Lions Den Gazette II

  New Lenox, IL - Christmas came early on Tuesday night where a capacity crowd showed up to cheer on the hometown heroes take on Rhino Sealcoat and were treated to as compelling a game as seen here on a Tuesday night.  The Gnaturals started out the game by holding Rhinos to one unearned run in the top of the first inning.  The Gnats blitzed the Rhinos with five runs in the bottom of the inning to hold a 5-1 lead after one inning.   The second inning continued on a winning track when the Rhinos insisted on placing the ball to right and right center field only to meet resistance of the Gnats outfielders.  The Gnaturals tacked on another two runs to lead 7-1 after 2 innings.  Rhinos popped for seven runs in the third inning while holding the Gnats scoreless to lead 8-7 after three innings.  After Sealcoat scored three in the top half of the 4th inning, Mike Pratl started a rally with a one-out single. Seven hits and a walk later, the Gnats led the g...

  New Lenox, IL - On a picture perfect night at The Lions Den, the Gnaturals looked to avenge a string of close loses to The Scrappers over the past couple of seasons.  The game started out promising as the first five Gnats batters recorded hits in route to the team batting around the order to plate six 1st inning runs.  The momentum continued as The Scrappers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning with the Gnats leading 6-0 after one. The Gnats added two more runs in the 2nd inning and it could have been more but Ump Orange called Matt Sutor for the third out of the inning for leaving second base early on a deep fly ball trying to advance to third.  The Scrappers scored a run in the bottom of the second after Billy Blackshoes tripled to start the inning and scored on a SAC fly by Manny Noguns.  That run would be the only one The Scrappers would score on the evening.  The Gnats scored single runs in the third, fifth, and sixth innings to go up 11-1 and put...

  New Lenox, IL - The Gnaturals opened up the 2022 Fall season against Deacons Demons in the dreaded 9:30PM time slot.  The weather was reminiscent of September weather as the conditions were cool and dry.  What was not cool and dry were the Gnaturals bats as the team handily put away the Deacons 17-7 in a game shortened five innings.  The Gnats were only held scoreless in the 1-2-3 third inning but put up crooked numbers in the other four frames to jump out to an early lead and extend the entire game to win comfortably.  Matt Sutor led the team with 7 RBI on the evening.  All but two players recorded hits in the game.  Defense was rock solid all night long with the outfield choking Deacon hitters while the infield made several nice plays to keep the Demons off the base paths.  Next week's opponent is the Scrappers with a 6:30PM start at the Lions Den. The Gnats look to turn around their fortunes against the Scrappers where they lost two games to...

New Lenox, IL - Welcome to the Fall 2022 Men's Tuesday Evening Softball Preview.  The fall league will feature eight teams spanning an 8 week time frame with weather permitting uninterrupted action starting on August 16th and culminating on October 4th before the playoffs begin the following week. The Gnaturals along with Beggars, Ivy League, Scrappers, and league champ Brew Jays all return from the summer league.  New teams, or at least, new team names added to the fall schedule are Deacon's Demons, Rhino Sealcoat, and Water Chasers.  The Gnaturals opening game is a 9:30PM tilt against Deacon's Demons.  Game times are spread across the board evenly with 2 each of 6:30, 7:30, 8:30 and 9:30 starts.  The Gnats take on Deacon's Demons twice and each other team once. The Gnaturals were busy during the offseason with new signings and parting company with long-time players.  Dom and Whitehouse are no longer on the every week roster.  The team signed Jake Ko...