by Dave DeMars
news@thenewsleaders.com
The best way to describe the weekend of July 22-23 for the St. Joseph Joes is, as Charles Dickens once wrote, “the best of times and the worst of times.” It held moments of elation and ended with a moment of desperation for the Joes. But they will have a chance to redeem themselves this coming weekend on July 29 when they play against the Clear Lake Lakers at home. Game time is 1:30 p.m.
“The dark cloud was over our heads after the game, after 14 innings, but we’re looking on the brighter side,” team manager Pat Schneider said. “I think we are going to come out on top. We’ve got to win on Saturday, otherwise our season is over. Losers are out.”
The Joes have met the Lakers several times before in this past season and they haven’t lost to them, so Schneider and the rest of the Joes are hoping the momentum continues. But Schneider isn’t counting his runs before they cross the plate.
“Not to take anything away from Foley, but we beat them in a double header the week before and we still lost to them,” Schneider said. “Anything can happen.”
While Schneider will talk about the importance of parity in the league, come game time he still wants to win. He doesn’t take kindly to being on the wrong side of the score.
“I like to think we have the advantage because we have a good solid nucleus of 19 or 20 guys who are very, very good ball players, “ Schneider said. “But if we run into a hot pitcher, things could change.”
St. Joseph Joes clobber Villains 9-4
It was slow going for St. Joseph in the early innings of the July 22 game in St. Joseph. It looked like it would be a close game and the Albertville Villains would take home the opening game of the playoff series, as the Villains held the lead (4-2) going into the top of the eighth inning. But the flood gates opened and the Joes’ bats started driving the ball in all the right places and scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead. They held the lead and Jack Atkinson retired the Villains in the ninth to give the Joes a 9-4 victory.
Alex Kendall was the starting pitcher for the Joes and gave up three runs in seven innings. Kendall struck out 10 and walked three before being relieved by Atkinson in the eighth. Atkinson gave up one run and struck out two.
When it came to hitting, it seemed like everyone had a chance to collect, but Ben Alvord led the team going four for five and having a whale of an afternoon. There was only one extra-bases hit, a two-bagger by Peter Nelson.
-
Team
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E L Albertville Villans 0
0
1
0
0
2
0
1
0
4
12
2
11
St. Joseph 0
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
–
9
14
0
8
Lumberjacks upset the Joes 4-2 in extra innings
The St. Joseph Joes proved the accuracy of the old adage “on any given Sunday, any given team can beat any other team regardless of past history.” Despite having beaten the Foley Lumberjacks recently in two back-to-back games, the Lumberjacks proved to be masters of the day on July 23 in St. Joseph.
The Lumberjacks jumped off to an early lead scoring runs off starting pitcher Greg Anderson in the second and third innings. Anderson threw for seven innings and held the Lumberjacks to those two runs. Meanwhile the Joes hitting battery managed to string together enough hits to allow them to score two runs of their own, one in the fifth inning and another in the eighth. So at the end of nine innings, the score was tied.
Anderson was relieved at the end of the seventh inning, and Joe Stock took over the duties on the mound. Stock had a strong four innings striking out five, walking four but giving up no runs. But Stock threw 62 pitches in the four innings, so Peter Nelson was called on to take over the pitching chores. Nelson got tagged with the loss as he gave up two runs in the 13th inning, the result of walks, and the St. Joseph bats couldn’t muster any answering runs. After 13 hard-fought innings, the Joes walked off the field with a 4-2 loss.
“Those final two walks killed us,” Schneider said.
Despite being tagged with the loss, Nelson went three for six at the plate, drove in one run and scored another. Joe Stock went two for six and drove in the second run.
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Team
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R H E L Foley 0
1
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
4
8
2
13
St. Joseph 0
0
0
0
1
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
8
3
12
The home-plate umpire watches carefully as St. Joseph catcher Ben Alvord places the tag on a sliding Albertville runner who kicks up a cloud of dust.
Pitcher Joe Stock shows the effort and intensity of the pitcher as he lets fly with a hard pitch that will hopefully fool the batter.
Joey Atkinson goes high in the air to get an errant throw from the catcher as a Foley Lumberjack eats some dirt sliding into second base. Alex Kendall hustles in the background to get in position to back up the play.
Number 34, Hunter Blommer, rounds third base and glances back checking to see where the ball is and if there is a possibility of scoring.
St. Joseph’s Joe Stock (1) blocks the plate preventing the Foley Lumberjack from scoring. Despite some strong play by the Joes, they lost in a 13 inning marathon 4-2.
