Chris Sidick tied Fran Riordan's career record for games played, which he will break tonight. Later in the game, Windy City's Gil Mejia stole his 100th career base, becoming only the third player in Frontier League history to reach that mark.

It Was Close...

2009-08-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Quincy 4, Chillicothe 2 (Quincy leads PLCS 1-0)

Say what you will about the ninth inning doing the team in, and by all intents and purposes, the error to start the top of the ninth might have done it, but overall, this was a competitive game played by both the Quincy Gems and the Chillicothe Paints. This was definitely how I expected the game to be. I pretty much knew going into this game that Quincy weren't no pushovers to begin with. After all, the Gems are the best team in the Prospect League win-loss record wise, so it's no surprise to see the consistency coming from this team. Even during their brief practice right before this game started, I could tell that they were very much in sync with what they were doing. Simply put, they were focused.

Going into the Prospect League Championship Series, the Paints had to make decisions as to who to give the ball to for this Game 1 start. They chose A.J. Achter to carry the load for this first game. Achter, to his credit, did everything he could to make this start count. I do openly admit that Achter was a bit shaky in the first three innings of this ballgame, as I noticed that he was dancing around the strike zone, but not technically hitting his spots. However, from what I saw from that point on, Achter was pitching brilliantly down the stretch of his start. As he got deeper into his start, the more he just found his rythym, and at the time, this was a huge thing for the Paints.

Achter would pitch an amazing 8 innings deep in his start, and he would give up two earned runs in all on 6 hits allowed and one walk to boot, but he would come back and record 5 strikeouts. Towards the end of his start, Achter was really feeling it. He knew exactly where the strike zone was, and he wasn't holding anything back, mowing down Quincy's offense with surprising ease.

You know, it's amazing just how much I can get my hopes up whenever I go see a playoff game involving the Paints. You always hope that one year will be the year for the Paints, that they'll finally raise a championship flag over V.A. Memorial Stadium, and granted that can still happen if they manage to win both of these road games on Quincy's turf, but as I watch on to see Paints playoff games progress, there's always one thing that will set us back and flatten our tires, so to speak.

Blake Mascarello took the mound for the ninth inning, and at first, he wasn't all that bad. Seriously, he was doing a fine job until that error third baseman Zach Leonard made to open the door for the Gems in the top of the ninth. It was from here that Mascarello started to come undone. He would give up a walk and two hits, and he would give up two more runs to the Gems. The tie was eventually broken by the precision and the execution by the Gems.

For the offense, Ben Allen had an RBI single. Kyle Gendron had a single. Right fielder Eian Banks had such a great game here, and if you just look at the stats, then you'll be convinced that he did a great job. Eian went deep to left center field, blasting a solo homerun shot that hit the V.A.'s scoreboard in the second inning, and then would add onto his great night by getting two doubles. You could say that Banks provided most of the heavy lifting for the offense. Catcher Andrew Mashall had a single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had two singles. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a triple.

I know what the end result of this game is. The Quincy Gems defeated the Chillicothe Paints in Game 1, and they take a commanding 1-0 lead in this best-of-three series, putting the pressure onto the Paints, who now have to win the Prospect League championship by going on the road and beating the Gems at QU Stadium. I know this will be hard to do. It's definitely alot to ask for, but throughout this year, this team has been through alot, and this organization has been through so much more these past few years. I believe it wouldn't surprise me if we make this interesting later this week. There's still a chance, folks, and there's every reason to still believe that we can do it. Stay tuned on the radio.

Don't Worry Be Happy

2009-08-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Rihchmond 7, Chillicothe 2

I figured that the title was appropiate for this article, because all is well with the Chillicothe Paints, as far as I'm concerned. This last regular season game against the Richmond River Rats would have been a great game to win because after all, Chillicothe and Richmond are still pretty much rivals when it comes to baseball, but there's nothing to worry about when you look at this score. You can consider this as a game that the Paints just took it easy. If anything, the team is just getting tuned up for a series that's extra important coming up next week.

While this game didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, since the Paints will be the Prospect League Championship Series starting Monday night, it's okay to note that the Paints weren't nearly as focused on this game as they were in other games. Rex Ingham made the start for the Paints in this game, and I should note that he was experimenting with his pitching approach here. He would give up 6 runs on 7 hits allowed. Rex was a bit wild here, throwing a few wild pitches and beaning a couple batters along the way, but still, take note that this was just a "Take It Easy" game for him and the other players. Ingham struck out two batters.

Mark Williams would put in two innings of work coming from the bullpen. He gave up three hits and a run while walking a batter and striking out a batter. Crist Linster would only give up a walk in his one inning of work. The funny thing about Linster is that, well, he's been experimenting with his approach on the mound, but out of concern that the other team might read this report, I'll just leave it as simple as that. Linster's been experimenting, but I won't say exactly what he's doing.

For the offense, the lineup didn't feature Ben Allen, Andy Brouse, and Andrew Marshall. All three of these guys had an off night, as in they rested. Second baseman Tim krofcheck, batting leadoff, had a single. DH Eian Banks went deep for a two-run homerun in the fourth inning. Right fielder Zach Frentsos had two singles. Left fielder Brandon White had a single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single.

I believe it's understandable why the Paints would play how they played this game. Some players need rest, and they need to get ready for a much more important game coming up against the Quincy Gems on Monday night. The team is getting geared up for the Prospect League Championship Series, and I really don't believe that this is the beginning of bad habits being formed. I just think the Paints were taking the high road for this game and were just playing it safe.

Folks, don't worry. Be happy. The Paints organization will have another shot to raise up a championship flag over V.A. Memorial Stadium, and you can follow the last steps of their quest on Monday night for Game 1 of the PLCS against the Quincy Gems, and from there on, we'll find out what happens.

See you at the ballpark.

A Memorable Night

2009-08-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

North Coast 2, Chillicothe 1

For the record, it's unfortunate that the Chillicothe Paints lost to the North Coast Knights by a score of 2-1 on the last regular season home game, but in spite of that, this night was simply a memorable one. The events that played out during teh course of the game were just grand and smooth, nothing bittersweet whatsoever. V.A. Memorial Stadium was packed with fans who were happy and content with the fact that their hometown team officially qualified for the Prospect League Championship Series, beginning next week on Monday. The atmosphere was electric and fun. Even though there was a loss on the scoreboard, the night itself was a big win.

I'm not in the mood to act jumpy at all because I feel happy with the way our team is progressing night in and night out. There are no worries coming from this amateur article writer. If I could ever figure out what word defined the meaning "no worries" from the Disney movie "The Lion King", then I would have it out for you, the reader, but I forgot about that word. Sorry.

Anyway, aside from the extra fluff that I occasionally add into my reports, let's get to the game. Blake Mascarello took the mound for the start. He would pitch 6 innings deep in this game, giving up 5 hits and a walk, resulting in an earned run. He would come back to strike out four batters. I believe Blake did a good job and he gave it a solid effort. There's not more that you can ask from a starting pitcher when he's pitching very late into the regular season aside from just tuning up his arsenal for the postseason.

Tony Davey would put in one inning of work coming from the bullpen in this game, and he would only give up a hit. He struck out a batter to get out of the seventh inning, and he didn't give up any runs. Davey, in my opinion, looked pretty solid out there even though he may have shaky at some parts. Davey made fairly quick work of the Knights when he was on the mound. This was a good job done by him overall.

Chadd Steinborn pitched the last two innings of the ballgame, and he would give up two hits and eventually the winning run to the Knights, but I have to point out that those things are just going to happen. Tip your cap to the North Coast Knights, because they brung it to the Paints in this game even though there was nothing to play for from their perspective aside from team pride, which always matters. Steniborn would strike out three batters in his relief appearance.

For the offense, shortstop Ben Allen had a single and a stolen base. First baseman Kyle Gendron had a bunt single. Third baseman Zach Leonard had a bunt single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had an RBI single in the third inning. Right fielder Brandon White had a single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. I do have to point out some blunders the Paints made, such as a bases loaded double play that Andy Brouse grounded into in the seventh inning that prevented a run from scoring, and one baserunning blunder by Brandon White in the fourth as he was trying to get back to first base.

However, let's note the absolutely solid defensive effort put out by second baseman Tim Krofcheck. All game long, Tim was simply all over the place. He was diving, hustling to the groundballs hit to him, picking up balls on tough bounces, the whole deal. He turned two incredible double plays that simply dazzled me, and I'm sure many other Paints fans were dazzled as well.

On a soft note, I want to say that a close friend of mine, named Rick, and myself went out to throw out the ceremonial first pitches of the game, and it was amazing to be out there once more. Last year, I was feeling the sting of the fact that the Frontier League Paints were leaving Chillicothe for good, and my first pitch at the end of 2008 sailed past its target and hit the net. This year, at the end of 2009, I was much more poised to properly throw out the first pitch, and from the mound, I threw a decent curveball at Rex Ingham, as it took one bounce to get to him. Rick was thrilled that he got to throw out the first pitch because through 17 years, he had never done it before, so this was a special first for my good buddy.

Smooth Sailing at Pullman

2009-08-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 11, Butler 1

We're still at the home stretch of the regular season. We're still at the nitty gritty of it all, and these games at the end of the season are still important, and this game was no different. The Butler Blue Sox didn't appear to show up for this game as they didn't put in any dents against the Paints. This game was so very well played by the Paints, and the timing for a performance like this was great. This was what the team needed going into the last two games of the regular season.

Tony Bertucci had not made a start in about 12 days, so he had something to prove here when it came to shaking off the rust. Bertucci had a very good start here, giving up no runs at all in 6 innings pitched. He would give up 6 hits and a pair of walks, but he would come back and strike out two guys along the way. Bertucci pitched really well considering the situation with Butler's pitching mound acting up lately. What I mean by that is Pullman Park's pitching mound hasn't had strong rubber for the pitchers to throw off of. A block of wood was put in to soften the blow, so to speak. This isn't a huge issue, at least not for Bertucci, who managed the game quite well.

Crist Linster pitched one inning of relief. He wouldn't give up any hits, but he would plunk two batters and an error by the infield would cause him to give up a run. That run was the only run the Blue Sox would score in this game. Linster recorded a K for good measure. Brad Schnitzer would once again seal the deal for the Paints from the mound, as he pitched two innings of relief, and he gave up just two hits while recording a strikeout.

For the offense, shortstop Ben Allen had two singles. Third baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. Zach Leonard got an RBI off a bases loaded walk. Zach Frentsos had a pinch hit RBI single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a single and an RBI. Brandon White got an RBI off a bases loaded walk. Right fielder Eian Banks had an infield single. First baseman Cory maguire had a single and 3 RBI's. He broke the game early on in the first inning to give the Paints a 2-0 lead at the time.

Catcher Kris McDonough had a 3-RBI double in the fourth inning. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had two singles. Overall, this offensive display was very, very impressive, and the team just didn't stop when they were ahead. Thye casually tacked on some runs just to further their lead. I liked what I saw, and this is definitely a good sign considering the Paints are coming back home to V.A. Memorial Stadium to face the North Coast Knights in what's guaranteed to be a must win game for the Knights. A win by the Paints at home tomorrow will clinch the Eastern Division for the "Southern Ohio Stampede", and it will assure them to face the Western Division winner, most likely the Quincy Gems.

The Long Road To A Win

2009-08-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 7, Butler 3 (12 innings)

Wow. This game was pretty long and just listening to every minute of a game that lasted about four hours would be nerve pinching by all means, but in the end, the Chillicothe Paints still managed to find a way to win a ballgame. I guess that's what happens when you just don't have it easy in the later innings of the game. That's been common for the Paints, to be honest. Many of the games that I've either listened to or watched have involved the Paints being in pressure situations, being in a tight game with teams who have given it their all against them.

This game was fought hard by both teams. The Paints were taking care of business early on, but the Butler Blue Sox were taking care of business later on. This game seemed to have a split personality almost, and I'm not kidding when I assume that. The pace of this game was kind of slow during the regularly scheduled innings, but in the later innings, and then in the long extra innings, the pace of the game picked up a bit, and the intensity kept rising with each passing inning from there on.

Clayton Schulz, way back when, made the start for this game. He would contribute to the team's efforts the best way he could by putting in six innings of work. He would give up 4 walks and 3 hits while recording 7 impressive strikeouts. Schulz was a bit shaky early on, even though he didn't give up a run. He wouldn't give up a run for his start, once again adding to the great season that he's had with the Paints this year, and at the time, things looked good for him to get his seventh win of the year.

The bullpen, on the other hand, had other ideas...

This was the nerve pinching part in this game. It was simply devastating to listen to what happened during the eighth and ninth innings because the Paints were up 3-0 over the Blue Sox at the time, and gradually, the Blue Sox came back and tied the game at 3-3 a piece. Mark Willliams pitched 1 and 1/3 innings, giving up two walks and a hit, while giving up two runs. Krist Linster pitched 1/3 of an inning, giving up a hit. Stephen Shackleford gave up a walk, a hit, and a run, pitching 1 and 1/3 innings. Chadd Steinborn pitched an inning, giving up 3 walks. Brad Schnitzer broke the mold of flawed relief performances and sealed the deal, amazingly, for the Paints. He gave up a hit while striking out a batter.

Surprisingly enough, the offense didn't feature one pinch hitter the entire game, so the starters toughed it out the whole way. Shortstop Ben Allen had two singles and an RBI. DH Kyle Gendron had a single. Third baseman Zach Leonard had a single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had two singles and two stolen bases. Catcher Andrew Marshall had two singles and an RBI. Right fielder Eian Banks had two singles and an RBI. First baseman Cory Maguire had an RBI single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a single.

This was just a huge win for the Chillicothe Paints. This was what they team needed, for sure. With this win, the Paints now stand tall at 30-21, 3 games ahead of the North Coast Knights for first place in the Eastern Division, and this win officially eliminates the Butler Blue Sox from appearing the Prospect League Championship Series. The four hour wait for this win was definitely worth it.

Overcoming Slippery Rock

2009-08-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 4, Slippery Rock 3

Going into this game, you pretty much had the feeling that the Slippery Rock Sliders weren't going away quietly at all no matter what the result was of this contest, and let's be honest, on our turf, at V.A. Memorial Stadium, throughout the course of 2009, the Slippery Rock Sliders have been the team that's had our number when it comes to playing them on our own field. Simply put, that trend had to be bucked for just one night, and especially at this time, since we're wrapping up the season and we're getting into a big melee with the North Coast Knights for first place in the Eastern Division, so we couldn't deal with any more headaches from the Sliders.

Let's get to the pitching performance. The ball was given to Tony Davey for this game, and he hung in there against a team that looked sharp hitting the ball against him all night. Davey would pitch 8 innings of "bend but don't break baseball", and ultimately, he kept the Paints hanging around. He did give up a bittersweet looking homerun early on to let the Sliders take a 1-0 lead with a shot that went over the Budweiser sign of the scoreboard, and he would give up three runs on five hits overall, but he would record an impressive six strikeouts to combat the hard charging Slippery Rock offense, and most of all, he kept the Paints in it. He did just enough to keep the engine going, as some people would say. (I think)

Stephen Shackleford was the only other pitcher who took the mound for the Paints, but he pitched the last inning of the ballgame, and boy, that last inning was definitely, and I'm not kidding when I say this, a heart-racing inning, but for good reasons really. Stephen only gave up a hit. That was it. He emphatically shut the door on the Sliders for good here.

Now let's get to the offense, and before I begin, let me just say that these guys battled so much throughout this game. It can really get hard and confusing as to why you face a certain team so much, and yet you can't seem to break through that certain team and score some runs. The Paints have had that problem for some reason against Slippery Rock at home with the lumber, and for most of this game, it felt like more of the same, but late in the game, the Paints did break through the Sliders' pitching puzzle with the lumber.

Shortstop Ben Allen had two singles, a double, and an RBI. Third baseman Zach Loenard had two singles and an RBI. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single, a double, and a stolen base. Catcher Andrew Marshall had an infield single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a bunt single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a stolen base. While the hits weren't many for the Paints, the hits that they did get in came at the most opportune times. The hits came when they were so desperately needed.

Remember when I said earlier this year, and I've probably said this for a few times by now, but let me say it again. It doesn't matter how many hits the team gets. What truly matters is that whatever hits the team does get, those hits have to count. Those hits have to mean something, as in they have to lead to runs, they have to lead to getting runners over to other bases, and they have to be placed in great spots in the outfield where the outfielders can't reach it.

Things are just getting more interesting now. The Paints have two games to play over the next two days, while the North Coast Knights have to double that and play four games in the next two days, meaning the Knights have to play two doubleheaders right after this night. Then after all that, the Paints will have their final regular season home game against the North Coast Knights on Friday night, at 7:05 PM...probably the biggest game the Paints organization may have in awhile.

For First Place

2009-08-03T18:11:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 4, North Coast 0

To tell you just how important this game turned out to be after the events of yesterday, I will say that this game was clearly important for both teams involved. The Chillicothe Paints and the North Coast Knights both entered this game, on the Knights' turf at the Pipe Yard, in a virtual tie for first place in the East Division. Technically, the Knights held the advantage over the Paints when it came to percentage points, but nonetheless, this game still had first place up for grabs.

This was a game that the Paints needed to have. I take that back.

This was a game that the Paints absolutely needed to have. Thankfully for the loyal fans of Ross County, the Paints found a way to win this ballgame. Paints manager Brian Mannino put it the best after last night's game against Butler when he said that they just need to win ballgames. That's all that matters here, folks. The Paints need to win ballgames from here on out, and it doesn't matter how pretty, or how ugly, those wins turn out to be. A win is a win, simply put.

So how did the pitching do here?

The pitching was fantastic. Credit that mostly to the excellent performance of starting pitcher A.J. Achter. Achter stepped up big time in this game, and he would go on to pitch very deep into this game. He pitched seven innings deep, and in that time, he had one of the best rebounding kind of performances that I have personally heard over the radio.

He did get into some trouble, mind you, but in the end, he had his way with the Knights as his defense helped him out for the most part. Achter gave up five hits, two walks, and plunked two batters, but he didn't give up a single run. He struck out four batters to counter the mishaps. He pitched a solid shutout against the hard charging North Coast Knights. How about that?

Blake Mascarello pitched one inning of relief. He plunked a batter and gave up a walk and a hit, but he struck out two batters. This was a solid relief outing for Mascarello. He did what he had to do. Simply put. Krist Linster was the interesting choice for the ninth inning. He went out there for the final inning and sealed the deal. The pitching was just solid in this game for the Paints. This was clearly a game for the pitching to step up, and they did.

For the offense, Ben Allen had three hits. He had two singles, a double, and two RBI's. Kyle Gendron had a single. Eian Banks had an RBI single. Cory Maguire had an infield single and a normal single. Zach Leonard had a double. Tim Krofcheck had an RBI single. The batters were just great when it came to scoring runs, and I really loved how they just made like gangbusters on some plays. This was a great up tempo game for the offense to deploy.

Although, I do have to say that there was a very bittersweet moment in the fifth inning for the offense. The Paints had runners on first and third with no outs, and they just got three straight outs without even trying to attempt a double steal. This really bugged me a great deal because the opportunity was there for the Paints to possibly get a run out of that double steal attempt, since Ben Allen had decent speed on third base, even though Kyle Gendron doesn't have great speed. That's just me, but hey, a win is a win, and it doesn't matter how you get to that win.

The Paints return home for a game against the Slippery Rock Sliders, a team notoriously known for making things hard for the Paints on their home turf. At the V.A., game time will be normal, at 7:05 PM.

It Just Got Away

2009-08-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

Butler 6, Chillicothe 2

This game was very competitive. Both teams showed what they could do, and they tried to execute some interesting plays, but only one team had to prevail here, and unfortuantely for the big Paints fans out there, the Butler BlueSox were that team. This was just a game that got away from the home team late. You'd have to say that this game was evenly played by both teams, and neither team wanted to go away quietly, but Butler got in the extra explosives in the final two innings, giving them the victory.

Even though the Chillicothe Paints lost this game, there's no doubt in my mind that you have to tip your cap to the likes of Rex Ingham, who started this game for the Paints. Rex was very, very impressive in this start considering everything that was going on in this game. Rex was like a bulldog here, because he hung in there to face batters and he actually got them out when time was running thin for him in this game. As far as resiliency goes, Ingham was solid, in my opinion.

Rex Ingham would go 7 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, giving up 8 hits and a total of three runs, which of course isn't good, but still, look at the glass half-full for this one, and he would strike out three batters. The good thing about his start was that he didn't give up any walks to the BlueSox, and he wasn't really wild at all. I was pretty amazed that he stayed in this game for this long because usually our starting pitchers would just get out of there after 6 innings or so, but 7 and 1/3 and trying for 8 innings is something to really take note.

Mark Williams pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up just a hit while striking out a batter. Chadd Steinborn was called in to be the stopper for the ninth inning, but as this story goes, he didn't quite hold the BlueSox in check. He gave up three runs off of four hits allowed. This wasn't the best relief appearance made by Steinborn, and all of the momentum that the Paints had mustered to get to the ninth inning supposedly faded away once the BlueSox broke the game wide open. That's just how it goes in baseball, folks. You'll have good days, and then you'll have not so good days.

For the offense, Ben Allen had a single, a stolen base, and got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Kyle Gendron, playing at first base in this game, had a single. Zach Leonard had a single. Steven Mirizzi had a single. Kris McDonough had a double. Tim Krofcheck had a single and an RBI. What can we take from this offensive performance? Well, I'm not quite sure what happened at certain points because some of the swings felt pretty sudden, and those swings ended up being high fly balls caught for outs. It's interesting in a way because sometimes you just get fooled by certain pitches. It happens to all baseball players, I'm sure.

If you're wondering about what the standings look like in the Prospect League's Eastern Division, then I should let you in on this little tidbit. The North Coast Knights came into this night 1 and 1/2 games behind the Paints for first place, and they played a doubleheader against the Slippery Rock Sliders, and combine this Paints loss to the Knights' doubleheader sweep, then you'll probably have an idea of exactly how tight this race is right now.

Hanging On In Style

2009-07-31T19:08:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 3, Butler 2

This game featured many interesting moments, and forgive me for saying this, but I can't recall some of those interesting moments, but what I can recall would be moments like Paints first baseman Cory Maguire snatching a short fly ball in mid air to save it from going to the outfield. I can also recall the times where the Paints at least tried to turn two (a double play) in probably the hardest ways imaginable. Plus, I do recall the moment towards the end of the game where the Butler BlueSox started to lose it emotionally and two of their guys got tossed from the ballgame by the home plate umpire, with one of them being a good friend of mine, BlueSox manager Jason Wuerfel.

The Paints made things quick and easy early on in the game when it came to the offense. The pitching started off a bit slow but it picked up at the right time. The Paints got in three runs early, and thankfully for the home team, three would be all the runs that they really needed.

Blake Mascarello made the start for the Paints. He took the mound on the friendly confines of V.. Memorial Stadium and would pitch six innings deep, giving up no runs at all off of two hits and a walk allowed. That was basically it by a pitcher who had previously seen alot of action coming from the bullpen this year. Mascarello struck out four batters, and I have to say that he looked pretty solid in each of those four strikeouts. He had a good day and he kept his team in the game, holding onto that 3-0 lead throughout his start.

Mark Williams pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up two hits, a walk, and a run. He struck out a batter. Tony Davey came into the ballgame and pitched an inning of relief, giving up only a hit. Stephen Shackleford would pitch the rest of the game, going 1 and 1/3 innings, and would get the job done for the Paints, getting the save and sealing the victory for the home team. He gave up a hit, a walk, and a run while striking out a batter.

For the offense, they may have cooled down compared to the other night, but they still did a good job of getting those timely hits in. There's nothing that they did really wrong here. They got in those hits, and they made those hits count. They did what they could in playing situational baseball, and I think they made the most of it even with three runs.

DH Kyle Gendron, batting second in the lineup, had an infield single. First baseman Cory Maguire had a single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a single and a double. Right fielder Eian Banks got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Catcher Andrew Marshall had a single. Third baseman Zach Leonard had two singles. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a single and a stolen base.

This was another good game played by the Paints. They seemed to have a better jump to their steps as they were fiedling each ball and they clearly made better use of the situations that they were given. This team is getting back to the early days of the year when they were just hitting left and right. I mean, if you look at what's been happening lately at the V.A., then you would know that they're feeling it when they play now.

The BlueSox gave the Paints their best shot, and kudos to Butler for giving us good games throughout the year. They have been keeping us in check along with Slippery Rock and NorthCoast when it comes to extra important games on the schedule. The Paints are inching their way closer to end of the year, and the chances of seeing one more home game at the V.A. is looking better by the day. Stay tuned, folks. This is going to get interesting soon.

By the way, I won the Best Seat In The House promotion tonight, so that meant that I got to have some Papa Johns pizza as a reward. Obviously, I enjoyed the pizza, and I had three good slices, and I gave the other fives away to other Paints fans who were delighted to have some pizza. Hey, I just couldn't finish it, so I think it was a nice thing to do to be a team player for the loyal fans of the Paints and give out some free pizza.

The Hottest Game On Turf

2009-07-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 11, Butler 3

This was a great game.

That's how I would sum up this ballgame. Everything that the Chillicothe Paints had to do to win this game went right into place. I simply loved how this game played out. You could take in a game like this because the Paints were clicking on all cylinders. Things just worked. When you're getting into a home stretch kind of schedule for the end of a season, things just happen to pick up a bit. The Eastern Division standings are fairly tight, and knowing that they were up against a hard charging Butler BlueSox team, the Paints handled this beautifully.

Let's start with the pitching and get that out of the way. For the Paints, Eric Heckaman made the start, and I have to say this right now. This had to be one of the best, if not, then probably the best, start I've seen from him this year. Heckaman was firing lasers from the mound against Butler here, and he just continued to take the batters down once he got into a groove. It was fun seeing him get to work.

Heckaman would pitch five innings deep in his start, and he would have trouble when it came to the walks. He gave up one run off five walks and a hit, but thankfully, that was all the damage that he gave up, and considering what the offense would do to help him, it was more than enough for Heckaman to have a good night. He would end up striking out five batters, so there's nothing really wrong at all to point out. He was just great. He was just solid. Good job, Eric.

Brad Schnitzer would be the only relief pitcher who would see action for the Paints in this game, so he would pitch the other four innings fo the game, and he had a good time overall. Schnitzer would give up two hits and two runs, but he would strike out two batters, and he did his job. He got the batters out and never let the BlueSox get back into this game.

Now let's get to the really interesting part of this game...the offense.

In the second inning, shortstop Ben Allen went all the way around the bases for an inside the park homerun, getting a ball hit out to the big gap made by Butler's defense out in right center field. I admit it, I was yelling out loud while Ben was rounding third base and heading for home. I just can't help it because those types of plays are just too exciting not to raise your voice about.

DH Kyle Gendron would have a single and a double. First baseman Cory Maguire would have a single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a great night with the bat. He had two singles, a double, and an RBI. Right fielder Eian Banks had an immense night with the bat. He had an RBI single and then he came back in teh fourth inning and he just ripped a pitch for a three-run homerun shot past left field.

Catcher Andrew Marshall, coming back from nagging leg injuries, had two singles and an RBI. Third baseman Zach Leonard had a single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a good night. He had two singles and an RBI. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had an RBI single. This night just took me back to the nights where this was kind of common for Paints baseball. This was a nice trip down memory lane, and I'm aware that I talk about the Frontier League Paints, but hey, this night was just one of those nights. I was thrilled about this game, and with each passing day, there will be a better chance of the Paints actually being there at the end.

Great Hitting at McBride

2009-07-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 9, Richmond 2

The Chillicothe Paints did a much better job of executing their gameplan in Richmond than they did the other night at Lorain. The team was much more aware of what was going on, and while they did still have a bump or two in the road when it comes to defensive plays, and that's to be expected, they did what they had to do to win. Listening to this game through the internet, I felt like I was reminded of the time that the season just started that the Paints were playing like this, and oddly enough, they got off to a great start against these same River Rats.

One thing I want to note before I get into the game would be that the names of these teams can be confusing, to say the least, so you have to bare with me when I mention some team names. I can often assume some things when it comes to those technicalities. I have been so used to calling the Richmond team as the River Rats, with it being two words, because I felt like that made more sense to me. I don't mean any harm by that, it's just that I become amazed at how the teams are actally named. I guess when you play in a league that features two Sliders teams, a team with a similar color scheme, and teams with combined names, then you'd understand why I'd get just a bit confused.

Anyway, as for the game, Clayton Schulz made the start for the Paints, and when he took the mound at McBride Stadium, the mound wasn't very friendly at first because there was trouble when it came to the softness of the mound. It was too soft, meaning that the mound was wet. The Paints have had a history of getting into trouble with the mound at Richmond for whatever reason, but it just happens.

Schulz would pitch six innings deep in his start, giving up four hits and four walks, and overall, he would only give up one run. He struck out three batters, and I have to say that Schulz has continued to be impressive for me because while he hasn't been overly dominant in his starts, and mind you, he's a year younger than me in age, Clayton has been doing such a splendid job whenever he has been given the ball. He's a gamer, and he might be a guy who could be there for the long haul for any affiliated minor league team in the future if he continues to do well over time.

For the offense, the batters did a great job of getting the timely hits in. Like I said before, the Paints were getting in hits, but they weren't getting in the timely hits. They weren't rising to the occasion when it came to situational baseball. In this game, though, the Paints did a great job of getting the runs in, and at the right times.

Kyle Gendron played at shortstop in this game, and he had two singles and an RBI. Left fielder Andy Brouse had two singles and an RBI. Right fielder Eian Banks had a bunt single. Third baseman Zach Leonard had a big 2-RBI double in the third inning. Catcher Kris McDonough, from Ohio University, went deep for a homerun that gave him three RBI's. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a double and an infield single.

This was a much needed win for the Paints because this will help them out in the standings, and don't look now, ladies and gentleman, but the Prospect League is already at their home stretch of the regular season. Looking at the standings, I can pretty much guarantee you, barring a big collapse by them, that the Quincy Gems will indeed represent the Western Division in the Prospect League Championship Series. As for the East, the Paints are still hanging onto the lead, and this upcoming series against the Butler Blue Sox will prove to be the biggest series of the first Prospect League year.

Game time for the Paints and Blue Sox game at V.A. Memorial Stadium will be at 7:05 PM. Be there of be something like a square.

Not In Sync

2009-07-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

NorthCoast 3, Chillicothe 2

It's amazing, isn't it?

I find it amazing that the Chillicothe Paints did many things that just weren't working for them in this game, and yet in spite of all the miscues, the Paints still found themselves with a chance of leaving the Pipe Yard in Lorain, Ohio with a win. Nonetheless, the Paints were just not into this game when it came to overall execution. There was a great lack of execution by the team, and understandably so, the Knights took advantage of the Paints' miscues here. It's just one of these games where the ball just didn't bounce right for the Paints, and I guess that you can always go back to drawing board and fix something else up for the next game.

Officially, it may look like that Paints starting picther Tony Davey gave up two runs, but in reality, Davey could only watch as he saw one bloop hit that never really should've hit the outfield turf. There was a great miscommunication between outfielders Andy Brouse and Zach Frentsos on this bloop single. The confusion allowed the ball to drop in and continue the inning for the Knights, and just like I mentioned, the Knights took full advantage and got in two runs after that miscue. For Davey, he would pitch six innings deep into his start and would give up seven hits along with a walk. On the side of this dish, he was called for a balk. He recorded four strikeouts in this game.

Blake Mascarello was the only other pitcher who saw action for the Paints on the mound. He would pitch the other two innings in relief of Davey and would give up the game-winning run to the Knights in the bottom of the eighth inning, He gave up three walks and two hits. Things just got tough for the pitching here. I can't really explain it well enough because road games have most likely been this way for the Paints. You're just not on your familiar turf, and suddenly, for some reason, you find yourself having to come back in an environment that favors the other team. This organization has been there a whole lot of times, and I can't even count how many.

For the offense, the hits did come for the Paints, but once again, there just weren't enough timely hits for the Paints. There weren't enough hits that counted. Shortstop Ben Allen had a great game considering everything that happened. Allen had four singles. He was so consistent with his approach here. Ever since he's been put into the top of the batting order, Ben has made some noise as a leadoff hitter, and it's surprising for some because keep in mind that Ben Allen had started the season batting as low as ninth in the order, so he's come a long way.

Third baseman Zach Leonard had two singles. Left fielder Andy Brouse had three singles. First baseman Cory Maguire had a 2-RBI single. Right fielder Eian Banks had a double. Catcher Brandon White had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a single. Don't get me wrong, I know that the Paints have been hitting many balls past the infield, and they have been getting guys on, but the main problem here is that they have been unable to get those guys in. That has been a reoccuring problem for some time now, off and on. There's a thing to be said about consistancy, but the Paints didn't have that here, unfortunately.

We had an off night, but we played a very tough team that plays just upstate in Northern Ohio. This was the same team that were going after us in the standings not too long ago, as they challenged us for the top spot in the Eastern Division back at the V.A. I don't look past the NorthCoast Knights at all because they're much like the Slippery Rock Sliders, a team that can put the hurt on us whenever they can. We just have to be prepared to step up and stand up to these guys because they are taking it to us, giving us their best shot, and well, the Knights do have my attention right now.

Paints win again at The Jack

2009-07-27T18:23:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 5, Slippery Rock 2

It's amazing, isn't it?

What I find amazing is that the Chillicothe Paints and the Slippery Rock Sliders have pretty much matched each other when it comes to their games against each other, especially when they happen to be the road teams. I don't think I've seen anything quite like this, with the road teams being the more dominant team whenever two certain teams play against each other. More often than not, the road team has left the field victorious, and that really sums up what's been going on between the Paints and the Sliders. Once again in this game, with the Paints on the road at Slippery Rock, defeated the Sliders in a pretty exciting game.

A.J. Achter made the start for the Paints in this game, and he did really well here, going five innings deep in his start, and only giving up a pair of runs. He didn't have a one-two-three inning in any of his five innings pitched, as he gave up four walks that were spread out throughout his start, but still, things were just fine with Achter. He also gave up four hits, but he didn't do anything that was costly, and that's a good thing for the Paints.

Mark Williams would put in three innings of relief for Achter, and he did a solid job overall. Williams hasn't been in much action on the mound lately for the Paints, but here he did see some action, and he made the best of it. Williams would give up only one walk and he would proceed to strike out a pair of batters. Stephen Shackleford pitched the ninth inning for the Paints, and he would end up sealing the deal for the Paints, getting the save. Just like Greg Bigam said on the radio broadcast, nothing really comes easy for the Paints late in the game, but even so, the Paints found a way to get the win, and over a very game Slippery Rock team to boot.

So how's the lumber factory doing? Third baseman Zach Leonard would get an infield single. Left fielder Andy Brouse would get an infield single. First baseman Cory Maguire would get a single and an RBI double. Right fielder Eian Banks would have three hits in this game, and he would get a bunt single, a double, and then an RBI single. Center fielder Zach Frentsos had an infield single. Catcher Kris McDonough would get an RBI off a groundout. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck would get two singles and two RBI's.

Overall, this was a great game played by the Paints. There were points where things were going slow for them, as in the Sliders were just chopping down at the pitching, but the Paints held up. It was more like a bend but don't break kind of approach. I always like that kind of approach if you need to pick yourselves up as a team. The Paints did a good job of not letting the Sliders get to them because sometimes I feel that there are mental things playing into these games against the Sliders. I can't put my finger on what it could be, but the Sliders are a well rounded team when you go over their roster, and I think it's important to get these wins over a team like the Sliders just to boost up their morale.

Rockford moving to the Northern League

2009-07-27T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's official: the Rockford RiverHawks will move to the Northern League beginning in 2010. You can read the article in the Rockford-Register Star here.

Riordan sets career wins record

2009-07-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Kalamazoo Kings manager Fran Riordan. With the Kings' win over the Sliders tonight, Fran passed Greg Tagert to for most wins by a manager in Frontier League history.

Rock 'em Sock 'em Baseball

2009-07-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

Butler 4, Chillicothe 2

This game just wasn't the type of game for the Paints to get into a flow. All night long, it was basically well played baseball by the opposing team and the Paints just weren't able to get anything going. Hits were hard to come by in this game, and in the grand scheme of things, the Paints weren't doing a good job of focusing when it came to tight situations such as 3-2 counts, and I mean that for both offensively and defensively. The Paints did make this game fairly close and within striking distance, but it wasn't enough to overcome the first four runs cored in the game.

Rex Ingham wasn't really feeling it in this start. He made the start for the Paints, and he wouldn't have so good a day, getting in only four innings of work. Ingham gave up four runs on six hits and two walks allowed. He would strike out two batters but that would be it for him. Butler got to the pitching staff of the Paints fairly easily. I use the word "fairly" alot because I think that's appropiate. I wouldn't say that Butler made like gangbusters right off the bat, but it also didn't take too long for them to get their hits in against Paints pitchers.

Eric Heckaman would get in two innings of work for his relief appearance, and he would have an okay night, giving up three walks, with one of them being an intentional walk to load the bases with two outs, just to get the force play. Heckaman would strike out two batters and would keep Butler off the scoreboard. Butler would only score four runs all game, but still, that would be enough to pick up a much needed win for them. Krist Linster and Tony Davey would each pitch one inning of relief, and they did okay jobs as well. They held Butler down the best way they could.

I would like to note something before I dive into the statistics for the offense. I believe the offense has been a roller coaster for these past few weeks. I've been feeling that for some time now. There has been numerous shuffles of the lineup, and while I am definitely and advocate of shuffling up your lineups just to get something going, you can't overdo it as well. Sometimes you just have to stick with a lineup if you know that lineup is working the best for you. If you have a lineup that's clicking, then stick with it until it starts to fizzle out. All players are different when it comes to batting order. Maybe one guy is comfortable batting fifth in the lineup and he just doesn't feel good batting second. That's one of the things you have to consider.

Now let's get to the offense. Shortstop Ben Allen had an RBI single. Second baseman Kyle Gendron had a single. Right fielder Eian Banks had the most interesting night out of any Paints batter. Banks had two doubles, and at least one of them played a big role into scoring a run for the Paints. Unfortunately, he also got caught trying to steal second base to end the sixth inning, but still, he had a great day overall. DH Zach Frentsos had an RBI double and a single.

Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single and advanced to third base on a very interesting defensive blunder made by Butler. A throw apparently sailed past the infielders and found its way to the backstop. I also have to note that there were miscues in this game, but most of them were just the usual miscues that you could normally see a player make. This blunder just happened to be the bizarre mishap defensively. Defense is a pretty critical thing. You have to be as alert as you possibly can be when you're trying to prevent the other team from scoring runs. Many things change when you're on defense. You can be so stellar with the bat on offense, but you'd still need some help on defense.

Overall, this loss shouldn't be anything worry about. True, it is beginning to be crunch time, but considering what's going on around the Prospect League, I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes for both divisional races. The Quincy Gems are just rolling in the Western Division, and I apologize for not really keeping track of what they're doing, because they will be important to talk about if the Paints do happen to face them in the final round. The Eastern Division is pesky, and that would be the best word to describe this race right now. All five teams are still within reach. The Butler BlueSox have pulled within two games of the Paints for the lead, and they have been in a three-way tie for third place, so if anything, nothing has been decided yet.

Paints Win Critical Game

2009-07-23T19:17:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 2, North Coast 1

This was a game that the Chillicothe Paints absolutely needed. Why was that? Well, it's because of the fact that the Paints are being hunted down by the second place team in the Eastern Division, the North Coast Knights. The Knights have been playing exceptionally well going into the All-Star break. They have had alot of momentum going into this game, and they had the opportunity to take first place away from the Paints here. This game was as close as you thought it would be. When you have two big bulls or two big time competitors on the same baseball field, you're going to have a great game played, most likely.

Clayton Schulz took the mound for the Paints in this game, and he wasn't bad at all when he pitched. He did get a few hits against him that didn't look so good, especially with that game-tying homerun by the Knights later on in his start, but Schulz was with it again. He was on the ball, and he didn't really drop it. When he left the game, the score was tied 1-1. Schulz would give up just one run on five hits and a walk allowed. In 6 innings pitched, Schulz recorded three strikeouts.

I think I should mention this about Clayton Schulz. I always seem to feel comfortable whenever Clayton does take the mound. He has been one of the more effective pitchers for the Paints' staff. I think he does have such great potential in the future. He's already doing a great job this year. He will still have his shaky starts from time to time, but overall, he's very reliable and I would love to see more of him when next season rolls around for the Prospect League Paints.

Mark Williams only faced two batters in his relief appearance. He was taken out in favor of Blake Mascarello, and Blake would get in two innings of work for his relief appearance. He would strike out two batters. Stephen Shackleford would end up sealing the deal for the hometown team as he came in with a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning. He did a great job of shutting down the North Coast Knights at the right time. I just have to hand it to the pitching staff for this game. This was so well played out by the young men. You always have to like tough and gritty performances.

Now for the offense, shortstop Ben Allen had an infield single and a single. Left fielder Andy Brouse went deep for a solo homerun shot past left center field, and he would also get a stolen base. Eian Banks had an infield single. Third baseman Zach Leonard had a double and an RBI single. The offense didn't get in many hits, but with the hits they did get in, they made those hits count. Give credit to the North Coast Knights, as they did everything they possibly could to shut down the Paints from the mound, and if anything, they hung in there with the home team.

The weather for this game didn't start out as good baseball weather. It was raining and pouring before the game began, and it looked as if there would be some sort of delay, but thankfully, there was only a five minute delay, so that wasn't anything to put a big stamp on. Like I said in past Paints reports, the weather here in Ross County can get a bit crazy. It's not always crazy, but it will get into a crazy period where you don't know what the weather will be like the very next day. Overall, the weather did cooperate, as it was only as bad as cloudy skies, but the teams did get to play, and that's the main thing.

Those Crazy Umpires...Prospect League Edition

2009-07-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Slippery Rock 4, Chillicothe 2

It's one thing when you have to contend with the other team on a baseball field, trying to do what you can to win a ballgame, but it's a completely different thing when you have also have to look over your shoulder to see a home plate umpire who does not put his ego aside and just call a game properly. For one thing, you're getting pressure from the opposing team, and they're focused on catching up with you in the standings, and when you come across an umpiring crew that does not relent when it comes to even the easiest issues, you'll find yourself struggling to move around in the game.

If I have to be very honest when it comes to the home plate umpire who called this game between the Slippery Rock Sliders and the Chillicothe Paints, then I have to say that I completely agree with hometown radio announcer Greg Bigam that this home plate umpire needs to be evaluated by Prospect League officials after the season ends because this had to be one of the most unprofessional performances that a home plate umpire could have. In all my time listening to Paints baseball, both the Frontier League and the Prospect League versions, I have never really heard of such an off day by an umpire before. He was said to be shouting at a few of the fans who were heckling at him during the game, handling it badly.

Check the ego at the door and don't try to be Mr. Perfect on the baseball field, or else you won't make friends with either team, nor with the fans who are watching the action.

For the game itself, the Paints did what they could to keep this game within reach, and it wasn't a blowout, but the clutch hits didn't come for the Paints. The team did get in a bunch of hits, but none of them were timely, and most of them weren't stringed together. Take into account that the Slippery Rock Sliders did a good job of executing their own gameplan. They deserve credit for the great plays that they made when they were on defense. The lineup for the Paints was tweaked a bit for this game, and here's how it went.

Shortstop Ben Allen had a single. Second baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. After he struck out to end the fifth inning, he was ejected because he was arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire. Of course, I wasn't there to see what happened, but Kyle must have said something really serious that warranted an ejection. Whatever the case, the tone wasn't as good as it should have been at this point.

Catcher Andrew Marshall had a single. Andy Brouse had a single and a double. Eian Banks had a single and an infield single. Kris McDonough had an RBI single. Steven Mirizzi had a single. Overall, the good thing about this is that the Paints are still getting hits in, but the not so good thing about this is that they're not making these hits more valuable. I guess you can say that we need more quality in the hits we make rather than the quantity of them.

For the pitching, A.J. Achter made the start for the Paints. He took the mound, and coming off a start in Butler where he was kind of shaky, Achter was a bit shaky here, unfortunately. He went 5 and 1/3 innings deep in his start, and he would end up surrendering four runs to Slippery Rock's offense, giving up 6 hits and a pair of walks as well.

He would strike out two batters, but for this start, this was as effective as he could be. Things were just tough for A.J., but some hits did involve hitting the natural grass surface of Jack Critchfield Park, and on the third base side, balls can really bounce bad on that side for whatever reason. Defensive miscues were bound to happen on a few plays around that area, in all honesty.

Rex Ingham, Chadd Steinborn, and Blake Mascarello would each get into the game to make relief appearances, and none of them would give up any more runs to the Sliders. To review the game, it was the kind of game where you just have to dust yourself off and shrug. Just say "Oh well. It happens.

The Paints will finally return home to Chillicothe and will resume play at V.A. Memorial Stadium on Thursday, July 23rd. They will host the North Coast Knights at 7:05 PM.

Cookies and Milk on the road

2009-07-18T18:04:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 10, Slippery Rock 3

While the Chillicothe Paints were taking the All-Star break to get some much needed rest, I was taking a break of my own the other day. This is, of course, not important information, but I figured I may as well explain myself as to why there wasn't a report made for the road game between the Paints and the Butler Blue Sox. I was away just enjoying myself, and getting some much needed fresh air. I was spending some time with my family, and I was putting in some physical education as I was out to the bowling alley for a few games, and later on in the day, I was running around on the tennis court hitting some tennis balls a bit too hard. Needless to say, I felt somewhat sore after all that.

What does that have to do with Paints baseball? Well, that might actually point out that athletes who are gifted in one sport will try out other physical activities in their spare time, mainly during the offseason. Bowling four games at the bowling alley, and running around working out your mobility on the tennis court for about an hour will do just the thing to keep athletes well conditioned. Athletes should stay active doing something, and I'm sure that at least 90% of commited athletes are out and about doing many physical activities.

Now without further a do, here's your regularly scheduled report about Paints baseball.

Overhearing what Greg Bigam was talking about from the radio broadcast of this game, I found out that Paints manager Brian Mannino had something special planned for his players. Here's the scoop, if the players did anything good during this game, then Mannino would give those players at least one smiley face cookie that he got along the way to Slippery Rock. I find that to be a fun tidbit, and that's great material to type down, because stories similar to this pretty much made up that one great book about the Paints called "Everything Happens in Chillicothe." You know, that book that featured the one-eyed umpire Max McCleary and his stories involving the Paints.

The cookies are going to be a good reward for our hometown batters, because here's what they did.

Shortstop Ben Allen had a single, a stolen base, and an RBI. Right fielder Brandon White had an RBI double. Zach Frentsos had a single. Andy Brouse had two singles. Third baseman Kyle Gendron had two doubles and an RBI. Center fielder Eian Banks had a great power night, as he had an RBI triple in the extensive fourth inning, and he simply crushed a pitch for a three-run homerun shot in the seventh inning. Catcher Kris McDonough had a breakout game, getting a double and a pair of RBI's. Second baseman had a single, a double, and a stolen base.

Well, with offensive statistics like that, Brain Mannino might have to go get a few more extra cookies. I don't know, but that's just a thought.

Tony Bertucci took the mound as the starting pitcher for the Chillicothe Paints. He took on a resurgent, and that may be putting it mildly, lineup in the Slippery Rock Sliders on their home turf at Jack Critchfield Park. Bertucci's start ended up being pretty quiet, but he did a great job. There's not much to say when it comes to the stats that involved Tony, but he only gave up four hits and struck out a batter. The best thing is that he didn't give up a single run. This start can be classified as quiet, but solid.

Krist Linster, Blake Mascarello, and Brad Schnitzer all went out to the mound coming from the bullpen. Linster and Schnitzer were kind of wild in this game, but not overly. Linster gave up a hit, a walk, and a run in one inning fo work. Schnitzer pitched the last two innings of the ballgame, and while the eighth inning wasn't anything very spectacular for him, Schnitzer came back in the ninth and shut the Sliders down for good, sealing the victory for the visting Paints. He gave up three hits, a walk, and two runs. He would strike out a batter.

Overall, the Paints have jumped out of the gates very well. In the game that I wasn't able to report to my readers, the Paints did a great job at Butler Pullman Park to down the Blue Sox 9-6. That game involved 18 Paints hits, while this game featured 12. I believe it was only rest that was needed for the Paints. Eventually, it does get tiring when you have to keep going out day after day to the field and trying to concentrate when your body may not be at the same level concentration, and not to mention, the fatigue is a critical factor.

However, there's only about 15 games left for the Paints in this young and early Prospect league season, so there won't be a long stretch after this All-Star break. Things are looking very good for where Ross County's own team might be headed. Stay tuned...and have a cookie while you're at it.

new website content

2009-07-14T18:02:00.000-07:00

Hey all! I'm still here. On vacation this week, back from a trip, and adding some new content to the website.

I've just edited the Midwest Sliders and Lake Erie Crushers pages with ballpark photos. I'm working on a Normal CornBelters page, and after attending the Frontier League all star game tomorrow I have a whole bunch of memorabilia from this season to add.

See you at the ballpark!

Still Sliding Down

2009-07-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Richmond 7, Chillicothe 1

It's getting tough at this point in the season.

That's the one sentence summary of what I would say is happening to the Paints right now. Everything is getting pretty tough for the team, and perhaps since we're entering the all-star break in the Prospect League, the Paints could afford some time off. At least for most of them of course because some of the Paints players will be making the trip to Springfield, Illinois for the All-Star game. The Paints as a unit aren't getting in the right hits. They're getting in hits, but not the right, timely hits.

The Chillicothe Paints got a bit of a bad break early on when starting pitcher Stephen Shackleford had to come out of the ballgame due to the fact that he got right in the face with a groundball up the pitcher's mound. Somehow, the ball managed to get up on Stephen and it left a cut somewhere on his face, and I won't get into any more details than that because not many people know what this cut really is. As for Stephen, he would pitch 1 and 2/3 innings in his outing and would give up two runs total. He would give up three hits and one walk.

Rex Ingham would fill in for Shackleford for the rest of the way, and truthfully, things did not get any better when he got into the game. He gave up 5 hits and a walk while striking out one batter. Rex would end up surrendering 4 more runs to Richmond. He would go 3 and 1/3 innings deep in his outing. Mark Williams and Brad Schnitzer would each get into the game, but the damage was done once again for the third night in a row.

As for the offense, Andy Brouse had two singles and an RBI, but he made an obvious baserunning blunder in the fifth inning that got the Paints out of it. Tim Krofcheck had a single and a stolen base. Kyle Gendron had a single. DH Cory Maguire had a single. Zach Leonard had a single. Zach Frentsos had a single and a stolen base. Here was the main thing to note about this display of offense for this game. The hits that the Paints made for this game were not stringed together.

These hits did not produce runs. These hits did not put any pressure on Richmond's defense at most points in the game. When you're on offense, you have to bring pressure to the opposing defense. You only score runs with your offense, so you'll make the most noise on offense while you leave the stopping up to your defense and the pitching on the mound for your team.

I really don't know what it could be, but consider that since this is a collegiate wooden bat league, there's a little (note the word "little") more room for error in a team's performance, but nonetheless, you still have to bring what you got onto that field. You have to have a sharp mind when you're on the basepaths, and you have to know the situation when you're in the batter's box. The Paints just haven't shown that in nearly a week, so the all-star break should be used for them to put their focus back on the fundamentals.

Riding The Slippery Slide

2009-07-12T17:42:00.000-07:00

Slippery Rock 2. Chillicothe 1

Compared to the other game between the two teams at V.A. Memorial Stadium, this night really wasn't as bad when you think about it. Thankfully for me, I wasn't at the 10-1 slide ballgame the other night, so I didn't miss much then. This game wasn't nearly as bad. True, the Slippery Rock Sliders still came out triumphant, but at least the Chillicothe Paints can say that they were in this game and that they had some chances to make this game interesting. I still can't tell what it is about these two teams when they play each other. Whenever the Paints go to Slippery Rock, they do win pretty often, and that's the same for the Sliders when they come to Chillicothe. They come here, and they win pretty often, too.

Tony Bertucci made the start for the Paints. He took the mound and he did a good job early on, but as the game nearly got into the middle innings, he was getting in trouble with the opposing offense, and he would give up some hits that would ultimately determine the result of the ballgame. Bertucci would go 7 innings deep, giving up 6 hits and a walk. He would give up a pair of runs. He would strike out 5 batters.

Overall, he was in there to get his work in, and rightfully so because of the rules and regulations set forth by the Prospect League. He hung in there and didn't give up any more runs than those two, so the defecit wasn't that impossible to overcome for the good guys.

Krist Linster and Chadd Steinborn would each put in an inning of relief each, and they would do just fine and dandy, as they used to say. Linster pitched an inning and struck out a batter. Steinborn pitched an inning and struck out a batter. The going was actually quite easy for the bullpen in this game, and they did what they could to keep the Paints in the game. One thing that I have noticed in most Prospect League games is that the games in this league are very well even sliced. You have a close margin between two teams, and there are equal opportunities to climb back into games and actually win some of those tight games.

For the offense, Kyle Galbraith had only one at-bat, and that was in the first inning. He was pulled in favor of Steven Mirizzi, and Mirizzi would play the rest of the game at center field. Speaking of Mirizzi, he only had a stolen base and he grounded into two fielder's choice plays. Shortstop Ben Allen had an RBI single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a double. Second baseman Kyle Gendron had a double. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single. Third baseman Kyle Leonard had an infield single. DH Brandon White had a single.

The offense just wasn't enough for this game. Only run was scored for the Paints, and that's how you could sum up the game's progress. There wasn't enough done on the field in this game. The team did do some good things, and they definitely had their eyes on the ball compared to the other night, but the Slippery Rock Sliders did it again.

They did what they had to do to win. They performed exceptionally well here. Both teams put in solid efforts, but obviously, one team can walk off the field victorious. The Paints were basically batting balls over to places that just weren't favorable for their liking. In other words, the balls found their way into the Sliders' gloves.

First baseman Cory Maguire made his return to the Paints starting lineup in this game. The reason for his absence was because of an injury that he sustained a while back. It has taken Cory some time to recover from those injuries, but he's getting back into the thick of things, and what's better is that the Paints will get back a certified first baseman back into their everyday routine.

Plus, I managed to talk to Cory Maguire before the game, and he was upbeat and optimistic as always. He's a good guy to have a discussion with. I could tell that he was happy to have that Paints jersey on and know that he would be back on the playing field doing what he loves to do. That's what baseball players do. They enjoy the moments when they're out on the field. I know that it's a great feeling. Getting your opportunity to do what you can do is very much satisfying and it helps measure you up against the rest of the league and playing time shows you how you need to improve your skills.

A lazy night at home

2009-07-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Slippery Rock 10, Chillicothe 1

The majority of this game just wasn't good at all.

That's not all I have to say about this game, but whether you were at the ballpark or if you were listening to the game on the radio, you could tell that this was going to be a long, long night for the home team as it turned out. The Chillicothe Paints weren't on their A-game here, and they were having some problems trying to get the right plays made on defense. This isn't what I would call a well managed game by the players, but after all, you do have to realize that these things are just going to happen, and you have to expect long days or nights in a summer college wooden bat league like this one.

Give credit to where credit is surely due. Let's take a moment to congratulate a player from the other team. Pitcher Andy Young pitched a wonderful game for the visiting Slippery Rock Sliders. He kept the Paints in check for most of the ballgame. He got into the ballgame only after the original starting pitcher, Corey Mazzoni, couldn't get back out to pitch the second inning for the Sliders due to an injury.

For Andy Young, from the second inning to the eighth inning, he did exactly what he had to do when he had a big lead being his cushion. He went 7 innings deep in his outing, and he would give up only 6 hits and a pair of walks, striking out four Paints batters. The most important part is that he didn't give up a single run.

On the flip side, the Paints were just hurting from the off balanced defense. This wasn't a good night to be in a white home jersey as the Paints commited three errors on defense for the game. Errors are never a good sign, no matter how many of them you commit. Having three errors on the scoreboard would be big trouble for the Paints as those errors played a part in getting the Sliders some of the ten runs that they would score.

For the offense, Ben Allen had a single. Andy Brouse was the only batter for the Paints to drive in a run, getting an RBI double in the first inning to give the Paints a very brief 1-0 lead in the ballgame, but that was all the offense that the Paints could muster, unfortunately. Zach Frentsos came off the bench to replace Eian Banks, and Frentsos had a base hit. DH Brandon White had a bunt single. Kris McDonough had a single. Tim Krofcheck legged out a bunt single. Overall, the Paints would get in 8 hits for this game, but the total number of runs are the key thing, and the Paints didn't have nearly the same amount of runs as the Sliders.

Blake Mascarello had it rough for this night. At the beginning of his start, it looked as though he would be in business, but from the third inning on, he would have a tremendous amount of problems, and it turned out that it wasn't meant to be for this game. For the record, Mascarello would go 3 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, and he would give up 6 runs while also giving up 7 hits and a walk. He would record 6 K's, as that was the only bright spot in his start. The going was too tough here, and it's understandable. You're going to have games like these, it's just that you don't know when and where these off games are going to happen for you. When it happens, it will happen, but players will pick themselves up after the bad games are done with. That's pretty much the cycle, and kind of like the anatomy, of a baseball season.

Eric Heckaman would pitch 4 and 1/3 innings of relief once Mascarello was taken out of the game, and Eric would give up a trio of runs himself, giving up four hits and two walks in the process. He would strike out a pair of batters. Brad Schnitzer would also get into the game and he would pitch for an inning, even though the damage was already done at this point in the game.

Now let's get to more positive news concerning the Paints organization. Mainstay shortstop Travis Garcia has been signed by the Seattle Mariners organization and he has reported to their Double-A team, the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, located in Jackson, Tennessee. Travis Garcia is finally getting his second chance at affiliated ball, and he's once again on track to chase his dream of being in the big leagues. I am personally extremely happy for Travis, as you know him and I go a ways back. I wish Travis well, and Travis, if you are reading this, I have a good article planned for you, I promise. I just don't know when yet.

Paints Defeat Bombers In The Stretch

2009-07-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 5, Dubois County 4

This was a well managed game by the hometown team. This was just another tip of the mill type of win that the team can feel good about. The Chillicothe Paints welcomed the Dubois County Bombers into the V.A. for this night, and unlike the time where they played at the Bombers' place, there weren't any doubts as to who was who. You could tell which team was which by looking at the jersey colors. The Bombers wore red and the Paints wore their home white jerseys. Like I said before, this was a game that the Paints can feel good about because mainly, they got the win.

When it comes to defensive plays, the Paints made more stops than the Bombers did, and what's more interesting is the fact that the Bombers made four errors in this ballgame. That's a lot to give up in a span of a game, and that's where you know where things aren't really going right for the team when plays are being messed up here and there. Hey, it happens, and I just want to note that the Bombers didn't give up in this game. They battled to the very end, and that was evident because of the top of the ninth inning that gave the Paints some kind of concern.

Tony Davey made the start for the Paints. He gave up 6 hits, two walks, and only one run as he would pitch 6 innings deep in his start. From my point of view, I would have to say that Davey had many things going right for him. He had good control of his pitches for the most part. True, a few pitches did get away from him, but that's true for just about every pitcher in the Prospect League. Those things just happen. However, Davey had a good start and he kept the Dubois County offense in check. Davey didn't get rattled at all even when he did get into a little bit of trouble.

Mark Williams and Stephen Shackleford did get into a bit of trouble in both of their outings, but they weren't so bad when you stop and think about it. Williams would get into the game from the seventh inning on and would pitch an okay relief outing, going two innings deep and giving up four hits and a walk. He gave up one run in total. He put in a strikeout in the middle of all that. Again, nothing too bad at all. Shackleford pitched the ninth inning and would give up a hit, commit and error, and would throw a wild pitch. He would give up two runs, but he still shut the door on the Bombers, and that's all that matters.

Going to the lumber factory, Kyle Galbraith would see action both in center field and at third base, and he would get a double to start the hitting for the Paints in the first inning. Shortstop Ben Allen would get an RBI off a groundout. First baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles, and I am glad to say that he did a great job manning first base in this game. He was very in tune with what was going on when on defense. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had an infield single. The ever so speedy second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a bunt single.

Now let's get to the All-Star Game selections. The Paints will bring a total of 11 representatives to Springfield, Illinois.

Manager: Brian Mannino
1B: Cory Maguire
3B: Kyle Galbraith
SS: Ben Allen
UTIL: Kyle Gendron
OF: Andy Brouse
C: Andrew Marshall
RP: Chadd Steinborn
RP: Blake Mascarello
SP: Clayton Schulz
SP: A.J. Achter

Congratulations to all of these guys, both the players and Chillicothe's skipper for accomplishing this first feat in the Prospect League. This has been a wonderful season so far, and it gives me good pleasure to applaud these guys for their hard work throughout the first part of the season. I appreciate all of the Paints for what they do, and I hope for the best from the rest of the guys, but just for these guys alone, I wish them well in Springfield, and I want them to just enjoy themselves and have some fun. They have earned it, after all.

There were some interesting highlights to note here. Before the game even started, Ronald McDonald was on hand to throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and he even sung the National Anthem, which he did a splendid job in singing it. He had a very good sounding voice for singing. He was at the V.A. for McDonald's I'm Lovin' It Night, one of the promotions that the Paints organization does during the season. Unlike the We Be Clowns, who are great to have at the ballpark no doubt, the appearance of Ronald McDonald didn't bring any rain to the ballpark, much to the fans' delight.

Collapsing Late In The Game

2009-07-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Butler 7, Chillicothe 3

For this game at Butler Pullman Park, the Chillicothe Paints and the Butler Blue Sox were going at it for quite some time, but when things got going, the Blue Sox kept up with the pace, and the Paints weren't able to respond. When it comes to the field surfaces of Pullman Park, the two separate surfaces did play some sort of factor in this game, though I must admit, it didn't play a huge factor. The main factor was that the pitching didn't come up with the stops for the Paints when they needed to have them. It's hard to really describe it because this game was back and forth until the seventh inning.

Starting pitcher A.J. Achter was battling all throughout his start. He was being such a competitor out there doing whatever he could to keep the Paints in the game, but there came a time where everything was just dropped like a net full of dodge balls in a school gym. Once again, I'm not very good at making analogies, but I guess you could say the weight was beginning to be too much for Achter once he got deeper into his start.

It also didn't help that the umpiring for this game was once again below par. I try not to get picky these days because of the fact that this is just a collegiate baseball league, and the atmosphere is kind of toned down, but I still have to say that the umpires need to stop changing the strike zone for the teams who are playing. It almost seems like they switch from one strike zone to another for different teams. I'm not saying that they intentionally do this, but I don't think they're aware that they're doing this.

As for Achter, he did a good job for the most part until the chaotic seventh inning. He pitched 6 innings deep into his start, and he would give up 5 runs off 6 hits allowed. He would also give up 4 walks. It was just an up and down start for Achter, as in there were times that he was looking really good, but then he would start to struggle at other times. Give the Blue Sox credit here. They did what they had to do to get to Achter, and if I may say so, they picked the greatest time to get to Achter because they were down 3-2 to the Paints after Eian Banks went deep for a solo homerun.

Krist Linster got rocked in his outing, going 2/3 of an inning and giving up three hits and a walk. He would give up two runs. Brad Schnitzer would also get into the game in relief, but he got in at a time when the smoke was clearing. The 5 run rally made by the Blue Sox in the seventh inning was all that mattered when you talk about the final score.

Now with the offense, Kyle Galbraith had three singles and an RBI. Ben Allen scorched a sacrifice fly that would drive in a run. Andrew Marshall would get in two singles. Kyle Gendron had a single. Eian Banks went deep for a solo homerun shot in the top of the seventh inning, and this solo homerun was special in that it cleared the left field fence. The left field foul pole is listed at 347 feet, so it's not short by any means. The very fact that Eian Banks cleared that long distance is an interesting feat for sure. I was amazed to hear the call from Greg Bigam at first. It was really surprising. When was the last year the Paints had to deal with a foul pole that was deeper than 335 feet?

I could tell that strategy was at work for this game. Blue Sox manager Jason Wuerfel did a great job of directing traffic for his own pitching staff. Jason has experience from being a coach with the Traverse City Beach Bums of the Frontier League, and I believe that he's going to do great things for the Butler Blue Sox in the future. I can't blame my hometown manager Brian Mannino for questioning the calls made by the umpires. He had every right to question the calls because he had very good views of the strike zone himself. This hasn't been the first time that Mannino has questioned umpire calls. He has done this throughout the year.

Red Hot Pitching at The Jack

2009-07-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 5, Slippery Rock 0

The competitive fire was burning for the Chillicothe Paints in this game, and so much so that the pitching staff especially showed some amazing fire from the mound, as the three pitchers who took that mound all did remarkable jobs in doing what they needed to do to help get the Paints a win here. Rest assured, I try not to exagerate anything because I know that the Slippery Rock Sliders were competing as well. I even tip my cap to those guys as they have really given the Paints tough times during this year, but thankfully for Paints fans, this game wasn't a rough time for the Paints.

Let's start with our starter Clayton Schultz. The youngster who is playing for North Florida University, had a great start. I believe that I can type this down with great assurance that this had to be one of Schulz's best starts so far this year. This win happens to be his fifth win of the year, so he's now 5-1 on the season.

Now if you want to talk about red hot pitching, then Schulz was definitely a catalyst for bringing the proverbial heat. He went 6 innings deep and gave up 5 hits and 4 walks, but the best thing is he didn't surrender a single run. Lest we forget about the strikeouts, Clayton Schulz had 9 of them here. I have to say that ever since I first saw him, I have been very impressed by the way Schulz can manage a game from the mound. He has that certain poise about himself that comes along with being an all-around gamer. When you develop as an athlete, and in this case, a baseball player, it's really good to know having someone like Schulz be impressive thus far this year

Now let's go to Eric Heckaman. Now Heckaman, on the other hand, has been on a roller coaster of sorts when it comes to the quality of his appearances. He has been on and off, to be more specific. Heckaman gave the team two innings of work, and he only gave up one hit. He would strike out a trio of batters, and the best thing is that he did his job. If you want to talk about red hot pitching, then Eric Heckaman did his part as well, being the second catalyst of the group.

Finally, here's Stephen Shackleford. Now of course, his first name and my first name are spelled differently, but that's nothing to worry about at all, since we're both pulling for the same team, and he's playing on it. Shackleford pitched the ninth inning and he just flat out blew away the Slippery Rock Sliders almost like a leaf blower does against a pile of leaves on the ground. He struck out the side with three consecutive strikeouts to secure the win for the Paints. Overall, the pitching staff had one of their best games this year, bar none. Again, I can type that statement down with great assurance.

Don't forget about the offense because you need some hitting to help get you to victory as well. Center fielder Kyle Galbraith had an RBI double in the fourth inning. Shortstop Ben Allen had an RBI bunt single in the sixth inning. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a double. Catcher Andrew Marshall had two singles. First baseman Kyle Gendron had a double. Right fielder Eian Banks had an RBI single. Third baseman Kyle Leonard had a single and got an RBI off a sacrfice fly in the second inning. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a bunt single, a stolen base, and got an RBI off a sacrifice fly of his own in the fourth inning.

This game was amazing to listen to. True, it may not have been a no-hitter kind of game, but it doesn't need to be anything like that to be amazing. This was exciting, and I have to give a ton of credit to all facets of the Paints for making this game that good entertainment wise. I liked what I heard and it reminded me of those simpler times that I had when I was at the V.A. in late 2005. Those were great times, and I guess you could say that slowly, but surely, we're getting back to those times. This is beginning to get more special, folks.

Paints Lose A Tough One

2009-07-07T19:15:00.000-07:00

Hannibal Cavemen 2, Chillicothe Paints 1 (10 innings)

The Hannibal Cavemen went to Chillicothe, Ohio to take in their very first game at V.A. Memorial Stadium, and while there may have been bumps in the road for them in this ballgame, the Cavemen stuck in there and got the victory in the only extra inning of the game. For both teams, it was close. There weren't many runs scored and the competitive juices were definitely flowing for the Cavemen and for the Paints.

The key word for this game has to be "competitive." Both teams showed the resiliency needed to keep battling away. This was a game that had to be enjoyed by the hometown fans in spite of the less than great result to it. The crowd for this game was just wonderful. I could hear it all around the place that the crowd was into this game, and for good reason. The simple fact that the promotion for this game was Dime-A-Dog Night really brought out the masses. Once again, a new record was set at V.A. Memorial Stadium for the most hot dogs sold in a game. There were over 4,700 hot dogs sold. That just goes to show you that when you have a successful promotional pitch, you would know that you will keep that promotion.

Myself and other family members were on hand to watch this game, and we had so much fun, like always. Rex Ingham tookthe mound for the start. Rex went 8 innings deep in his start, giving up 7 hits and no walks at all, while recording four strikeouts. He only gave up one run in this game, and it was only a solo homerun shot early on. He looked to have great command of his pitches. He did establish some kind of a presence beacuse he did fool a few Cavemen batters during some of their at-bats.

Chadd Steinborn pitched in relief of Ingham and he did a marvelous job in the ninth inning. He struck out a pair of batters and gave up no runs at all. There was a point that seven consecutive pitches thrown by Steinborn in his outing were indeed strikes. In comparison, Mark Williams struggled in his outing in the tenth and final inning of the game. He gave up three hits and the eventual winning run to Hannibal. Of course, this was something that the people of Chillicothe may not have liked to see, but the situation was getting tough, especially for a game in the Prospect League, as we're all aware by now.

For the offense, Kyle Galbraith, making his first appearance back at third base since a while ago, did a good job in this game. He had an RBI double, a single, and a stolen base. Shortstop Ben Allen had two singles, with one of them being of the infield variety, and a stolen base. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had a single and a stolen base. To be pretty honest, the lineup was like a roller coaster here. There were some really bright moments for the offense, and then there were at least fairly dull moments for the offense. As hit and miss as they were, the offense did try to get things going in this game, it's just that some of the execution wasn't there.

Now I would like to inform the readers that the Prospect League All-Star Game is just around the horizon, with the horizon being a whole week full. I have been wondering recently about which Paints players should be on the Eastern Division all-star team. I think it's a tough one to call because not many players have pulled away from the pack. I seem to take note of Ben Allen, Clayton Schulz, and Andrew Marshall a great deal during my reports, so I have to believe that those three players will be in the conversation. I hope for the best for our team, because all I want is representation. That's really the only thing I'm looking for. More details about the all-star break are sure to be on the way.

Paints Cruise By Rats

2009-07-05T18:24:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 5, Richmond 2

First off, let's get to saying that this weekend featured patriotism to the greatest extent. This happened to be the 4th of July weekend, and for all of us Americans, the meaning for this weekend was simple. The 4th of July marked the birth date of the country that we currently live in today. The songs that were sung before the game and during the seventh inning put it to perspective. The National Anthem and God Bless America hit it home for us. We should be thankful for what we have and the opportunities we have to just live our lives. That's one important thing that unfortunately some people forget along the way. You have to tip your cap to the soldiers who are currently fighting overseas.

Now let's get down to business. Let's talk about the game that was played. This game was just great, and it was fitting for what the Paints could do. The Paints were once again back to their fundamental executing ways, being the Southern Ohio Stampede that they have been for most of this year. I saw a lot of good plays made by the defense. I saw a lot of good timely hitting by the offense. I saw good bunting when it was absolutely needed. I saw clutch pitching from the mound. I saw a packed crowd at V.A. Memorial Stadium cheering on their hometown team. This was a good day for baseball, simply put.

Tony Bertucci took the mound for the Paints. In his start, Bertucci went 6 and 1/3 innings deep, and gave up only two runs. He gave up four hits and a walk in this game, but he came back to shut down Richmond's batters, striking out five. This was a great day for Bertucci. He was rolling for a little bit at one point. It was great to see him do what he does best. He looked pretty comfortable out on the mound, too. He was challenging the opposing batters and he was holding his own. Tony didn't have many problems aside from a few.

I have to say that even though he's playing for the other team, I really like Richmond catcher Tyler Bullock. He has been impressive at the plate, much to the joy of Richmond fans of course, but even I can say that he's going to be something special if he becomes a mainstay for the River Rats for the next few years. Of course, college elligibility is almost always 4 years long, but still, Bullock has become fun to watch as an opposing player.

In fact, I have even given him a nickname to boot, and I hope if he's reading this he likes the nickname. I call him the "Big Pickup Truck". I don't know why Bullock reminds me of a truck, but I feel that's a good nickname, and this is all in good fun anyway.

Let's get back to the Paints, and to their offense. Kyle Galbraith had a single. Ben Allen had a single. Andy Brouse had a bunt single. Eian Bamks had an infield single and a bunt single. Kyle Gendron had a single and a two-RBI double. Kyle Leonard had a single off a hit and run attempt. DH Brandon White had an RBI single. Time Krofcheck had a single. Overall, this was a great day for the offense. Things were just clicking, Execution was definitely the key here. I loved the bunt attempts because they were very appropiate for the situations at hand. I always like it when small ball is played, but I think when you guys read my other articles, you would know that already.

We are approaching the halfway point of the very first Prospect League season, and it seems to me like the Chillicothe Paints are in a pretty good spot right now considering all of the bumps in the road that the team may have run into. The Paints are currently leading the Eastern Division by a couple of games, and the fight for second place in that division seems to be gathering more debate than the race for first, but that's not out of the question for any teams in the Eastern Division. In the Western Division, the Quincy Gems have unsurprsingly been on a roll this year, continuing from their great success in the previous college wood bat league, the CICL. They have a more comfortable lead out in the wild, wild Western Division.

The Long Ball Isn't Enough

2009-07-04T17:32:00.000-07:00

Richmond 7, Chillicothe 4

Here's how you can make a summary of this game between the Chillicothe Paints and the Richmond River Rats; the Paints were the team who made the big noise at the start, but the River Rats were the team who made the big noise at the end. Rest assured, the start of this game was very promising for the hometown crowd at the V.A. as the Paints made like gangbusters early, but the gangbusters were gone as it got closer to the end. The middle innings were where the River Rats started to take over momentum-wise.

Blake Mascarello made the start for the Paints. He would go 5 innings deep in his start, giving up a pair of runs off of 6 hits allowed. He would give up three walks and would strike out a pair of batters. Mascarello did a good job for the most part. There were some pitches that were off but they weren't too hazardous for Blake. He began to lose steam when he got closer to the end of his start.

Eric Heckaman was brought in to face the team that has previously given him the most trouble this year. Heckaman did not fare well again when he pitched to Richmond batters. You could say that he was just out there for too long. When you know that your relief pitcher is not up to his tip-top shape in performance, then you have to know what's going on score-wise, and you also have to know if the other team "gets it" against that relief pitcher. It looked as if all of teh above happened, and Heckaman didn't get the support he needed. He pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up 4 runs in total while also giving up two hits and four walks.

Brad Schnitzer and Krist Linster would also see some action in this ballgame, but I believe the main thing that I have to note would be this.

The umpiring.

The strike zone calls, to be more exact.

I have no idea what was going on there, but throughout this game, you could tell that something just wasn't right with the strikes and balls being called for the Paints. Maybe in some cases, the River Rats were getting hurt on these same calls as well, but still, the Paints were really getting shafted on a few calls that could've gotten either way, and also on some pitches that looked good enough to be called strikes. The strike zone was a bit too outside for my liking, and that of course is just my personal opinion, folks. Needless to say, I just wasn't happy with the umpires in this game.

Let's get to the offense, and let's just say that they did provide early fireworks in the form of two big homeruns to center field and to left center field. Credit the fireworks display to two players, catcher Andrew Marshall and Andy Brouse. Marshall went deep for a two-run homerun. Brouse went deep for a solo homerun, and both of those came in the first inning. The last run the Paints would score for this game would come off a bases loaded walk in the third inning. Eian Banks had an infield single and Brandon White had a single coming off the bench as a pinch hitter. Steven Mirizzi had a pair of stolen bases. Tim Krofcheck had one stolen base.

This game was just tough to watch towards the end. It got dicey, and the dice just didn't roll the right way for the Paints. Oh well, we have to look towards the next game, and besides, this day was filled with patriotism since it was Independence Day. I wish all of you people a Happy 4th of July no matter where you are. Stay safe and have fun the best way you know how, and just maybe, you went to a baseball game!

Paints Win In Richmond

2009-07-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Richmond 2

The Chillicothe Paints made this road trip count. This road trip did the team a bit of good as they managed to win 3 out of 4 on this road trip. This year, the road has proven to be quite kind to the Paints as they have had hardly any problems in handling their opponents whenever they score a certain amount of runs. They faced a familiar foe, back in the friendly confines of Don McBride Stadium in Richmond, Indiana, the River Rats opposed them once again.

Tony Davey gave up 7 hits and would give up 2 runs in 7 innings of work. Did he have a hard time during his start? Of course, there were some moments where you could pause for concern, but overall, Davey did just fine. He did a good job of getting the River Rats out right when he needed to. Along with giving up just a walk on the side, Davey wasn't too shabby on the mound at all. He had good help in the form of the Paints' defense and even Davey himself made a couple of plays on defense.

Mark Williams was the only other pitcher to see action for the Paints in this game, but no other pitcher would be needed because Williams got the job done in his two innings of relief work. He gave up a pair of hits and a walk. Make no mistake about it, the Paints were on their A-game here, and their A-game has been the most present whenever they have faced Richmond, whether back at home at V.A. Memorial Stadium or at Don McBride Stadium. I guess that's what happens when the ball just bounces in your favor against certain opponents.

For the offense, Kyle Galbraith had two singles. Ben Allen had two singles, a double, and an RBI. Catcher Andrew Marshall had two doubles and two RBI's. Cory Maguire had a single, a double, and three RBI's. Eian Banks had a single. DH Zach Frentsos had a bunt single. Kyle Gendron had a single. Steven Mirizzi had a double. Both the third and fourth innings were very much explosive in this game, and how fitting I mention that because Independence Day is just around the corner as I type this report down. The Paints were clicking on all cylinders on offense. This reminded me of the opening week or so for the Paints ballclub.

It goes without saying that the Paints have handled themselves well on this recent trip into parts of the Western Division. Rest assured, there were going to be challenges along the way as the Paints faced these clubs, but overall, they will be coming to Chillicothe looking just fine and dandy. I wish I had more to say on this trip. There's just not much material to write about these days. I could talk about the other night against the Hannibal Cavemen that there weren't any phone lines at the Cavemen's ballpark (how ironic), and that I couldn't listen to the game between the Paints and the Cavemen at all. No worries, though. I guess that's just life in a new college wooden bat league for you...when you try to connect the dots about how your new league is going to operate, and then you find out that you have plenty of bugs to sort out. Yeah, you kind of get that feeling in year one.

The Paints return home for the Fourth of July, so get ready for a big celebration!

Also, get ready for a special report I have planned for a certain former Paints player. Stay tuned.

Shriver Dominates Paints

2009-07-01T18:23:00.001-07:00

Springfield 3, Chillicothe 1

At certain times, you just can't explain why a certain opposing player has your number. Whenever you face that opposing player, things just happen. Things have happened for the Paints whenever they have faced Springfield Sliders starting pitcher Phil Shriver, but these things are not good things for the Paints. For over 14 consecutive innings played against Shriver, the Chillicothe Paints haven't scored a single run against him. That's exactly what you call domination. You have to tip your cap to Phil Shriver for his masterful work against Chillicothe's offense. This is simply a wonderful job done by him, and there's no doubt that Springfield fans should be happy of his work.

For Clayton Schulz, the starting pitcher for the Paints in this ballgame, it wasn't so much about the hits that he gave up although they all do count just the same, it really had more to do with Schulz giving up two walks to certain batters that lead to a good amount of damage made by the Sliders. In 6 innings pitched, Schulz would give up 3 earned runs and would allow 5 hits. He struck out a couple batters, but compared to the lights out performance by Phil Shriver, Schulz was understandably outdone. Schulz wasn't bad at all in his start, he just wasn't as affective, and it could be noticed.

Brad Schnitzer would pitch in relief of Schulz and would pitch an inning, striking out two batters and giving up no hits at all. This was a solid outing for Schnitzer. Krist Linster would pitch an inning of relief himself, and would give up three hits and a walk, but he didn't give up any runs.

For the offense, they were simply getting dominated by Shriver. It was just a long game for them, but you could understand why. Shriver is executing his gameplan against the Paints, and he's doing it with ease. Shriver would strike out 5 consecutive Paints batters between the first and second innings. Kyle Galbraith batted leadoff and would get in two singles. Galbraith was probably one of few batters who actually saw Shriver's pitches well. Shortstop Ben Allen had a single. Catcher Andrew Marshall also had a good game against Shriver, as he had a pair of singles. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a single. Eian Banks had an infield single.

I know that some of these baseball pills are hard to swallow, and I don't consider myself a doctor when it comes to the game of baseball, but I know that when we were beat, we were beat. It just happened, but it's nothing to get upset about. Everything will settle themselves out soon. Teams will just have these kind of games. Speaking of someone who had a knack for dominating the Paints almost regularly, in the Frontier League, Aaron Ledbetter made it a huge habit of dominating the Paints almost every time he took the mound to face them. I remember thinking to myself sometimes that I should expect it whenever I saw that Ledbetter was scheduled to face us.

However, you know what they say, in baseball, things just happen.

Paints Defeat Bombers

2009-06-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 4, Dubois County 1

The Chillicothe Paints made their first trip out to Huntingburg, Indiana for the first time a long, long time. The last time the Paints played a team from Huntingburg, they played against the Dubois County Dragons of the Frontier League. That can now be archived because the Paints faced a new Dubois County team in the form of the Bombers. The odd thing about the setup for this game was that both teams were wearing very similar styles of jerseys. Both teams were wearing blue jerseys with red numbers and letters. The only difference that you could point out would be that the Paints wore gray pants, and the Bombers wore white.

Stephen Shackleford took the mound for the Paints in this game. Make no mistake about it, he did a great job considering everything that went on defensively for the Paints. Shackleford went 8 innings deep in his start, giving up hits, a walk, and a run, but take note that the run he gave up was an unearned run. The Paints got shaky defensively in the fourth inning as they gave up a run to the Bombers making it a 2-1 game at the time. Shackleford would strike out 5 batters, so overall, he made a solid start otherwise. The only thing that you could really put on Stephen would be that his pickoff throws nearly escaped first baseman Kris McDonough. Chadd Steinborn pitched the ninth inning and got the job done, striking out a batter and retiring the Bombers.

For the offense, third baseman Zach Leonard had a single. Catcher Andrew Marshall had a 2-RBI double and a single. Shortstop Ben Allen was probably the most poised and focused Paints batter in the lineup, as he was batting seventh in the order, but he still got in a couple of hits. Ben got in a single and then drove in 2 RBI's with a triple in the top of the eighth inning. Tim Krofcheck had a bunt infield single. The one thing that was alluding the offense all night in the other game against the Slippery Rock Sliders at home was more present with the offense on the road against the Bombers. The Paints showed better plate discipline, and it came into play with the timely hitting late in the game.

First baseman Matt Abro had to leave the Paints because of academic duties that he had to fulfill back in the Detroit area. He has to pass a test to be elligible for college ball later on this year, according to Greg Bigam via the radio broadcast. With that said, the Paints will now have to be looking to fill a roster spot since Abro is now gone. Kris McDonough, usually playing as a catcher in Ohio University, made the start at first base, but the results from this game kind of showed that he's not used to playing first base. The Paints do still have Cory Maguire, but they will need more support for that position just out of precautionary measures. It should be interesting to see what comes out of this.

Not Quite Enough

2009-06-29T18:49:00.000-07:00

Slippery Rock 2, Chillicothe 1

The Chillicothe Paints came off a great win the other day, going up against the foes who have been taking them on and have handling them just fine. The Slippery Rock Sliders deserve credit for what they have done against the Eastern Division leading Paints. They have done quite a good job of executing their gameplan against the Paints in many of the meetings that the two teams have had. Starting pitcher for the Sliders, Cory Mazzoni, was on a roll for some parts of the game. He had even recorded a string of consecutive strikeouts. Overall, Mazzoni managed to record 8 strikeouts against Chillicothe's offense.

On the flip side, Paints starter Rex Ingham did a fairly good job on the mound in this game. The good news was that he didn't give up many runs. He only gave up a pair of runs while giving up 9 hits and a walk. Also, he did quite well when it came to striking out batters. He struck out 4 batters in 6 innings pitched, but unfortunately, the two-run homerun shot that he gave up early in the game proved to be the difference maker in this ballgame. Ingham held his own and he did what he had to do if you take away the homerun he gave up. He kept the Paints in the ballgame, and that's important.

For the offense, DH Kyle Galbraith had a double. Third baseman Zach Leonard had an RBI single. Catcher Brandon White had a double. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had an infield single. Not much was going on for the Paints, though. It was pretty hard for the Paints to get to Cory Mazzoni because there may have been a slight lack of patience at the plate. I saw a lot of first pitch swings during at-bats.

I know that players can be a bit jumpy and anxious when it comes to getting those bats out there, but you have to find the right pitch. Sometimes, finding the right pitch requires a batter to wait just a little bit. Take into account that the pitcher dealing from the mound may still be fairly fresh. You could tire him out a little bit first and then dig in for that hit. Oh well. It just happens, and you just have to deal with the situations you make for yourself. The team did a good job in some areas of this game, but the production wasn't enough to keep up with the Sliders.

I don't know what it is, but whenever we play any team from the state of Pennsylvania, and it doesn't matter where in that state teams come from, the Paints always seem to have some sort of problem against the Pennsylvania teams. Case and point, the Washington Wild Things used to always dominate the Paints in many facets of the Frontier League game. Hopefully, we don't continued that trend with the Slippery Rock Sliders or with the Butler Blue Sox, because I don't want this case of deja vu happening all over again.

The Paints hit the road, and they will travel to Dubois County to face the Dubois County Bombers tomorrow night.

Walking Off In Style

2009-06-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 3, Butler 2

"What a game!"

That should be the reaction from the crowd that watched all nine innings of a game that could have gone either way. It was a back and forth game, and the runs scored were so well timed if you think about it. This was a game that featured good plays, shaky plays, and plays that hovered around both areas. Overall, this was a game that had a little bit of everything for everybody watching. This is what baseball is all about, giving the people what they want to see at certain times. On this occasion, a walk-off winning hit will do just the thing.

Tony Bertucci made the start for the Chillicothe Paints. Bertucci had been pitching under rough situations the past couple times he took the mound, but for this one, he did a pretty good job even though he eventually gave up two runs to get the Butler Blue Sox back in the game. In his outing, Bertucci went 7 innings deep, and he would give up two runs on four hits allowed and one walk allowed.

Tony would record five strikeouts on the day. I do take into account the pair of runs that he gave up late in his start, but still, I believe he had a much more solid start this time. This was good for Tony, and this is something for him to take in as a positive thing. When you need horses on the mound to make up your starting rotation, you're gonna need guys who can find a way to battle through any mess that's handed to them. For the most part, Tony did a good job when he was dealt with any problems here.

Eric Heckaman would come in relief of Bertucci, and he would pitch the last two innings of the ballgame. Heckaman has not made many appearances ever since that hiccup back at Richmond where he gave up three runs to the Riverrats in the ninth inning. Today was a much different story for Eric Heckaman. He got on a roll during his appearance, and he managed to strike out four batters. He gave up three hits and a walk. Tight games like this require tightened arms in the bullpen, and relievers need to be there to pick up the team when things are getting a bit too interesting. I was glad to see Eric pick himself up in this game.

Now for the offense. There have been a couple of late inning heroics made by the teams that the Paints have played, but for once, for this game, the Paints played the roles of the late inning heroes. Shortstop Ben Allen had two singles, a double, and an RBI. Second baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a single.

DH Cory Maguire only had a single, but this was a big single. The single Maguire had came at the bottom of the ninth inning to start the rally for the Paints. The hit came off an 0-2 pitch count. Zach Frentsos bunted the ball, and the Butler defense made a hiccup. The ball got away from Butler's first baseman, and that allowed both Frentsos and Tim Krofcheck, pinch running for Maguire, to get to second and third. Catcher Andrew Marshall was intentionally walked to load the bases, seemingly to give Butler a chance at the double play. Zach Leonard pinch hit for Matt Abro, and he mashed the game-winning single to left field to score Krofcheck.

For those of you wondering, I did get the chance to talk to Jason Wuerfel, manager of the Blue Sox before the game, and it was a good, short chat we had. I offered him a suggestion about one of the features for the Blue Sox, and we talked about other things. I won the Autographed Bat and the chance to get my picture taken with a Paints player. I chose Ben Allen to be the Paints player to be in the picture with me. Ben is a good guy, and he was nice to me when we had a short talk. Ben Allen is slowly becoming my favorite player on the Paints because of the way he's handling things right now in the trenches for the team. The Paints now will play the Slippery Rock Sliders, who are still in the area of the Eastern Division lead conversation.

Paints Get The Job Done

2009-06-27T18:51:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 4, Butler 1

This game featured one of the best bursts of offense that the Paints have shown in quite a while. Looking at the scoreboard going into the bottom of tthe seventh inning, you could see that a familiar script was being played out once again by the guys in the white jerseys, something that had been a thorn in their sides for this past week. Although being down by a score of 1-0 late in the game looked bad, there was always that chance of coming back. After all, it was only a one run lead for Butler, so anything was possible.

Blake Mascarello made his first start of the season for the Paints. He has often been the guy who comes in relief of pitchers when they need the help. In this game, Mascarello started things off on the mound, and it turned out that Blake was a pleasant surprise. He would give up 4 hits and a walk, but he strike out six batters on the night, and he would hang in there for a good seven innings. Now even though that throughout his start he was on the short end, Mascarello held his own, and he kept the Paints in the ballgame, because unlike other games where the flood of runs would continue to pour in, the runs for Butler simply stopped at just numero uno.

Krist Linster and Chadd Steinborn also did their jobs in keeping the Blue Sox at bay for this game. They did not surrender any runs at all, and between the two relief pitchers, they only gave up one hit. Yes, one hit and that was it. Linster gave up the only hit in the late innings while Steinborn gave up just a pair of walks. I have noticed that the pitching staff is more capable of bouncing back at an earlier rate than the hitting squad can. Pitching is slightly more valuable in the sense that you need stoppers against opposing offenses that may be blazing with base hit material or with brute home run power. I've learned over the years that you can just never have enough good pitching. Solid pitching staffs come only once in a while.

For the offense, shortstop Ben Allen had an infield single and a double. Left fielder Andy Brouse was, by all means, sizzling around the basepaths, as he had a double and a triple. Right fielder Eian Banks had an RBI double. DH Zach Frentsos looked really impressive at the plate in this game, as he had two doubles and an RBI. Frentsos has been stroking the ball more properly in his recent trips to the plate. He's starting to make the right adjustments when it comes to the wooden bats. He did start off slow, but if he keeps this up, then I have a feeling that we'll see him get more starts in the outfield. Kyle Gendron had a pinch hit RBI single in the seventh inning.

Overall, a great bouncing back for the offense in this game. I was impressed with the resiliency here. This has been missing in recent games for whatever reason, but in front of the home crowd and knowing that the last three games you had at your backyard were all losses, you knew that the Paints had more than enough motivation to get this win in and make their hits important in the late innings. Sometimes, you just have to have that sense of urgency once in a while. I don't prefer reacting under the pressure all the time, but if you need a motivational tool, then it doesn't hurt to react under the pressure then. In that sense, you're challenging yourself.

I saw Butler Blue Sox manager Jason Wuerfel, and obviously, he was enjoying himself having fun with his team. I would like to tell Jason right now (and I'm sure he will read this) that I didn't have the time to talk to him, unfortunately because I was preoccupied with some stuff unrelated to baseball, such as what I would like to do in the future, but I want to say that I'm really glad that he wanted to come to the Prospect League and manage. I'm thankful that for some of the coaches in this league, there are indeed familiar faces that used to be in the Frontier League. Sure enough, I'll get to talk to Jason, and that will be a fun time. I would like to thank Jason for his support of me.

A Loss In The Wind

2009-06-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Butler 7, Chillicothe 2

The Chillicothe Paints capped off a two game road trip to Butler, Pennsylvania with a split, but perhaps in this case, they may have to get a feel about what's going on with the way things are going because this past week has featured slumping not yet seen previously. This game featured nor real big explosion of hits that lead to some runs. The Paints only mustered out two runs in this ballgame, and for the Butler Blue Sox, they did a good job of taking down the Paints when they opportunities presented themselves.

It started with the first pitcher on the mound for the Paints. Tony Davey did not have a stellar game. He was a bit shaky from the start, and he couldn't establish himself a presence on the mound that starters need to do. Going 5 and 1/3 innings deep in his start, Davey gave up 9 hits, a hit batter, and a walk, and that lead to giving up 5 earned runs. He struck out four batters, but the damage was already done. The Blue Sox pulled away to a 5-2 lead that they wouldn't give up, and extended their lead by two runs more. This just wasn't a good day for Davey. I don't know what could be going wrong for him, but this has been present in his starts where he starts off shaky. I'm hopeful that whatever problems there are, they'll be corrected.

Stephen Shackleford came in relief of Davey, and he gave up two hits and two walks in 1 and 2/3 innings of work. This amounted to one earned run given up. Brad Schnitzer put in one inning of work and gave up two hits, which lead to earned run. He struck out a batter. Remember earlier when I was talking about making adjustments? Well, I think now would be a good time to talk about making adjustments again, because you have to realize that the new Paints have to make adjustments whenever they go out to other ballparks in the Prospect League. Everything becomes different, at least a little bit.

For the offense, Zach Leonard had a single and an RBI. Cory Maguire had an RBI double. DH Andy Brouse had a single. Kyle Gendron had a single. Steven Mirizzi had a single. That was the only offense that came out from the Paints. I can't say it enough how things have been going up and down for the Paints' offense this past week. Consider that we're in a new environment in the baseball world, and things are different with the Prospect League, but when you go through a slump, it's just hard for me not to wonder what it could be that might be hindering the Paints ability right now. It's hard not to take notice that the Paints can go through numerous innings without even scoring a run, but nonetheless, these things go in cycles. They're just phases.

In other unrelated news...

To be honest, I don't know what's going to happen when it comes to my reports in the future. I don't know because I get the feeling that they're becoming less and less professional with every passing report. That may not be the case after all, but unfortunately, I feel that way. I feel like sometimes I just reach for something to report on. There's not much of a story if I just have to write similar statistics and tell people how the game went down. In other words, I need extra motivation, and not only that, but I need more material, plain and simple. There have been things going on in life away from baseball that I've been needing to clear up, and sometimes that can be a big cloud over me in recent times.

Paints get off the slide

2009-06-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 3, Butler 1

After dropping three straight games on their home turf, the Painst were going through a bummer of a losing streak, slipping and sliding as it were. However, this game on the road against the Butler Blue Sox was pretty much what the doctor had ordered for the Paints. The weather for this game was a bit iffy throughout the night, as towards the end of the game, it started to rain heavily for a brief time until the rain died down well enough for the teams to finish off the game.

For the game, Clayton Schulz made the start for the Paints. Once again, he did a good job holding his own, as he went 7 innings deep in his start. He only gave up one earned run while giving up only three hits and a pair of walks. He did another splendid job of striking out batters, as he got 6 K's recorded. Schulz, the youngest player on the Paints' roster, is making an impact for this team. If anything, you are never too young to be an ace for this starting rotation if you can be able to bring it just like Schulz, because there hasn't been much at all to really talk about negatively when it comes to his starts. Schulz was a senior in high school last year, and he signed on with a college (North Florida University) earlier this year. It's good to see Schulz succeeding, and as Paints manager Brian Mannino put it, growing up through the whole process.

Mark Williams and Chadd Steinborn made relief appearances for the Paints, and they pitched one inning each. Both of them did a swell job. No damage was done to the Paints' lead when they got into the game. They held the fort down and kept the Blue Sox batters at bay. I believe the pitchers are coming around again, and I think the slide had more to do with the shaky defense than it did with the pitching, but then again, nobody knows for sure. Anyway, things just went well for the pitching at Butler for this game. It's always nice to see stellar pitching out there on the mound.

Let's take a look at the offense for the Paints.

For the first time in a while, the offense for the Paints was present, and they did make some noise in this game. They made quite enough noise to get the Blue Sox rattled, and they got in three runs. Kyle Galbraith, once again starting in center field, had a triple. Shortstop Ben Allen was bumped up to second in the batting order, and he would get a single and an RBI off a sacrifice fly. DH Cory Maguire had a single. Kyle Gendron had two singles. Zach Frentsos also had two singles. Catcher Kris McDonough had a 2-RBI double. Left fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. Overall, this was a much better showing for the offense that had gone missing for at least 13 straight innings, as they didn't get a run scored in that span.

Listening in on the radio broadcast commentated by Greg Bigam, I had heard that the ballpark at Butler featured two different types of surfaces. For the infield, it had a FieldTurf surface. For the outfield, it was just a normal, natural grass field. That isn't so common by baseball standards because you are either settling on one surface or the other when you are setting up your ballpark. Only on rare occasions, and in this case it makes sense, do you improvise and use two surfaces at once for your playing field. Personally, I have no problem with this. It may not look so appealing to others, but I think it does the job. In fact, it is interesting that you have to deal with two surfaces because players have to make adjustments.

Welcome To The Slide

2009-06-24T18:39:00.000-07:00

Springfield 1, Chillicothe 0

The last time the Chillicothe Paints faced a team that was from Springfield, Illinois would have to be in the year 2001, as the Springfield Capitals were a mainstay for the Frontier League for a good chunk of time until they moved up to Rockford. Well, what can you say about a game that you had an okay chance of making noise, and yet you couldn't get the hits you needed to win? This game didn't get out of hand because the pitching for the Chillicothe Paints wasn't all that bad this time around, but on the same hand, there wasn't any response from the offense.

A.J. Achter made the start for the Paints, and he did give up the one run, but if you take away that one run, he really did do a pretty good job considering the situation. Achter went 6 innings deep in his start, giving up six hits and two walks, but he proceeded to record 8 K's. I noticed quite often in pretty tight situations that Achter actually pitched better when there were runners in scoring position for Springfield. His pitches had a batter time of finding the strike zone then than when there weren't any runners in scoring position. A.J. held off the Sliders as best as he could.

Blake Mascarello and Chadd Steinborn made relief appearances after Achter's start, and they too did a good job of preventing Springfield from scoring any more runs. So in essence, the pitching was present at the V.A. in this game for the Paints, but the hitting remained to be missing in action. This is just another case of having a few elements of your team ready, but some other elements just aren't there with you yet.

Kyle Galbraith made another start in center field, and he had a single in the sixth inning. New face for the Paints, Zach Leonard, started at third base and had a single and a double. Left fielder Andy Brouse had an infield single. Shortstop Ben Allen had an infield single and a triple in this game, so he was fairly productive. However, he was part of a controversial play in the bottom of the eighth inning as Kyle Galbraith was intending to bunt with Allen on third, trying to get him to score. However, Galbraith failed to get the bunt down. The catcher caught it and tagged Allen out, who was storming towards home. To be honest though, it was a bang-bang play, and there might have been a chance of Allen escaping the tag to score. The out call got Paints manager Brian Mannino heated, but for good reason.

You couldn't have written a more repititive script for the hitting side of things, as batted balls by the Paints kept going right at the Springfield Sliders' gloves. There was no consistency at all in trying to find open spots of the field to get any runs in. We got them on, and we got them over, but we just couldn't get them in, unfortunately. Talking with another Paints fan during this game, I was talking about the possibility of tweaking the lineup for future games, because right now something doesn't seem to be clicking at all with the Paints. I wouldn't call it nervousness, but I would call some of the things that's going on a slight lack of focus. You just have to gather yourself and let things come to you instead of forcing yourself to get to those things. Just relax and have fun. That's all you have to do, in all honesty.

One more thing to note here...

The Springfield Sliders arrived at the ballpark wearing black uniforms on a day that was pretty hot. I was wondering if that was such a wise idea knowing that you have a dark color on with the sun and heat beating down on you while you're trying to play a baseball game. In my opinion, I thought that might have backfired on the Sliders somehow, but to their credit, the black uniforms didn't bother them one bit, as they held down the home team fairly well. I also think it's odd that Springfield's colors include green and yellow, and yet I see black out there on the field. Oh well, that's just another quirk of the game.

Knights Blaze Through Paints

2009-06-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

North Coast 13, Chillicothe 5

Sometimes, you just know it when you see it. Things got pretty ugly in a hurry for the home team as the Paints lost another one to the visiting North Coast Knights by a score of 13-5 on Tuesday. Just like the previous game, things just got out of hand, and when they saw their opportunities to grab control of the game, the Knights took every opportunity they saw. This was a bit of a hard one to see as the Paints weren't playing so well, especially with the gloves.

One vivid reminder would be a routine ground ball that went right through second baseman Kyle Gendron's legs, but to be fair, that wasn't the only mistake made by the defense. Everyone was having another off night, and as the game wore on, it just wasn't getting any better. Unlike the previous game though, all it took here was the third inning for things to start crumbling. A 6 run third inning accompanied by a 4 run fourth inning ended being a huge difference maker in this game, and the Knights did what they had to do to make their attempts successful.

To form an interesting analogy about this game, I'd have to say that the weather before the game was pretty hot once again, and the opposing team's bats were even hotter. The Knights blazed a trail, and marched valliantly past the Paints' pitching staff and defense to capture the victory. Okay, so maybe I'm not the best when it comes to making interesting and entertaining analogies, but it was worth a try.

Stephen Shackleford made the start for the Paints, and things went south quickly, unfortunately. He put in 3 innings of work in his start, and gave up a total of 7 runs to opposing batters. he gave up 7 hits and a walk to the Knights. He managed to strike out three batters, but in comparison, they pale to the likes of the 7 runs given up, and that's the thing that made him have a quick start. Oddly enough, I recall the huge Knights rally in the third inning starting solely on a throwing error by catcher Kris McDonough to first base on a chopper.

Eric Heckaman pitched four innings of relief, but he didn't fare much better on the mound. He gave up the 4 runs in the fourth inning, and gave up 5 hits and a walk in total. He struck out only one batter. Tony Davey and Krist Linster would see some action on the mound for the rest of the game. To sum up the problems that were experienced here, I think you'd have to look no further than the shaky defense that was behind the pitchers for this one. Most of the offense made by the Knights came off of blunders made by the Paints' defense.

Kyle Galbraith had a single. First baseman Cory Maguire had an RBI single and a triple. DH Andrew Marshall had an RBI single and a double. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single. Catcher Kris McDonough didn't have a hit, but he had an RBI for this game. During Kyle Gendron's at-bat, two runs scored off the only error that the Knights made all game long, a ball that got past the shortstop that looked pretty routine. Gendron would get in a single.

Overall, this game wasn't played really well. It's sad to say that, but it's true. These things happen, and in baseball, cycles of this do occur, but you gotta prepare for it when you start slumping or when you feel like a slump is one the horizon. You can't get yourself worked up and you can't add pressure to the situation or else that will cause things to get even more out of control. All a team can do in this situation is to just ride out the storm, and stay relaxed. Continue to have fun out there on the field, dig deep, think about your heart and soul, and eventually, you'll climb your way out of the hole that you created.

I had the time to talk to some of the players briefly before the game, and I asked one player what he thought about the other ballparks that are in the Prospect League. I won't hold anything back when I report this response, but this player said some of the ballparks are okay, and some are, and I'm only quoting, "crappy." Of course, he said that V.A. Memorial Stadium is most likely the best ballpark in the Prospect League, and judging by the looks of the ballparks myself, I have to humbly agree.

Another one of those off nights

2009-06-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

North Coast 7, Chillicothe 1

Well, if you take a look at the score above, then you would know that this game got out of hand pretty quickly, and it also didn't help that the pace of the game was not so smooth, but rather it was dragging on for a bit too long. This game was just one of those peculiar nights for the home team. Nothing really seemed to get going for the Paints. Both the hitting and the pitching were not up to par for the Paints. The North Coast Knights just continued to put on the pressure, and the runs kept coming in for them, while the Paints were having a rough time getting those timely hits in.

Kyle Galbraith had a single. Andrew Marshall had two singles. Eian Banks also had two singles. Kyle Gendron had the best hitting performance for the Paints in this game, as he had three hits on the night. Gendron had two singles, a double, and a stolen base. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a pretty odd day, and by all means, I'm putting that lightly. Steven got hit twice before actually legging out an infield single. Mirizzi got hit on the back in his first at-bat, and then in his second at-bat, he got hit right in the helmet by a pitch. I know they say that when you get hit by pitches, "you're taking one for the team", but I'm sure that it was rather odd seeing Mirizzi become such a big target for those two hit by pitches. Mirizzi, of course, is doing just fine. That's all a part of the game.

Tim Krofcheck had two singles to round out the offense, but again, the Paints weren't getting the timely hits in. They were not stringing in hits like they have been earlier. Chalk this game up as just another off day for the team. These things just happen, so just prepare for it when it feels like it's gonna be a roller coaster style of baseball game.

For the pitching, this was an off day for them as well. Rex Ingham made the start for the Paints, and in his start, he was a bit shaky. Even though he did go 6 innings deep in his start in front of a decent sized crowd on hand to watch, he gave up three hits, a walk, and two runs. He struck out two batters.

Mark Williams came in relief of Ingham and put in 1 and 1/3 innings of work, giving up three runs on two hits and one walk allowed. He struck out a batter, but overall, this wasn't so good a game for him, as he left runners on base when Krist Linster came into the game. Linster faced a few batters and gave up a hit and plunked a batter. He would give up an earned run in the prcoess. Finally, Brad Schnitzer was the last pitcher to come in for the Paints, and unfortunately, it was just more of the same "Aw, shucks" kind of thing facing the North Coast Knights batters, who to their credit, did their jobs well in securing a big W for them.

As I mentioned at the start of this article, the pace of this game dragged on and on, and you could tell that good vibes weren't coming when the runs kept crossing the plate for the Knights. You have to consider that this happens in baseball. Baseball doesn't have a time limit, unlike the other sports, and you have less hints as to when the game might end. However, the pace of this game wasn't going so well for me. Pretty much during the game, I kinda had that feeling that the home team was having an off day. At the end of the day, everything will be okay. I'm yet to see any team in any baseball league, collegiate level and up, to go through an entire season undefeated and not go through any pressure or have any bumps in the road. We will have these kind of games from time to time. You win and you lose. It just happens.

I don't know why I feel this way, but I happen to believe that when Ben Allen plays, the team seems to get some type of boost when Allen is playing. True, he's not the biggest bopper in the lineup, and he may not even be the flashiest player in personality, but there's something to be said about the grit and determination that Ben Allen shows when he's on the field. There's something about him that I really like, and I hope he gets things going when it comes to his playing ability.

As for who did start at shortstop for the Paints in this game, I was still pretty impressed with Kyle Gendron. He's a gamer, and I appreciate what he does on the field. He's one of those guys who can really take off if he gets enough chances to do it. The thing is, he just hasn't been seeing the field a lot, but he will get playing time, and I know he will make the most of it. Maybe some re-shuffling in the lineup could help the Paints out? You never know what might happen if you try new things. You can go either way when you shuffle the lineup a bit.

Paints Bounce Back at McBride

2009-06-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Richmond 2

After dropping a game that involved final inning heroics by Richmond's offense the previous night, the Chillicothe Paints managed to bounce back and win this second game at Don McBride Stadium. The Paints did just enough to get the victory. Scoring 6 runs happens to be a good number, after all. The most interesting thing to note here would be the added emphasis on the stolen base category. The Paints did a splendid job on the basepaths. In total, the Paints stole five bases in this game, and Richmond wasn't able to throw them out during any of those stolen base attempts.

Third baseman Kyle Galbraith had two of those stolen bases. He had a single for this game. Shortstop Ben Allen did not steal any bases, but he had a good day at the plate, as he got in three singles, with two of them being of the infield variety. Left Fielder Andy Brouse, who is leading the Paints in overall offense, had an RBI double in the seventh inning. First baseman Cory Maguire had another one of those stolen bases. He had two singles and got a pair of RBI's in all. Right fielder Eian Banks had an infield single. Center fielder Zach Frentsos had a single and a double. Steven Mirizzi came off the bench to pinch hit, and he had an RBI double in the eighth inning. Tim Krofcheck had the last two stolen bases, but oddly enough, he didn't get any hits. Still, he made a great impact in this game because of his distinctive speed on the basepaths.

Tim Bertucci made the start for the Paints. This game had an early start time of 2:35 PM, so this had to be a nice change of pace for both teams. As for Bertucci, the early start time seemed to fit him well as he went 4 and 1/3 innings deep in his start. He gave up two runs on seven hits allowed. He gave up a walk, and he got in two strikeouts. Blake Mascarello pitched 2 and 2/3 innings of relief, and he didn't have any runs charged to him. He gave up two hits and a walk, but he struck out three batters. Brad Schnitzer put in an inning of work and only gave up a walk. Chadd Steinborn pitched the last inning of the game, and only gave up a hit. He proceeded to strike out a batter and retire the side, denying any chance of deja vu happening.

This was just a well played game, in my opinion. I really did appreciate the aggressiveness that we showed on the basepaths. Tim Krofcheck is one speedy guy, and I really like the hustle he shows, and not to mention the motor he has. Tim may be the fastest baserunner on our team, but I can't be certain about that. I also want to note that Richmond shortstop Raymond Fuentes has been making an impact for his team lately. As mentioned by Andy Smittenkamp, Fuentes had the game winning hit the previous game, and it seems to me like he's another player who has great potential of busting loose one day. He has been a good find for their club, and that also reminds me that the more impactful players in the Prospect League have so far been shortstops.

Wild Twist of a Finish

2009-06-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

Richmond 4, Chillicothe 3

The last time the Chillicothe Paints played a ballclub from Richmond was when both markets were still in the Frontier League. 2005 was the year, and Richmond was bowing out of the FL in that year, so it has been quite a while since the Paints organization has been to Richmond, Indiana. When I returned to Chillicothe for the home debut of the Prospect League Paints, I saw pretty much the same faces. I didn't see too many new faces at all. For diehard Roosters fans back in the day, this debut season in the Prospect League has been wonderful for them to reunite and get reacquainted with the settings of Don McBride Stadium, a ballpark that is still a classic ballpark in its own right.

Andy Smittenkamp and Tom Arnett are two Richmond baseball fans who I've gotten to know over the past year, and I know that they are excited about this new team playing. For those of you wondering, I recognize that I made a mistake in announcing the name of the team in Richmond. River Rats is two words, and not one. You know, sometimes that just happens with me, but it's okay. Some of the things that came along with the River Rats are interesting, such as their jersey style. The name font, the colors, and of course, the name itself make the River Rats' jerseys one of the most interesting looking jerseys in the Prospect League.

The first score of the ballgame came off the bat of River Rats catcher Tyler Bullock, who just happened to flat out demolish the pitch that he saw. Aside from Caleb King, Tyler Bullock looks to be another player who may be busting loose soon and becoming a true offensive threat in the Prospect League. I see that potential in him. I think he may be that kind of guy to do just the job. Now even though I always root for the Paints, whenever I see something that looks impressive from the other team, I can't help but take note of that and actually applaud on rare occasions.

To go into detail about this game, all you could say is that the Paints had this game well in hand, but final inning heroics by the opposing lineup got to the Paints in the end, and three runs crossed the plate to give the River Rats a great come from behind victory. That has happened a lot of times before in the long lasting rivalry between Richmond and Chillicothe, and it looks to be nothing new in the new versions of these teams. The Paints did a good job of pitching for most of this game, but again, the last inning just got to the pitching, and the bullpen wasn't in a good position to get any calls.

Starting pitcher Tony Davey did a pretty good job in this game for the Paints, as he pitched seven innings of work, giving up 7 hits and a walk, but he only gave up one run and struck out five batters. The only run he gave up was, of course, that monsterous shot made by Tyler Bullock. Krist Linster pitched one inning of relief for the Paints and did a good job as well, as he only gave up a walk. Eric Heckaman, on the other hand, was struggling on the mound in the ninth inning. He was wild throughout, and couldn't find that comfort spot to get the three outs that he needed. He gave up three walks and a hit, and along with the help of an error, the River Rats got their three runs to snatch the victory away.

For the offense, Kyle Galbraith started in center field and had a great day, getting three hits. He had two singles and a double. DH Brandon White had a bunt single. Zach Fresntsos came off the bench as a pinch hitter and had a single, a stolen base, and got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Andy Brouse had an RBI double. Catcher Andrew Marshall had a single. Eian Banks had a single. Kyle Gendron had an RBI double. Ben Allen had two singles.

The Paints had plenty of hits in this game, and the offense got in what looked like to be enough runs, but crazy things just happen once in a while, and those crazy things happened here. You know that saying, "when you get kicked off of a horse, you gotta get back on and ride again."

Runs Coming In Bunches

2009-06-18T19:05:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 10, Richmond 1

Another game has been put into the books for the Paints of the Prospect League, and these Paints keep rolling along as we get closer to the dog days of the season. Everything came together pretty well in this game, and the Paints did a good job in every aspect of the game. The team looked solid throughout. They got the hits they needed. They got the pitches they needed. They got the defensive plays they needed. When you do just enough of everything in a ballgame, then chances are your team is going to win that ballgame. The Paints scored more than enough guys to get the victory here.

So how about those runs, you ask? Well, look no further than the very first inning of the game. The Chillicothe Paints scored 8 runs in the first inning alone, and only scored two more runs later on. You could say that the game was well in hand for the Paints right there after they got those 8 runs. The general mood of the crowd was great, especially for that 8 run rally, but after that, the mood died down alittle only because there wasn't much offense being scored in the other 7 innings for the offense. Rest assured though, the crowd was happy to see this result.

Clayton Schulz made the start for the Paints. In his start, he went 5 innings deep and gave up only one run on 3 hits and a walk allowed. He threw a wild pitch, but nothing was really hurting after that. He went on to strike out three batters. Blake Mascarello got into the game in relief and pitch two innings. He struck out one batter. Mark Williams came in and pitched an inning himself. He only threw a wild pitch, but kept the scoring at zero for the Riverrats. Chadd Steinborn pitched the last inning and only gave up a walk. He got the job done by retiring the Richmond batters one last time.

Those runs I talked about earlier came real quick, and maybe not in the blink of an eye, but you can believe that it was pretty close to that. The first batter of the game for the Paints was third baseman Kyle Galbraith, and he had two at-bats in the first inning. He had a single, a double, a stolen base, and he got an RBI. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a bunt single, a stolen base, and he also went deep for a two-run homerun in the eighth inning. Those were insurance runs tacked onto insurance runs, but really, that homerun by Brouse looked sharp.

DH Andrew Marshall had an infield RBI single. Center fielder Eian Banks had a pair of RBI's off a single. First baseman Matt Abro got an RBI off a fielder's choice. and managed to steal a base. Catcher Kris McDonough had a single. Overall, this was just another solid performance by the home team, and the Paints have showed quite a bit of what they're made of. They have a good foundation in place. In my opinion, I'm curious to know just how they stack up against the leader of the Western Division, the Quincy Gems. Unfortunately, we won't get to know the answer to that question for this regular season. So far, you have to say that the Chillicothe Paints are the only other team aside from the Quincy Gems who are making a considerable amount of noise.

I had the chance to talk to former Chillicothe Paints infielder Joe Spiers. He attended this ballgame, and I was glad to see him come back and visit. I asked him some questions, the basics like how he was doing and if he missed Chillicothe. Obviously, Joe misses Chillicothe. I know that Joe had a fun time playing here, and I truly appreciate what he did while he was here. Joe had to move on and play on another Frontier League team, and he ended up with the Washington Wild Things, and he was on their roster until recently. I could tell that he had a good time visiting. Whenever you get to this ballpark, you can tell that this is just a special place. It has that certain feeling and historical lure to it. I just want to say that Joe Spiers and others are more than welcome to visit the V.A. anytime they want. I'd love to sit down and chat with them again.

Busting Out The Big Lumber

2009-06-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 7, Richmond 2

What can you say about a day that was filled with emotions about honoring the troops and having a nearly packed crowd on hand at the V.A.? The answer is simple. Most likely, you'll end up seeing a game that has a different feel to it. When there's something else on the horizon that can pump you up, you allow that thing to pump you up and you get some more motivation. This day at the ballpark was a fun one, make no mistake at all. By now, the crowd in Ross County has gotten used to the fact that the Paints are playing in a college wooden bat league, and in fact, they enjoy watching that kind of baseball. The support that the Prospect League is getting, in my opinion, is becoming fascinating.

Let's talk about what the home team did for this game. On the mound for the Paints to make his first start for the game was a pitcher who I had no recollection of at all. He wasn't listed on the roster as I checked on the scorecard that I usually get for each game. I found out that the starting pitcher for Chillicothe was A.J. Achter, and this guy did an outstanding job in his debut as a member of the Southern Ohio Stampede. Achter pitched seven innings, and he looked really impressive throwing some good looking pitches, and those pitches really got to Richmond's batters. Achter recorded 8 strikeouts, and gave up two runs. The Riverrats got in hardly any hits against Achter.

Krist Linster, the sidearmer from the bullpen, came in relief and pitched the last two innings of the game. He gave up a walk and struck out a batter. Here's one thing that I would like to note. The Paints have done a solid job of keeping the amount of pitchers playing in a single game down to a reasonable number considering all of the games that have been played that were very close. The amount of pitchers that you have available in the bullpen does play into the strategy making aspect of the game at hand. Now under Prospect League rules, the pitchers are going to be held to a certain pitch count, so don't be surprised if new pitchers come in because of the high and limited pitch count.

The offense was there once again for the Paints, and even though they had a slow start in getting the runs in, they eventually did get enough runs to win the ballgame. The key here is to string the base hits that you make, and the Paints did a good job of busting out the big lumber to get the 7 runs in their win. Third baseman Kyle Galbraith went deep for a 2-run homerun in the third inning and came back to drive in two more runs on a double in the seventh inning. Galbraith had a fantastic game, getting 4 RBI's. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single and a triple. Matt Abro went deep for a solo homerun shot in the seventh inning. Center fielder Zach Frentsos got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Tim Krofcheck had two singles, with one of them coming off a bunt.

This has been the third game against Richmond that the Chillicothe Paints have performed well. I can't quite put my fnger on it, but I'd have to say that the Paints feel comfortable whenever they play the Riverrats. That's big since you need to find your comfort spots against a team that plays in your own division. Thankfully for the Paints this year, the Eastern Division is the lighter division of the two as it has only five teams. One thing about divisional games would be this, they're always important in some shape or form. Last I checked, the Riverrats were in third place in the East in this still young season going into this game, so this was a good win to have.

Returning The Favor

2009-06-16T18:32:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Slippery Rock 4

The Chillicothe Paints made their brief return to Jack Critchfield Park to face the Slippery Rock Sliders, the same team that has made the Paints run a little bumpy recently with the doubleheader sweep back at home at the V.A. on Sunday. The Sliders have made a good argument as to who might be the team to give the Paints a run for their money, (only analogy wise of course), in the Eastern Division this year in the Prospect League. In fact, if you take a look at the games between these two teams, the contests have been both very interesting and very competitive, with rallies being made by both clubs.

First of all, let's give credit to where that credit is due. I'm talking about the pretty respectable turnouts by the Slippery Rock faithful at the properly dubbed place for the ballpark, The Jack. For whatever reason, that reminds me of that famous fast food restaurant Jack In The Box, but I think that's a great nickname. The Sliders have done a marvelous job so far in getting people to come to the games. They have had almost no problem getting decent sized crowds to watch their games, and I have to commend them for their efforts. Case and point, let's go over Slippery Rock's campaign for only one year in the Frontier League. In 2007, crowds were just not coming to the ballpark, and why? That was because the team that played there was only a temporary team. The 2009 Slippery Rock Sliders of the Prospect League are a permanent fixture, and that should explain why the crowds are very much better.

Now that we have the interesting facts put away, then let's get on with the game at hand. Like all the other games that they have played so far this year, this game wasn't any different, as both the Paints and Sliders had strong showings in their efforts. Of course, only one team could get the win, and if you follow the Paints, then you can pump your fist a tad bit for this result. This game saw the debut of one pitcher for the Paints while a starting pitcher made his debut in relief. Eric Heckaman, who we know pretty well now, made his first relief appearance of the year. He put in one inning of work, the ninth inning, and sealed the deal for the Paints even though he gave up two hits, a walk, and a run.

Stephen Shackleford made the start for the Paints. He went 5 innings deep in his start, giving up a trio of walks, a pair of hits, and he threw a wild pitch that went solo. He gave up three runs in total and struck out three batters. Okay, so perhaps I'm bad at making these things sound remotely entertaining when I write all loosey goosey, but I figured that was catchy. Anyway, the pitching was good for the Paints, and the main thing is, the pitching was once again good enough to win. Giving up 4 runs can be managed, and it was managed quite well by the visiting team here. When you're faced with any pressure cooker situations, you have to dig deep and pitch your way through these jams. That's what these guys on the mound did for the Paints.

Now for the offense, they once again busted out complete explosion full of hits in a single game, but overall, it was only a two run margin that the Paints won by, lest we forget. The batters did a solid job of spreading out the 16 hits made in this game. You have to give credit to these young men because they certainly are doing a great job of seeing the ball and getting their bats on pitches to make something out of them. Stringing those hits together to drive in more runs is another thing, but here the fifth inning was really the only critical part of the game for Chillicothe's offense. Brandon White batted leadoff and was the DH. He had two singles and an RBI. Shortstop Ben Allen had an RBI single. Left fielder Andy Brouse had two singles and an RBI.

First baseman Cory Maguire had a single. Catcher Andrew Marshall had two singles. Third baseman Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. Center fielder Steven Mirizzi had a single. Second baseman Tim Krofcheck had two singles. Right fielder Zach Frentsos had a great game. For the first time this year for the Paints, Zach saw the ball really well and got in some hits. He had three hits for this ballgame, and had a perfect percentage. He had two singles and an RBI double. Overall, this was the kind of game that the Paints needed because the Slippery Rock Sliders took it to the Paints on Sunday, and you could tell that those two games were bummers due to the off day fatigue and little execution, so this was a good game to bounce back on against a division rival.

The Paints will return home to the V.A. They will take on the Richmond Riverrats on Wednesday at 7:05 PM.

Wild One in Butler

2009-06-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 10, Butler 7

Venturing out to Pennsylvania once more, the Chillicothe Paints made their way to Butler, a city that's a bit north of Pittsburgh. They traveled to Pullman Park. The Pullman Park that many ballpark historians know isn't really present anymore, as there have been major rennovations made to the place for some time. FieldTurf has been installed on the grounds that have seen players like Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle once play on. So while there's new surface on Butler's ballpark, baseball is still being played there, and you can be sure that the Prospect League is proud to have Butler, Pennsylvania as a member.

The Chillicothe Paints won their first game in the city of Butler on June 15th, 2009. Here, the Paints won doing everything they could to get as many runs crossing the plate. There were great plays made in this game by the Paints, and it was the type of game that saw many runs go by in a short span of time. The game featured a homerun hit by the Butler BlueSox and none hit by the Paints, but the visiting team didn't need any homers to pull away with the win here.

Rex Ingham of Ohio University made his first start for the Paints. He went 5 and 1/3 innings deep, giving up 5 hits, a walk, and 4 runs while throwing a wild pitch, but he managed to record 4 K's, looking fairly sharp even when he was under pressure by the opposing offense. He was pitching to his Bobcat battery mate Kris McDonough, who made the start back behind the plate. I suppose that they're teamwork together, communicating with each other helped a great deal because Ingham was pretty focused in this game in spite of the 4 runs given up.

Mark Williams came in relief of Ingham and put in 2 and 2/3 innings of work, giving up 3 hits with one of them being a solo homerun shot. Williams commited a balk but struck out a batter. He gave up 3 runs total. Chadd Steinborn pitched the final inning of the game, and did a good job of retiring the BlueSox side. Overall, I was impressed with the resiliency of our pitching. It wasn't perfect by any means, and that's to be expected in collegiate action, but when it comes to the traffic jams along the bases, our pitchers handled themselves well on the mound.

As for the offense, the Paints busted out 16 hits, which should be near a record for overall amount of hits for the Paints in a single game. Kyle Galbraith, making the start in center field, had an infield RBi single. Shortstop Ben Allen had two singles. Andy Brouse had a single and a triple. DH Andrew Marshall had a double and 3 RBI's overall. First baseman Cory Maguire went 3-for-4 in this game, hitting three singles and getting an RBI as well. Cory saw the ball pretty well in this game, as he was making solid contact with the ball. Matt Abro had a pinch hit single.

Eian Banks had two singles and a pair of RBI's. Kyle Gendron had a double and a stolen base. Kris McDonough had an infield single. Tim Krofcheck had a bunt infield single and a hit-and-run single while getting an RBI. The execution for the offense was just solid all around. The team didn't show off any power, but they got in so many base hits, and if you string many base hits together, then you would know that there's gonna be plenty of runs scored in that game. That's why I love small ball. I'm of the opinion that small ball makes a better impact, and it makes a louder statement in the game even though homeruns are fun to watch.

The Paints will do battle once again with the Slippey Rock Sliders as they travel back down to Jack Critchfield Park.

Double Trouble at Home

2009-06-14T19:01:00.000-07:00

-Prospect League News-

Slippery Rock 2, Chillicothe 0 (Game 1)

Slippery Rock 3, Chillicothe 1 (Game 2)

Sometimes, the ball really doesn't bounce your way at all. It always happens eventually. For this doubleheader in front of the home crowd in Chillicothe, the Paints just couldn't get anything going. For the first time in quite a while, the Paints actually looked somewhat vulnerable when it comes to the setup of their approach. Two losses in one day against the then second place team Slippery Rock Sliders at your own backyard is something that wasn't drawn up by any means. This was an off day for the Paints, and the thing is, they just couldn't catch a break when they tried to get a rally going.

Ton Bertucci made the start for the first game of the doubleheader for the Paints. At first, he was doing just fine until later on in his outing as he was getting hit hard by the opposing offense, and not so much as in giving up a ton of runs, but more like a good string of methodically hit balls. Bertucci went 5 and 2/3 innings in his start, giving up two runs. One of them was a solo homerun shot past the left center field wall early on. He gave up 5 hits and one walk overall.

For the Sliders, Andrew Morris was doing a real solid job of pitching. Maybe I could use the phrase "He was sizzling" in this game, because for 3 and 2/3 innings of his start, Morris had a no hitter going. A great tip of the cap to Morris for his fantastic start. He did exactly what he had to do to give his team a lift after what they went through at their home ballpark two days before this day.

For relief, the Paints gave Blake Mascarello two separate appearances in this doubleheader. In the first game, Mascarello went 1 and 1/3 innings and only plunked a batter while striking out two batters. In the second game, he went 4 innings deep in relief, giving up only one hit and again, striking out two batters. Overall, this was quietly a good day for Blake Mascarello.

Now let's talk about the offense for the Paints.

The offense sputtered in both of the games, and there was no rythym established.

The Paints went down in order through the first three innings in the first game, while it felt more like an up and down roller coaster for the offense in the second game. Combining the two games, Kyle Galbraith had an RBI double. Andy Brouse had a single. Eian Banks had a double. Shortstop Ben Allen had a single for each game. Tim Krofcheck had a single. Zach Frentsos had a stolen base. The second game of the doubleheader saw the debut of Kris McDonough. McDonough is listed on the Paints roster as a catcher, but he was in the lineup as the DH.

Chalk this day up as an off day. That's what it was for the hometown team. If I could take note of anything that really looked interesting, then I would have to point out the solid defense played by shortstop Ben Allen. I saw quite a lot of hustle out of Allen when he was chraging after the ball to make plays. He was almost all over the middle infield. He had to go to work early because there were ground balls that kept going over to him. There's something about Ben Allen that I think I'm going to like. I'm beginning to notice the poise that Ben Allen brings to the club. He's just not the type who gets rattled easily, and I like that. Even though he batted ninth in the lineup for both games, he made the biggest impact in this off day.

Doing the little things to win

2009-06-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe Paints 7, Slippery Rock Sliders 1

The Paints traveled on the bus from Lorain, Ohio to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania to reach their next pit stop at Jack Critchfield Park. The home ballpark for the Slippery Rock Sliders is nicknamed "The Jack", and it's properly given by the broadcasting crew in Slippery Rock. Summing up this game, the Paints did a good job of just doing the little things to win the game. Of course, the offense capped off their run with something not so little, but throughout the game, the Paints constructed some good offense by way of base hits and bunts. There was a time in this game that the Paints went to small ball exclusively for a few batters, but it worked beautifully.

The offense once again did a good job of getting the runs in. They got in seven for this one, and so far, you can say that this team is a definitely a cohesive unit with the lumber. Kyle Galbraith, playing in center field and batting leadoff, had two singles and stole two bases. Third baseman Kyle Gendron got an RBI off a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning. Left fielder Andy Brouse had a good day at the plate, hitting a single, a double, and getting two RBI's. Catcher Andrew Marshall did a good job as well, hitting a double to start the fifth inning, and going deep in the ninth, belting a two-run homerun. First baseman Cory Maguire had an RBI single.

Right fielder Eian Banks had two doubles. DH Matt Abro had a single. Shortstop Ben Allen and second baseman Tim Krofcheck went back-to-back in the sixth inning putting down solid bunts that would get them to first base successfully. Laying down bunts are the best kind of little things that you can do to help your team. The objective you have in mind when laying down a bunt is to advance the runners further along, and if need be, score them on a suicide squeeze. Bunts help represent fundamental baseball, and I really love it when fundamental baseball is managed well in a game. Kudos have to go to the Southern Ohio Stampede (The Paints, who else?) for making the best out of doing the little things so far this season.

Now let's get to the hill, shall we?

Tony Davey, who also plays at Ohio Dominican University, made the start for the Paints in this game. He went 7 innings deep in his start, giving up seven hits and one run, but that's all that didn't go exactly as planned. Davey hung tough at The Jack and came up with three strikeouts to keep the Sliders at bay. Towards the end of his outing, I heard that Davey may have injured himself somehow, but he stayed in the game for at least a little longer until giving way to relief pitcher Mark Williams, who did a splendid job pitching the last two innings of the ballgame. Williams gave up a walk and struck out a batter. This was just another day at work, and yet having fun for the new Paints.

The last time that any Paints team saw Jack Critchfield Park was in the 2007 season, as the Sliders of that year were kinda like what the Ohio Valley Redcoats were in 2005; a traveling team that wouldn't be a permanent fixture in Butler County, Pennsylvania. However, these new Sliders who have made their debut in the Prospect League are going to be a permanent fixture in Slippery Rock from here on in. As I heard, there was a decent turnout at The Jack, so that was really good to hear.

For a startup league like this, you have to quietly root for every team in terms of support because the Prospect League looks to be a really promising college wooden bat league that the officials of the league claim will be the best college wooden bat league in the entire country. Thinking about that subject reminded me of the Northwoods League that are further northwest from here, so I should get into some sort of evaluation of the Northwoods League to show what the Prospect League is about basically.

The Paints will have to take another off day tomorrow and then will return home to V.A. Memorial Stadium to host the Slippery Rock Sliders in a doubleheader. The start time will be early, as the first game is scheduled to begin on Sunday 2:05 PM.

Paints win the 5-game stretch

2009-06-11T18:12:00.001-07:00

Chillicothe 4, North Coast 1

In a span of about a week, the Chillicothe Paints and the North Coast Knights have played each other five times, and through the first four games of this stretch, the two teams were evenly matched, winning two games a piece. In this fifth game between the two Ohio ball clubs of the Prospect League, the Paints came out on top by winning at their brief return to the Pipe Yard in Lorain, Ohio. The flow of this game was simply solid, and it doesn't matter what level this is on, this was the type of game that anyone would enjoy.

For the Paints and the Knights, the pitching performances combined were pretty outstanding, to put it mildly. Both sides had things going on the mound for a great chunk of the game. Thankfully for baseball fans in southern Ohio, the pitching for the Paints was in rythym for a bit longer than the Knights. Credit that to starting pitcher Clayton Schulz. Schulz, who recently celebrated his 19th birthday on the 7th of June, was very stellar on the mound for the visitingt team. How stellar was he for this game? Schulz managed to pitch 5 innings of a no-hitter until having it broken up due to a play that probably should've been ruled an error, and not as a base hit.

Schulz did go through bumps in the road still. He pitched 8 innings deep in his start, giving up just one run on two hits allowed, giving up four walks and beaning two batters, which in reality was the same batter. Schulz couldn't avoid beaning Knights infielder Ethan Santora for whatever reason, but neither hit-by-pitch was intentional. Throw in just a wild pitch, and that's all that was off for Schulz, but again, he was as solid as you would want him to be for a start. He recorded three strikeouts.

On the other side, Knights pitcher Dillon Tabar did an equally impressive job coming in relief. Tabar would pitch 6 innings of relief, and he really did shut down the Paints offense. He did a great job of making things happen on the mound. He only gave up two hits while striking out two in the process. He didn't give up a single run, hence his effectiveness against Chillicothe's offense.

Another Knight of note would have to be shortstop Kirk Singer, who has been a splendid find for the northern Ohio club. So far, he has been quite amazing defensively at least, flashing the glove at the most important times in a ballgame. Tight defensive plays have been made by Singer, who is even impressing me, even though I'm a Paints fan. You gotta give credit to the guy. He's doing what he can to make plays, and he's progressing so far. You always have to tip your cap to hard workers, no matter what team they're on.

As for the scoring, the Knights only mustered one run, as mentioned before, against Schulz. Meanwhile, the Chillicothe Paints got to work immediately with the scoring of runs. Through the first run of the lineup already, they managed to get four doubles in. In the first inning, left fielder Cory Maguire and DH Andrew Marshall had back-to-back doubles to score the first run of the game. First baseman Matt Abro had a double. Catcher Brandon White had an RBI single. Tim Krofcheck had a double. Cory Maguire would have the only other hits the Paints, as he added two singles to his early double, resulting in an impressive three-hit game for him.

The Paints will travel to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania to play a game at Jack Critchfield Park against the Sliders. Game time is at 7:05 PM.

I want to make a brief comment about the odd looking schedule that we have for this season. Since there are only 11 teams in the Prospect League's first season, that means the schedule has to be altered a bit to compliment the teams. I have wondered about the schedule going into thsi year knowing the landscape of the lague. Having an odd number of teams makes some things difficult, with the schedule being the main suspect of those problems. This is nothing to worry about, though. I have a hunch that the odd schedule will only be for this year that we have an oddball kind of schedule. For a league starting up, considering the circumstances, the Prospect League has done such a solid job, in reality.

Paints Win to Split Home Series

2009-06-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 4, North Coast 2

The Paints defeated the North Coast Knights to split the home series at one win a piece. The only thing that didn't look so good was the attendance at the ballpark, but we'll only have to give that some time. This game was well played out. It featured a good batch of interesting plays defensively, and the pitching was pretty good here, too.

Let's talk about the weather before this game. I was wondering if there would even be a game for this night because the rain was pouring real bad from where I was at. Thunderstorms pounded the Chillicothe area early on in the day, but it cleared up just in time for baseball to take place. Chillicothe is like that, in all honesty. You can't really tell with all of the swings in the weather, but hey, everything worked out, and Paints fans still got to see their team play, even though it got hot almost right away.

For the pitching, Stephen Shackleford made the start for the Paints. He pitched 5 innings deep, giving up 4 hits and 2 walks, and as a result giving up just a pair of runs. Mark Williams pitched in relief of Shackleford and did a solid job. He pitched 1 and 1/3 innings, giving up a walk, a hit, and he beaned a batter. The good thing is, he didn't give up any runs and held his own out on the mound. Krist Linster put in 1 and 2/3 innings himself, giving up just one hit and he did a good job of getting a runner out of position and taking him off the basepaths.

Chadd Steinborn was a little bit wild in the ninth inning, as he made things interesting, giving up a hit and two walks, but he got a strikeout and he didn't give up any runs in the bases loaded rally that the Knights produced.

The defense is something that I really want to note here. The defense for the Paints was clicking on almost all cylinders here. The defense was simply superb at some points. I can also point out a great defensive play by the Paints in the eighth inning that involved a Knights batter going for third base after he got a hit. The center fielder made a relay throw to the shortstop, and then the next throw came to the third baseman, getting the Knights batter out.

The offense did a great job of getting the runs in. They got in just enough runs to get the win. Kyle Galbraith had a double. Andy Brouse had two singles, but the biggest thing here was that he became the first Prospect League Paint to hit a homerun, so that's something for the Paints faithful to chalk up in the record books. Brouse drove in two runs with that homer to the left field scoreboard.

First baseman Cory Maguire had a triple and an infield single. Kyle Gendron had two singles and an RBI. Eian Banks came off the bench for the Paints and filled in as a pinch hitter. In two plate appearances, Banks had two singles and an RBI. Catcher Brandon White got an RBi off a sacrifice bunt. The bunting was pretty good for this game considering that the new Paints are getting used to the bunting aspect of the game once again. The metal bats don't give you much leverage in bunting, but you can have a much better time bunting with the wooden bats. I noticed that DH Andrew Marshall used a bat that was painted in green. I have never seen a green colored bat before, so that was interesting to see.

This was just another well played game in a season that is getting under way. I am hoping the attendance just had an off night because there was a promotion on hand to have students from surrounding schools get into the ballpark for free. It was kinda disappointing to see the turnout here, but overall, you gotta relax and give things time. The Paints players are having fun out there, and it really is showing. I like how head coach Brian Mannino is just letting the young guys play. That's what you should do. I would like to chat with coach Mannino if I can get the chance. We'll see about that, and I'll let you know what happens there. Anyway, the Paints will be gone for four days, with two off days and two road games ahead of them now.

Knights Pull Away Late

2009-06-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

-Prospect League news-
North Coast 9, Chillicothe 3

Returning to the friendly confines of V.A. Memorial Stadium after their first road trip of the year, the Paints were in a tough battle against the now visiting North Coast Knights, a ball club that has gotten their first two wins in franchise history against the young men of Southern Ohio. To basicall describe the way this game went would be something like this; the game was close for a little while until the Knights pulled away in the later innings, and the Paints weren't able to respond to the North Coast offense.

Eric Heckaman made his first start as a Paint in this game. He went 4+ innings deep, giving up 4 runs off of three hits, two walks and by throwing two wild picthes in the process. Heckaman's outing shouldn't fool you all that much because he was hanging in there in tight situations until the very end of at bats. The game just got out of hand, and those things will happen to a starting pitcher when it's pretty early in the season. Consider that the Prospect League is a whole different animal than the Frontier League at least when it comes to rules and unwritten rules. Players need to get the work in because they are still collegiate athletes and any time out on the field is valuable for them.

Blake Mascarello was the only other pitcher who took the mound for the Paints, and he pitched the other five innings of this game. He gave up 5 runs off of four hits and he beaned a batter to boot. Still, he put on an otherwise good performance as he did record 6 K's. You can just say that this was an off night for the pitching. All you can do is shrug it off and move on. These nights will happen, so just prepare for it when it does become an off night. Work your way through all of the traffic jams in a ballgame and everything will play itself out in due time. One thing to note, I was impressed with the crowd as they applauded Heckaman as he walked off the mound. That's solid support for your own player.

The offense for the Paints did keep the team in the game for some time until things just slowly halted. Third baseman Kyle Galbraith had a single. First baseman Cory Maguire had an RBI double and got another RBI off a sacrifice fly. Andy Brouse had two doubles. Kyle Gendron had a triple. Zach Frentsos came in as a pinch hitter and got a stolen base that was uncontested. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single, but there was this one occasion where Banks got hit right on his helmet by a pitch that zoomed right into him. Don't worry, though. Eian Banks was just fine.

To sum up the offense, we scored three runs, which is a good number to have in runs for baseball, but 3 never beats 9. Oh well, I guess manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays can use that for part of his humorous pep rallies via math equations. That also describes how I felt about this game. I was having a fun time. The atmosphere was good at the ballpark. Even though it may have been a bit too hot early in the game, it cooled down, and it became more satisfying. I enjoyed myself, just like I always have been since my first Paints game in late 2005.

I have to give a quick tip of the cap to North Coast Knights starting pitcher Michael Fahs for what I believe was a brilliant performance. It wasn't perfect, of course, but it was methodically well played. Fahs pitched 6 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, giving up 3 runs and 5 hits, but struck out a batter and, most importantly, kept his team in the game.

At the ballpark today, I managed to talk to a few Paints players for the first time this year. I talked to Blake Mascarello, Kyle Gendron, and Steven Mirizzi. Those guys were nice, as were the rest of the team. The new Paints are a bunch of nice guys who I think I can relate too at least a little bit because they're closer to my age. You won't have any problems talking to these guys. I encourage you to chat with them because they have great personalities. I just introduced myself to the three listed players, but I plan on talking to them some more and to the other guys. It comes easy for someone like me because I think they may like some of the things that I like.

The Paints will play the Knights once again for the second game of the two game set.

Paints Split Series

2009-06-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe Paints 6, North Coast Knights 1

The second game at the Pipe Yard in Lorain, Ohio was played well by the visiting team. The Chillicothe Paints executed some big plays when they had to and they put up enough runs on the scoreboard to get them the victory. Of course, you gotta score runs, and if you score six runs, then you have a good chance of winning ballgames. You talk about any bumps in the road going into this game, and you could point out the fact that the Paints entered this game with a short-handed supply of pitching, and that was because of some pressing injury issues.

Tony Bertucci, who also plays at Cornell University, made the start for the Paints. He pitched a good game, going 5 2/3 innings deep in his start, and in that time he gave up five hits, a walk, and a run, but he recorded five strikeouts, and most importantly, limited the damage that the North Coast Knights could muster. Bertucci had many things going for him in this game. He was prepared to do his job, and he did his job very well. Whenever he did get into trouble with Knights runners on the basepaths, he found a way out of the tricky situations.

Mark Williams was available to pitch for the Paints, and he also had a good game on the mound, as he pitched a pair of innings in relief and was solid. He only gave up one hit. He struck out a batter and gave up no runs. The only pitcher who was kinda wild on the mound for the Paints was Chadd Steinborn, as he pitched 1 and 1/3 innings of relief. He only gave up a walk and a hit, but made sure to keep the opposing offense at bay by striking out a batter and just getting guys out. The pitching did a good job overall. There's nothing of concern. This was just another day at work here.

For the offense, the fire power was mostly featured in the explosive fifth inning for the Paints. Tim Krofcheck had a single. Klye Galbraith had an RBI single. Matt Abro, who also plays at Western Michigan University, had a single, a double, and got an RBI off a sacrifice. Eian Banks had a single. Brandon White, who has double duty as a catcher and as an outfielder, started this game in center field, and he had two singles, with one of them breaking open the game for his team. His second single in the fifth inning drove in two runs. The Paints offense adjusted well to the natural grass surface of the Pipe Yard. There was nothing worth of big note on the baserunning or hitting approaches. Things just seemed to click for the team in this game.

It's always good to get a win on the road. All teams have to do when they go away from their home ballpark is to adjust. You have to make numerous adjustments through the baseball season. You make tweaks here and tweaks there just to get thinsg right. The new Paints are getting used to swinging wooden bats, for example. It will take time, but overall, these guys will be just fine. I also want to note that Paints manager Brian Mannino got somewhat steamed at the umpiring during a bases loaded rally by the Paints. There was a play that resulted in a double play due to the fact that the batted ball hit the runner on first base. Of course, that had to sting, but then again, the Paints still ended up getting their runs, and six was plenty to get this win.

The Chillicothe Paints will return to their home ballpark, at V.A. Memorial Stadium, to face these same North Coast Knights for a two game set. This is the Paints blog correspondent, Steven Vitte, reporting and wishing for you to be there!

Going To The Pipe Yard

2009-06-06T17:29:00.000-07:00

North Coast 3, Chillicothe 2

This was the first game on the road for the newest edition of the Chillicothe Paints, but the desired result for this game wasn't achieved. Remember that saying "Don't worry! We'll get them next time!" because that applies here. Like everything else going into this season, the new Paints are going through a learning curve, and they're just getting used to the Prospect League. You try to establish a comfort zone for yourself when you're just starting out. This third game of the year was a special game in one aspect. The one special thing has to do with the state of Ohio.

In the entire history of Paints baseball, the Paints used to travel out to places all throughout Ohio in the early years, such as going to Newark, Portsmouth, Zanesville, and Canton. Of course over time, the Paints quickly became the only team left in Ohio in their respective league back in the day. However, let's jump to the present day and say that this was the first time in a long time that the Paints have actually played a team permanently based in the state of Ohio since playing the Canton Coyotes in 2003. Count the years up, and that equates to almost 6 years.

On the mound, Tony Davey made the start for the Paints. He went eight innings deep, and he pitched quite well considering the situation, giving up 3 runs, but not all of them were earned. Davey of Ohio Dominican University, gave up three hits, a walk, and commited an error. It wasn't so much because of Davey's pitching, but rather the unfortunate miscues made by the defense around him. You just have to shrug it off and keep going. The Paints' defense commited three errors in this game playing on a natural grass surface.

For the offense, the only run that crossed home plate for the Paints came off a wild pitch deep in the ninth inning, but by then, time was running a bit thin. The only hits made by the Paints came from Kyle Gendron, Steven Mirizzi, and Eian Banks. One other hit was added. Banks had a two-bagger. Overall, it was pretty tough to muster up offense facing the tall Jacob Helvey, who stood 6 foot 7 on the mound. Interestingly enough though, Helvey relied more on his off speed stuff than he did with his fastball pitches. In a few innings, Helvey made quick work of Chillicothe batters.

This game marked the first ever win by the North Coast Knights franchise, as they entered this game with an 0-2 record, but now they have a 1-2 record. This game marked the first ever loss by the Prospect League Paints, who now stand at 2-1. There's always a funny feeling about leaving your home ballpark. That's an adjustment that teams will make through the course of the year. Just get used to your surroundings and make the best out of what you have. Be a competitor out on the field and hope for the best. Speaking of funny feelings, I get that way too with the Paints. It's odd to go any stretch of time without seeing them play at home.

Checking on pictures of the ballpark in Lorain, Ohio, I have to say that the place has definitely improved since the last time I saw it. Just as recently as 2005, there was hardly anything at all with the ballpark in Lorain because there wasn't even official seating, but now it looks like a ballpark, and the reviews by some people are very much encouraging. The Pipe Yard fits the Prospect League, and I believe it will do a great service for this league. The Pipe Yard was originally intended to go after minor league baseball, but alas, those plans never got going. In comparison, they haven't had any problems with collegiate ball because they have hosted the Cleveland State baseball team in recent times.

Easy going at the ballpark

2009-06-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe 6, Richmond 4

The very second game of the Chillicothe Paints' first Prospect League season resulted in another victory, and pretty much like the first game of the season, this one was an easy going for the home team. The atmosphere was laid back, cool, and casual. The game was entertaining to watch, and the rythym and pace to it was really good. It's just a tad little adjustment period for Paints fans who just need to get to know the new guys in the Paints uniforms. I am yet to speak with one of them, but I am sure to do just that later on as the season progresses.

The scoreboard would indicate that the game featured plenty of offensive plays and some defensive mistakes, but hey, these kids have already shown that they're willing to play hard for their respective teams. They'll do whatever they can to improve as players. I appreciate the respect that these kids have for the game of baseball. Of course, I myself am just a kid watching the game and taking notes of what I saw. It's somewhat of an odd experience watching players who you know are around your age range, but it's nothing that I can't get used to. In fact, I already have adjusted to that aspect of this year's club.

Let's start with the pitching performance from the Chillicothe Paints. Stephen Shackleford made the start for the Paints. Shackleford, of Savannah College, went 3 1/3 innings deep in his start, giving up two runs on six hits while walking four batters, beaning two batters and throwing a wild pitch. Blake Mascarello put in 3 and 2/3 innings of work, giving up two runs on four hits while also giving up a walk and beaning a batter. He recorded three strikeouts. Sidearm pitcher Krist Linster went one inning giving up just one hit. Chadd Steinborn finished the game on the mound for the Paints, pitching the ninth inning and striking out a batter.

Now for the offense, second baseman Tim Krofcheck, of Toledo University, got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Shortstop Ben Allen got a base hit off a bunt and got a stolen base. Designated Hitters Cory Maguire got an RBi off a sacrifice fly. Left Fielder Andy Brouse had an infield base hit. Third baseman Kyle Gendron did commit the only error for the Paints in this game, but he made good off the bat, driving in two runs on a single. First baseman Matt Abro had an infield base hit. Right Fielder Eian Banks had a 2-RBI base hit in the third inning and hit a double in the sixth inning. Catcher Brandon White, of Akron University, had a base hit and a stolen base.

The Richmond Riverrats put up a good fight in this easy going game, though. They did have a 2-0 lead early in the game before giving up that lead later in a big 5-run rally made by the Paints in the third inning. Usually when you lose to a team the first time, you become more prepared when you face them the second time because you start getting ideas on how the other team will play and therefore you'll get ready to play them when that next game comes around. One player on the Riverrats who has already caught my eye is outfielder Caleb King, who is part of Olivet Nazarene University. King is off to a good start for Richmond, and his style of play is interesting.

A good tip of the cap goes to the Richmond baseball fans, who will be returning to the V.A. from now on. It seems pretty likely that Paints fans and Riverrats fans will get to enjoy themselves again in the same ballpark and in the same baseball league. Two former Frontier League members who have established great connections in their communities have been reunited in a college wooden bat league. Past games between these two markets have resulted in a heavy rivalry, but nowadays, it's simply for the fun of baseball. At least, that's the way I see it because I really enjoy having Richmond fans come over. I always enjoy the company of fans who are as enthusiastic about the game of baseball as I am.

The Paints now hit the road for a brief two game road trip to Lorain, Ohio to meet the Northcoast Knights.

The start of something new

2009-06-04T20:26:00.000-07:00

Chillicothe Paints 13, Richmond Riverrats 2

Overall, I couldn't really come up with a catchy name to the title of this article, but this one will do. The night of June 4, 2009 marked the beginning of something new for baseball fans in Chillicothe, but if you really think about it, the only things that are new are the things that's on paper. It felt great to return to the friendly FieldTurf confines of V.A. Memorial Stadium. Truth be told, I always feel like I miss that place one way or the other during the offseason. The V.A. has done such a good service for amateur baseball before the arrival of the Prospect League, and there's no doubt in my mind that the V.A. will serve the Prospect League well, too.

A good crowd was on hand to see the newest edition of the Chillicothe Paints take the field, the team that will come to play for the 2009 season. The roster is filled with kids who are looking to move up in the baseball world, and they still have college elligibility. The Prospect League will feature the best collegiate athletes there are in the country. This is a college wooden bat league, but this is still the same fun and entertaining game of baseball that we're talking about. The place was energetic for this game. A great deal of enthusiasm was built for this night. You could tell the Chillicothe faithful were into this first game of the Prospect League season.

What about the game? Surely, the game was fun to watch. This was a very solid way for the new Paints to make their debut. Everything seemed to click in this one. The guys were focused in their approach to hit the ball, and likewise, the pitching was pretty superb. Clayton Schultz, out of North Florida University, pitched a good game. He went five innings deep for his first start of the season as a Paint, and he ended up only surrendering three hits, and he hit three batters. He didn't give up a run and struck out three batters.

Here's a funny thing that I want to point out, just to get out of the way. For me, I was born in 1989. Clayton Schulz was born in 1990, so that means that I am almost a year older than Schulz. Keep in mind that he has the makings of a potential stud way down the road. His stuff for this game was really effective, and it showed when he pitched against the Riverrats' lineup. He had a good gameplan, and he executed it well. Being out there on the mound for the first time of the year will always get starting pitchers pumped in some way. That's the joy of the dawn of a new year. New beginnings. Clean slates. Different twists to your own personal stories.

For the offense, the bats went to work almost right away. The runs came across the plate, and there were more than plenty to win this debut game. Tim Krofcheck batted leadoff and had three base hits and an RBI. Ben Allen had two hits and an RBI. Kyle Galbriath had two hits. Andrew Marshall had three hits, and one of them was a double. He had three RBI's to go along with those hits. Andy Brouse had a hit and an RBI. Matt Abro had a single, a double, and an RBI. Eian Banks had a hit and an RBI. Steven Mirizzi had three hits and two RBI's.

The whole setting just felt pretty laid back for this game. This was the start of something new, but only on the surface. Only on paper can you really say that. To be honest, I really didn't feel much difference between this style and the style that the Frontier League plays. If anything, one fan and friend of mine puts it into great perspective. The Prospect League is just like the Frontier League when it started out, in its first five years, so if you think about it some more, this isn't really new territory for the Paints organization. I still had the fun that came along with every game in the past few seasons. It was still there, as I enjoyed myself a great deal. Besides, that's all baseball fans really need. They just need to have fun, right?

The last highlight I want to mention is the fact that the car I rode in to the ballpark got creamed by a foul ball at some point. The windshield was smashed and it featured numerous cracks. It got hit pretty good, but I guess that's the risk you take when you just happen to park very close to the ballpark. Ah, the good old feelings of going to the old ballgame are coming back again!

The game I love to watch

2009-05-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

So what does it mean for me to report on a daily basis, to basically write down what I see on the baseball field and off it? It means that I get to enjoy thinking up of a story to write when I get back home from the ballgame. As a correspondent, I have had the pleasure to write my articles to you, the reader, about my experiences at the V.A. I always find it fun to write what I feel about the games because I am getting my opinion out there for you to read it. That's what makes it worthwhile to me. I know that you enjoy reading what I write. I have heard nothing but good things from the people who have approached me when they mention this blog.

It's no secret that I like to write. I am quite an opinionated person, and I have no problem with that. What I try to do is to make the articles that I write enjoyable and fun for you to read. I don't want to do it the plain and vanilla way. I'd like to try to give my articles a certain type of spice to it. Like Emeril Lagasse would say for his inetresting meals, let's give it another notch! I look at writing simple articles as some sort of challenge. I always like it when I'm presented with fun challenges, and challenges that aren't too pressing for me. Pressure situations are the type of challenges that baseball players always have to deal with. For example, when a pitcher is faced with the daunting task of getting two more outs with the bases loaded, he has to find a way to get those two outs or else he might give up a run or two.

Also, there's that time for base stealers where they have to decide whether to steal second base or not. When is the right time to go? You see, strategy plays a whole lot into the game of baseball. It is a thinking man's game, even though it's not exactly like the popular board game Chess. Managers always have to use strategies in games. That's what they do. They're just like the field generals in classic battles. They have to find a way to help put their teams in winning positions. The main thing about the game of baseball, though, is that this is a fun game to watch. It always has been a fun game to watch, and it has stood the test of time.

Why do I cover the game of baseball? It's because I want to. I enjoy watching baseball. I love the game even though I know I can't play it. Not all of us can be able to suit up and play on that diamond. I appreciate the way baseball players conduct themselves on the field. Unless they get upset and start arguing with the umpires, they are usually calm and collective. Baseball players just have that cool swagger about them that I definitely respect. Baseball is a career for these guys. This is what they aim to do on a daily basis. They want to play on a baseball field, and they want to have fun. I haven't yet seen a player who played baseball just because he was playing it. Baseball players play because they have a passion for the game.

You won't find a sport that is so entrenched in its history than baseball. I'm only talking about the United States, of course, because I know that almost every other country houses legit competitions for the game of Soccer, but I digress. My own niece plays Soccer and she loves it, so there you go. Baseball goes way back here. Baseball was invented on humble purposes, and it just happened that it only grew to be a huge sport in this country. Baseball is still, without a doubt, the national pastime. Think about the longevity of this sport. Think about all the stories that so many players who have come and gone have made for their careers. Think about all of the ballparks that have been built and knocked down throughout this time. It's simply amazing.

Baseball has that certain appeal to me that makes me think back to its history in some shape or form whenever I'm watching a game in the current time. Of course, other sports can do that to you as well, but baseball is far different than the other sports. It's a sport that has heavily relied on its history to progress. Baseball should stay committed to heavily rely on its history, because what happened for baseball in the past is rich. Baseball has a rich history. Way back when in the 1800's the Knickerbocker Nine were formed in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Cincinnati Reds were the first team to be officially called a professional baseball team. The New York Yankees, love them or hate them (and I would be in the latter), have a huge row of World Series trophies that speak 26 different stories. Plus, don't ever forget about the interesting, for lack of a better word, moments that Major League Baseball has gone through.

The Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees. The Chicago Black Sox scandal of 1919. The constant moves of numerous franchises. The breaking down of the color barrier in baseball. The tearing down of such classic gems like the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field. The Pete Rose betting on baseball fiasco. Oh yes, the steroid episodes of recent times. All of these times are filled with stories, and just like any other story, each of these stories have their endings, and it's up to you to go back and read these stories for what they are, and how much they mean to the game itself.

Yeah. This is the game I love to watch, and this is why I cover baseball. This helps me write what I can write.

The More Things Change...

2009-05-25T09:57:00.001-07:00

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That's not a new saying, but if you were to sum up the transition from the Frontier League to the Prospect League for the Chillicothe Paints with that saying, you would be pretty spot on.

Rest assured, many things have changed since the end of last season. The players from the previous roster have moved on to either continue their professional careers playing the game that they love or to take a step back and realize that it was the end of the line for them. That's a critical thing, and it's similar to something that all people, even people like you and me, make. We all make tough decisions in our lives to pursue something that really matters to us. If it's something worth fighting for, then go all out for it. In Spring Training, that's what baseball players do. They fight for roster spots to show that they are capable of playing the game that they love. That's passion for you. For some players from last year's Paints team, they decided to give it another go, while others felt content with what they did and they have no regrets stepping away from the game of baseball.

Of course, it was gutwrenching to see just how the 2008 edition of Paints baseball fade away from the spotlight of the Frontier League. When you stop and think about it, we were at a disadvantage since day one of that season. The odds were not in our favor. We were playing against The House. Some reports came that certain players (and I won't name any names) refused to sign on with the Paints because of the low quality facility that the team would play in wasn't sufficient for them. V.A. Memorial Stadium became, in the eyes of the top players of the league, obsolete. Compared to the shiny new ballparks that every other team was building, ours was old news. We had a classic ballpark, but it was probably too classic at that point.

For us diehard Paints fans, that was hard to take. If you know us, then you would know we have grown to love V.A. Memorial Stadium, and so much so that it has become a home away from home for us. It's a place to temporarily get away from the common everyday struggles of life that may not look so appealing. That's our ballpark, and especially with the help of team owner Dr. Chris Hanners, we made that ballpark what it is today. It was special back then, and it still is now. Think of the players in the past who called the V.A. home. Scott Pinoni, Mitch House, Brian Tollberg, Gator McBride, Steve Martin, and Travis Garcia.

Those names I just mentioned all have their numbers retired, never to be worn again. There are different reasons for why their numbers were retired, and one only needs to go back into the archives of this franchise to understand just what went on in the cozy ballpark near the V.A. hospital. All of those numbers tell some sort of story. Those stories are gripping and telling. Those stories make you appreciate that player, but more so, it teaches you something. The one thing that remained constant was the passion and true competitive spirit that they had when they played the game.

I have gotten to know one of these players personally. Travis Garcia wore the number 24 for the Paints from the 2006 season to the 2008 season. He played shortstop for the Chillicothe Paints. He did a good service for the community of Chillicothe while he was here. He was as nice as they came, and he was one of a kind. I was thankful when I first spoke to him in the beginning of the 2007 FL season because at that point, I will admit, I wasn't full of confidence. I wasn't sure of myself. It's funny how things play out because everything just got better after I had established a true friendship with Travis. Things just became much more clear for me. Every day that I had with him was special, just to say hello and to check on how he was doing. That alone made it worth it not only for me, but for him as well.

Travis Garcia now plays for the South Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League, and last I checked, he's doing quite well. In 29 games played, he's batting .266 with 5 doubles, 4 homeruns, and 18 RBIs. He currently leads the Blue Crabs, along with another player, in total hits with 33. He's second on the team in RBIs. Putting those numbers aside though, Travis is still the kind hearted person that he was back in Ross County. He still plays the game with the same intensity and passion that he's always had dating back to his early days of playing ball.

2009 will be the beginning of something new for Paints fans. The Paints will be back, but in a new league. That league is called the Prospect League, where players who are still elligible of playing in college will be playing in this league. They have the same passion and love for the game of baseball. The game itself never changes even though the setting does. Dr. Hanners vows to make the experience of watching the game fun again, something that he notes that the organization got away from in recent years. Fun will be back in the ballpark, and it doesn't hurt to have more fun at the V.A. Paints fans who were with the team since the beginning in 1993 will recall the countless stories of how fun and humorous it really got at the ballpark. Those memories, unlike the value of franchises, are priceless.

So relax and sit back. The more things change, the more they stay the same. This is still the game of baseball we're talking about here, so enjoy your time at V.A. Memorial Stadium. Cheer on the new squad of Paints players as they hit the FieldTurf surface. 2009 will be a fun year for all of us.

CornBelters!

2009-05-20T18:09:00.001-07:00

The winning name in Normal's "name the team" contest was announced today: the Normal CornBelters.

Possible mascot names are Nibblet, Shuck and Kernel.

I only have one request: please, please have grilled corn on the cob at the ballpark.

Rockford Signs Russian Pitcher

2009-05-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

The Rockford RiverHawks have signed righthanded pitcher Viacheslav Vasilyev. Vasilyev, 24, is 6'3" and weighs 195. He was the Russian Baseball League's MVP in 2007 and also was impressive in an outing against Team USA that same season. He is the first Russian player to sign with a Frontier League club.

Visit the Russian International Baseball website.

UPDATE: According to the Frontier League website, Vasilyev has been placed on the suspended list due to visa issues.

Zavada reaches "The Show"

2009-05-12T16:28:00.000-07:00

Clay Zavada became the first Southern Illinois Miner to reach the majors when he was promoted by the Arizona Diamondbacks today.

Zavada pitched in twelve games for the Miners in 2008, going 2-1, 1.72 with four saves. In 15 2/3 innings, he struck out 22 batters while walking only four.

Normal, IL team names

2009-04-20T20:24:00.001-07:00

The new team in Normal, IL will start play in 2010. You can visit the team's website and vote for the team's name from these choices:

Nutz
Coal Bears
NightHawks
CornBelters

Brandon Villalobos, 1985-2009

2009-04-14T14:30:00.000-07:00

Former San Diego State pitcher Brandon Villalobos was killed Saturday in a dune buggy accident. Villalobos was due to begin his professional career with the Gateway Grizzlies in just a few weeks.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Brandon and his family.

Jakubauskas Reaches "The Show"

2009-04-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

Former Florence and Ohio Valley pitcher Chris Jakubauskas has made the Seattle Mariners opening day roster.

Jakubauskas spent 2003-04 with the Freedom before joining the Redcoats in 2005. After moving to other independent leagues, he was signed by the Mariners in 2007. Last season he was 3-0 in Double-A and 5-1 in Triple-A.

Radio Show tonight

2009-03-23T16:46:00.001-07:00

I will broadcast the Tim Perry Frontier League Radio Show tonight at 8 PM Eastern/ 7 Central at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flhistory.

Radio show in a few minutes

2009-03-10T15:23:00.001-07:00

I will be doing the show live at 5:30 PM CST today at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flhistory.

Prospect League News

2009-03-08T17:42:00.000-07:00

So after an incredibly long wait for receiving any kind of news from the new upstart league called the Prospect League, it would give me such good honor to ring in the new baseball season with this. The Chillicothe Paints will return to V.A. Memorial Stadium with an entirely different look as far as the setup of the roster goes. The Prospect League is a collegiate league, so the rules will be different. Now knowing that, the Paints will start anew with their coaching staff basically. As for skipper Mark Mason, it has been announced by now that he will take the helm for the Washington Wild Things of the Frontier League. Mase will make his return to the Pittsburgh suburbs where he first made his mark in independent minor league baseball. From this correspondent, I, Steven Vitte, truly wish Mark Mason the best in his future endeavors back up in Washington. I wasn't exactly easy going, I admit, when it came to some of my posts about Mase's style, and for that, I was a bit harsh and it was unnecessary.

So that means that the Chillicothe Paints would need a new skipper. Well, you don't have to look at all, because the Paints already have their man to guide them through the 2009 baseball season. Who is he? His name is Brian Mannino. Mannino may not be totally new to the likes of Paints fans. Oh no... Brian Mannino did play for the Paints during the golden days of the franchise in 1998 and then served as the team's hitting coach in the following season in 1999.

Mannino is a former Ohio State two-time All-American and he brings along with him a great deal of college coaching experience. He served as an assistant coach from 1996 to 2001, and he was the head coach of the Columbus All-Americans, a former member of the Great Lakes Collegiate League, from 2000 to 2008. During his tenure in Columbus, his teams won a pair of GLCL championships and seven regular season titles. Under the guidance of Mannino, over 30 former players have been drafted my Major League organizations, including two first round draft picks.

For those of you wondering, yes, Marty Dunn will be returning to the Paints as an assistant coach for his 17th season.

Also, Pat Schmidt has been hired by the Paints to be their pitching coach. Schmidt served in the same position for the Columbus All-Americans for the past two summers. He has also served as an assistant coach at Wittenburg University where he was the pitching coach and the recruiting coordinator.

Talk show Feb. 28

2009-02-28T18:42:00.000-08:00

The Tim Perry Frontier League Talk Show will air live at 9:00 PM Central on Saturday, Feb. 28, or you can listen to the show at your convenience at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flhistory

radio show

2009-02-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

I've just finished an episode of the Tim Perry Frontier League Talk Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/flhistory.

I will be doing the show as I can, so watch his blog and I will post whenever I upload a show.

Impressive signing by T-Bolts

2009-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Windy City has signed righthanded pitcher Billy Petrick.

Petrick, who will be 25 this season, will be entering his eighth season in professional baseball. He spent the previous seven seasons in the Cubs organization, reaching the majors for eight appearances in 2007.

Radio show time change

2009-02-07T09:30:00.000-08:00

Due to the larrge amount of information in today's Tim Perry Frontier League Talk Show at www.blogtalkradio.com, the show will air at 12:30 PM CST, an half-hour later than normal.

Normal update

2009-01-21T14:36:00.000-08:00

Last night the Normal (IL) city council and the board of Heartland Community College both approved a contract finalizing a Frontier League team and a ballpark, beginning next season.

Read the article here.

The Normal group now has a website.

Artist's rendering of the ballpark. Looks like it has a 360 degree concourse. I'm a big fan of those.

Finally...

2009-01-16T19:04:00.000-08:00

I've just uploaded the last of the team history updates. Only the 2008 season recap left to go!

Prospect League Elects Officers

2009-01-11T12:04:00.000-08:00

The Prospect League has elected its first slate of officers. The group has been chosen during the American Baseball Coaches Association Convention that went through January 2nd and 3rd. The Prospect League's first president is none other than current Chillicothe Paints General Manager and Vice President Bryan Wickline. Jesse Bolder, Owner and President of the Springfield Sliders will serve as the league's Vice President. League Commissioner Frank Pergolizzi will serve as league secretary. The first treasurer will be Duke Ward, the Director of Business Operations for the yet to be named Richmond, Indiana team. Rob Ebbing, General Manager of the Quincy Gems, is slated to join the league executive committee. Duke Ward will also serve as part of the committee.

In other news, the Prospect League expects to announce its 2009 schedule shortly. There will be a monkey wrench thrown in alittle bit because of the fact that there are an odd number amount of teams. The league has 11 members for its opening season, so I suppose 1 team will have to sit out for a few days, sorta like the way football teams take bye weeks. The odd team not playing takes a few days off, while the other 10 teams play on. I would have to believe that every team is going to take a turn in sitting out a few days. This is only my guess as to how an 11 team league will manage the schedule.

Latest website updates

2009-01-02T20:56:00.000-08:00

Team histories for clubs that were in the West Division in 2008 have been updated.

Woodstock Gives Their Approval

2008-12-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

You can now call it official. The Woodstock City Council, after six hours of discussion, have approved of the proposed ballpark for a Frontier League team in the city. The council approved a special use permit for the proposal, 6-1, with 50 conditions, so it was a no brainer according to them. The plan ties an unpopular gravel pit to this popular ballpark proposal. The expected grand opening of this ballpark in Woodstock, Illinois will be for the 2010 FL season.

Tom Merryman and Aggregate Inc. are just part of the collective effort into building up this new ballpark. Merryman hopes to begin work on the ballpark sometime in March of 2009. Stadium construction would ideally begin in June, and the first game for the FL team would start sometime in May 2010, said Tom Zanck, Merryman's attorney. Also, I have noticed that there are alot of acres involved in these negotiations. It's amazing what people will debate about when you talk about 100 acres of land and over.

Here's an interesting tidbit; according to Tom Zanck, if the vote on this new ballpark proposal had been delayed until January of 2009, it would be too late for the new team to begin play in Woodstock for the 2010 season. Plus, if the stadium has not been constructed by May 1, 2014, Merryman would deed the 38-acre parcel for the stadium to the city of Woodstock, according to one of the proposal's 50 conditions. I guess another issue that rises up here is what are the 50 conditions?, and what are they about?

From a competitive standpoint now in the Frontier League, I do wonder alittle. I'm not upset by any means, but I wonder why you would load up on Chicago when there is help needed around Florence and Washington. Of course, Avon, Ohio will help out the Wild Things alittle bit, but that's just replacing the Paints as the lone Ohio team that connects to Washington. There was alot of talk in the past of getting Washington a nearby rival, such as what the FL attempted to do for Butler, Pennsylvania way back when, but that bottom fell out. And for Florence...I don't know what you can say about their traveling situation. The Freedom seem to be on an island all by themselves now, and the closest they could possibly be would be to Evansville and Avon. I see a big gap there.

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2008/12/17/56249429/index.xml

Stats updates finished

2008-12-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

I have just finished uploading the completed stat pages for all current Frontier League teams. That means the 2008 update is nearly complete- all that remains are the writeups for the 2008 season and updating the individual team pages. Also note that the player database has not yet been updated.

More Info On The Prospect League

2008-12-09T11:16:00.000-08:00

Thankfully for Wikipedia, I have gotten some more information on the upcoming Prospect League. As said before, there will be eleven teams in the league, making it an unbalanced schedule for the time being. There will be six teams in the West Division, while there will be five teams in the East Division. The names of the names will go as listed: Danville Dans, Dubois Bombers, Dupage Dragons, Hannibal Cavemen, Quincy Gems, Springfield Sliders, Butler BlueSox, Chillicothe Paints, NorthCoast Knights (Lorain), Richmond (to be named later, but I'd have to think it's the Roosters), Slippery Rock Sldiers.

The one team that sticks out to me would be the Quincy Gems. I have seen pictures of the ballpark in Quincy Stadium, and it's surrounded by old fashioned stone, similar to that of probably castle-like structures. That stadium caught my eye as being one of the most interesting ballparks in the entire country. The Gems have a good history in the CICL. I have checked on their website before, and they have a solid foundation in place as far as this level of baseball goes. I will be interested in hearing the stories future Paints teams will have when they go into Quincy Stadium.

The CICL was formed in 1963 as a charter member of the NCAA's certified summer baseball program. Among the 175 almuni of the CICL, certain names include Kirby Puckett, Mike Schmidt, Jonathan Papelbon, and Ryan Howard. The goal of the people who run the Prospect League is to create and maintain the best collegiate wooden bat summer league in the country, as said by Frank Pergolizzi, the Commissioner of the CICL.

I know that this league has good people running it. This is for the entertainment of the fans, giving them a good time when they come to the ballpark. I do think it is kind of odd how there are just 11 teams in the first season of the rebranded Prospect League. Of course, you would have to work your way around things in the schedule.

I also think it's kind of odd how two teams have the same name in "Sliders." I do hope that the Richmond team gets called the Roosters. I couldn't really imagine the team being called anything else. I did ask Tom Arnett, a Roosters fan, about whether the Traverse City Beach Bums of the FL held the rights to the Roosters name or not. He said that shouldn't be the case. It will also be interesting to hear stories about Richmond again. It will be just like old times in the early days of the Frontier League.

Crusher's uniform

2008-12-04T19:23:00.001-08:00

Lake Erie Crushers

2008-12-04T16:21:00.000-08:00

That's the name of the club in Avon, Ohio. I've uodate the website with a Lake Erie Crushers page.

Team records updated

2008-11-29T16:36:00.000-08:00

The individual team career hitting records have been updated through the 2008 season.

Career hitting stats updated

2008-11-28T16:13:00.000-08:00

Rather than spend the day after Thanksgiving shopping, I have used the day to begin the stats updates on the website. I have updated the career top ten hitting leaders today, and will do the individual team career hitting leaders in the next few days.

A few things of note are that in addition to Mike Breyman shooting up the charts in several categories, Travis Garcia was hot on Breyman's heels. With both those guys now out of the league, Washington's Chris Sidick should move up several notches in several categories next.

Sidick, who has at least one year of FL eligibilty left, is in sight of the following records:
* Games (ranks 10th, needs 74 for 1st)
* At bats (9th, needs 246 for 1st)
* Runs (5th, needs 64 for 1st)
* Hits (13th, needs 80 for 1st)
* Total bases (11th, needs 212 for 1st)
* HBP (11th, needs 19 for 1st)
* Walks (6th, needs 42 for 1st)
Chris is also within range, although less likely, for records for strikeouts, caught stealing and sacrifices. He already is the career leader in triples.

Also of note is that Joe Ramos moved past Brody Jackson in to second all time in stolen bases, but he is still 72 behind Doug Schutt. He has one year of FL eligibility left.

Woodstock, Illinois To Join FL

2008-11-22T11:01:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=251970

Apparently, a Frontier League team is coming to McHenry County after all. The new proposed ballpark will be placed in Woodstock, Illinois. private investors and donators would fund the entire project. Plans were announced on Wednesday to build a mutli-use facility that would host the teams and dozens of other sporting events begining in 2010.

The venue would hold 6,500 seats and 10,000 for events open to lawn seating. Long-range plans include the possibility of developing the site as a future home of the McHenry County Fair, a fire mueseym and an exhibition hall. Foundation officials said the design will take into account "smart growth" principles and preserve about 75 acres of wetlands and oak savannah on the property.

You know, it's kinda funny how these stories just happen to pop up all of sudden. Take into account that we haven't heard much of anything from McHenry County's hunt for a FL team in a long time before this article came out. A huge obstacle, if I recall, was that the proposed ballpark would effect the environment and the surrounding water areas. It was at first opposed by the community and the county council, but all of the problems must have been ironed out.

I still have to wonder how this is going to work long term. I know these rumors have been going on for a long time now; the one that involves the Northern League Chicagoland teams jumping ship to the Frontier League. That hasn't happened inspite of that buzz, but the Northern League, from what I could tell, is still not so stable. So what if the Northern League goes belly up? How can the FL say "no" to the three NoL teams close by in that situation?

Look at the number of teams in the Northern Illinois/Chicago area alone in this list on the Indy Baseball Map:
Windy City Thunderbolts
Rockford RiverHawks
Schaumburg Flyers
Gary-Southshore Railcats
Joliet Jackhammers
new McHenry County team
possible Champaign, Illinois team

Website Stats Updates

2008-11-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I have updated the season hitting and pitching records pages, the manager records page, and the individual teams' season records.

Next up is to convert and compile this year's stats in order to update the career stats sections. This will likely not be done until after Thanksgiving.

Numbers That Could Be Retired

2008-11-15T17:47:00.000-08:00

I would like to talk about the accomplishments that two former Paints players have made. While the Paints will no longer be a part of the Frontier League, it sure doesn't hurt to think about the possibility of two noteworthy players having the opportunity of having their numbers sitting next to the 7 other retired numbers at V.A. Memorial Stadium. Looking at their stats alone, they have done quite enough to earn this kind of honor.

Perry Cunningham (#26) has the most wins out of any FL Paints pitcher in their career. He has a record of 37-21 with .638 win percentage to go along with a 3.54 ERA, 7 complete games, 2 shutouts, a save, and 325 K's in almost 500 innings pitched, (497.2 to be exact). You could put him with any other solid starting pitcher the Paints have had from 2004 to 2007, and Perry would be right there.

Whether he was with John Martinez (single season wins leader), Kurt Hartfelder (rookie of the year in '06) or anyone else, Perry did a good job while he was in Chillicothe. He was, and still is, a class act and a fun guy to hang around with. His time off the field is more to take note of. That's where players in the FL really show who they are.

Matt McCay (#18) was such a good batter for the Paints, and he's a great batter in Paints history who unfortunately doesn't get talked about as much as the others. Matt lead the FL Paints in just about half of all offensive categories career-wise. He leads in batting average (.423), in games played (305), in at-bats (1143), in runs scored (217), in hits (363), and then there's caught stealing (20). I didn't get the opportunity to see Matt McCay play but from what I hear, he really was a gamer for the FL club. With numbers like that, he should get alittle bit of consideration.

As for what McCay is doing now, he is helping out the University of North Carolina with their baseball program, and he is doing a good job as of today. That just goes to show you that he has a baseball kind of mind for the job as a coach. He knows how to play the game and to play it the right way.

CICL and Prospect League To Merge

2008-11-12T13:04:00.000-08:00

The Prosect League Era

So, with the news we've read about some of the Central Illinois Collegiate League joining the new teams in the upstart Prospect League on Ballpark Digest, perhaps this would be a good time to get in my first thoughts about this new league the Chillicothe paints will be a part of.

At first glance, this will be just like what Richmond Roosters fan Tom Arnett told me, this will be just like old times for the most part. What I mean by that is there will be numerous markets that used to field Frontier League teams. Since of course they've bowed out of the league. This will be paying some type of homage to the early days of the Frontier League, when they were just starting out.

Consider these markets; Chillicothe, Richmond, Lorain, Dubois County, Slippery Rock. Would they be more than legit for a summer collegiate league? Yes they would. Though the economy has been a real pain (and let's be honest, it has), the fact that a place like Chillicothe can get something that is close and similar to the Frontier League style of play even with the swan dive that the team took the final few months of last year, has to be saying something.

So throw in places like Danville, Quincy, Hannibal, Butler and Dupage County, and you have something to work with. This has been a topic that FL commissioner Bill Lee has been thinking about. When going over the options in the more than crowded Chicagoland area to try to expand the FL, we find that some of those markets have been in talks (but just talks) with the Northwoods League, the best summer collegiate league out there right now. The Prospect League here is intending to be a farm system for the Frontier League.

Is the Prospect League a step down from the FL? Yes it is, but it's not as big as a demotion as you might assume. Players do come out of summer collegiate league teams and make their way to afilliated baseball. Personally, I believe that it will be a different road to go through for everyone involved with this project, and the fan attendance and support still needs to come, but when this thing takes off, people will warm up to it. Basically, it's still baseball, and it's still fun family entertainment for anybody who goes to the games.

As for coverage of the Prospect League on this blog? I will make sure that I will report to you as much as I can. Whatever that's of note, I will be here to bring it to you. The Chillicothe Paints are gone from the Frontier League, but are not gone from baseball in general. V.A. Memorial Stadium is still a great place to see a game, (for any sport I should add), and I hope that the V.A. can finally hold up a championship banner of some sort, because the wait it getting alittle too long.

That's just my thoughts, though.

Not Frontier but Close

2008-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

Just thought you all would like to see the info on the new league in which Richmond & Chillicothe will be participating in this next year. Go to Ballparkwatch.com and look on todays date for details. This is all I know for right now.

Tom Sutaris interview

2008-11-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

I've just posted my interview with former Ohio Valley Redcoat Tom Sutaris. Tom played for the Redcoats in 1993, 94 and 96 and has great memories of the early days of the Frontier League.

Beach Bums Hire Manager

2008-11-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

Following on the heels of Monday's hiring of Toby Rumfield by the Florence Freedom, the Traverse City Beach Bums today announced the hiring of Gregg Langbehn as the manager for the 2009 season.

The 39-year-old Langbehn managed the last two seasons with Houston's South Atlantic League affiliate in Lexington, KY. From 2004-06 he was the skipper at Tri-City (low A New York-Penn League), leading the Valley Cats to two playoff appearances. He also served at the pitching coach for the 2000 Midwest League champion Michigan Battle Cats.

Langbehn was drafted out of high school by the Mets in 1988 and spent seven years altogether in the minors with the Mets, Red Sox and Brewers organizations. His best year was 1989 when he was 10-3, 1.80 for Pittsfield (NYPL). He spent parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level.

Langbehn joins Avon's John Massarelli as the only current Frontier League manager with affiliated managing experience. Ironically, they both managed in the Astros system, so I wouldn't be surprisde if they know each other.

Keefe Leaving Florence

2008-10-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

Florence Freedom manager Jamie Keefe will not be returning to the club in 2009, it was announced today.

Keefe has been in the Frontier League for a decade, starting as an infielder with the Paints in 1999. After two seasons as a player Jamie took over as manager from longtime skipper Roger Hanners. The Paints won division titles under Keefe in 2001 and 2003. Keefe moved to the Freedom in 2004 and led the club to their best season yet with 53 wins.

Good luck Jamie!

More Website Updates

2008-10-25T19:59:00.001-07:00

In the last couple of days I have added:

> Avon team page
> updated Midwest Sliders team page
> 2008 season page, without recap
> 2009 season page, with map

Still having problems with the Cook County/Windy City and 2007 season pages.

Up next: 2008 season recap.

Website updates

2008-10-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished adding 2008 items to the team memorabilia pages, and I added more pics to the team history pages for Chillicothe and Newark. I also added some memorabilia for Springfield, Newark, London and the Kalamazoo Kodiaks.

I still have a problem with the Cook County/Windy City page. It's there in the directory, but there's something in the script that redirects you to a different page.

2008 season page, updated Midwest Sliders page and Avon page coming soon. Then comes 2008 team recaps, followed by team stats page updates, and finally, the player database update.