MBL

May saw the Milwaukee Baseball League start the season with no rain-outs, a first this millenium. Three teams broke out of the gate with perfect 4-0 records, including Open Division rivals O'Brien's / Harley Davidson and Long Wongs, and American Division leader Leff's / Spancrete. Each of those teams have a long history dating back to the Milwaukee County Open and Minor, showing that franchise stability and experience sometimes payoff. In the Minor, two South Milwaukee franchises have set the pace as 2006 League Champ (and 2003) Kasper's and South Milwaukee Arcade have both started at 3-1. In the American Division, Club Paragon / Milwaukee Sporting Goods is keeping within striking distance of Leff's / Spancrete with a 3-1 record. In the National Division, PJ's Royals and Franklin Barber Plumbing are locked at 3-1, although don't count out perennial power Supreme Builders now that they are getting several players back from college and injury. Home run totals are up on the year as the league eclipsed last year's full season home run total in May alone (stats will be emailed shortly, and league leaders will be posted onsite). A new influx of solid players, many with college experience, is the apparent cause of the power surge. As is usually the case, the mantra of the league leaders remains pitching, pitching, pitching, as teams with both quantity and quality of pitching have the best records.

Memorial Day weekend no games.

Winning managers please submit your game scores by Monday evening by internet so I can send them to the Journal Sentinel and keep track of standings more efficiently (read as: so I don't have to do it three times a week as scores come in). Please assign the task to somebody on your team if you are not a regular internet user.

May 19 & 20 Results

Long Wongs 8 Tracks 4
Long Wongs improved to 4-0 on the season, reversing their trend of starting slow the past few years. Tracks grinded to a 4-1 lead after five innings on the strength of solid pitching by Conner Broderick and several timely hits. In the sixth, with one out, Long Wongs' Kirk Spano and Bruce Smeby put the ball in play into holes and reached base on bobbles. Josh Sopczak, Aaron Krueger and Joe Brand all got two out hits to drive in runs to complete the opportunistic rally. Brian Jaeger led off the seventh with a double, was moved over on a fielders choice and scored on Smeby's RBI ground out to add an insurance run. Brand got the win and Sopczak the save.

Johnny V's 7 PJ's Royals 0
Mike Gramarossa fired a complete game shutout by limiting the Royals to 5 hits while striking out 5. Dan Marx and Tom Librizzi had 2 hits and 2 RBI's.

Magoo's Indians 5 Club Paragon 4

Club Paragon 13 Magoo's Indians 3
In the second game of the doubleheader, another great game was thrown by Jimmy Kuriatnyk by only allowing 3 runs on 5 hits. Timely hitting by Troy Schmitt, Sean Finnegan, and Bryan Ureda keyed a big offensive outburst. The final nail in the coffin came in the sixth inning, when Joe Vilkoski had a two run blast over the left field fence.

O'Brien's / Milw HD 8 Supreme Builders 7
Joel Rechlitz hit a bases loaded single scoring two in the bottom of the seventh that capped off this come from behind victory, as O'brien's/MHD scored three in the last frame. There were three lead changes with Supreme taking a 5-2 advantage into the bottom of the fifth. OB's/MHD scored two in the fifth and one in the sixth to tie the game going into the seventh. SB's Tom Rapp led off the inning with a homerun and Supreme added another run before the inning ended. Starter Ryan Diaz came out to work the bottom of the seventh but would not get an out as OB's/MHD loaded the bases and scored the first run on Jon Stocks single before Rechlitz hit a sharp grounder that caught the lip of the grass and bounced over the shortstop for the game winner. Dan Wilfrath struck out nine for the third straight game to get the win. OB's/MHD Tim Heling was 3-4 with a double a two RBI's.

Franklin Barber Plumbing 12 MPD 2

South Milwaukee Arcade 11 Colonel Hart's 0

South Milwaukee Arcade 14 Colonel Hart's 7

Leff's / Spancrete 5 Varsity Club Bulldawgs 4

Leff's / Spancrete 7 Varsity Club Bulldawgs 2

Kasper's 10 Treat's Blue Jays 0

Kasper's 4 Treat's Blue Jays 1
Kasper's broke a 1-1 tie in the 7th scoring three in the top of the inning to provide the margin.