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 Koz back from his one season stint with long-time Wednesday mates Ivy League.  Matt Sutor was plucked off the Tri-Star roster when they lethargically ended the season and continued by getting aced out of a signing spot by the newer teams.  To cover the added finances of the Koz and Sutor signings, the Gnats had to release the Reverend Dave Angle from the team.  Dave, not one to shy away from controversy, has filed legal charges against the ownership of the Gnaturals for breach of contract.  The matter will surely be discussed through its conclusion on these pages as details unfold.  

Come on out to the Lion's Den for the opener vs. Deacon's Demons on Tuesday, August 16th at 9:30 PM to bring a friend and a melatonin night as the Gnaturals take aim at the fall session championship.

Noteables:

Help Your Fellow Man - Shame on the guys who showed up for practice this past Tuesday, hit, fielded, chatted, had fun, then left without offering to carry any of the equipment back to the parking lot.






Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me - Monday was the last time this year the sun will go down in New Lenox after 8:00PM.  By the time the season ends on October 4th, the area will lose over 90 minutes of evening light as the sun will set at 6:28PM for the fall regular season closer.


The Warstick - Ryno picked up a glib looking bat in the offseason. Bat over .600 and it will be called the Hitstick.
Top Turd - This is a picture taken last week at the Jake Koz Estates for a future Gazette.  This little tool collects the droppings of the very docile Daisy Koz, the family canine. Little did we know we'd use it so quick because at last evening's practice, the team overwhelmingly requested a weekly "Top Turd" segment for the poorest performance, which prompts this photo.  Take a very close look at these poop jaws as you do not want your name appearing next to it in future Gazette's.  This week's winners would be the turds who left practice without offering help to carry out the equipment to the car.






Fall 2022 Predictions - Print this segment out and keep it in your pockets to look at after the final day of the season to see how our prognosticator Ginny The Geek did with this analysis. 

The Gnaturals ended the 2022 Summer League with a disappointing 3-7 record with 110 runs scored and 129 allowed.  We have noted the offseason signings of Jake Koz and Matt Sutor who instantly add pop to the lineup.  What these two gentlemen also add to the Gnaturals is exceptional defensive play.  The regular outfield looks to be a stingy core manned by Cap'n Jack, Pratl, D Foster, and Koz.  The infield shapes to be Ken, Sutor, Jeff moving over to 2B, and J Stapes.  Ryno is the starting pitcher with backup Zlogar at the ready.  Catching duties will likely be shared by Zlogar and Arik With An A.  For this, the team runs allowed will surely improve.  With a middle infield who can turn double plays and rob the occasional sure hit, the defense is projected to give up 91 runs in the regular season.  With three legitimate home run hitters in the lineup, the trick for this team is timely home run hitting and keeping the threat in play by not reaching the limit in the early innings, thus forcing opposing pitchers a series of nightmares.  Team speed has never been more abundant, which will put pressure on opposing defenses.  Look for the Gnaturals to put up 120 runs in the regular season.  This all totals up to a minimum five win team with a sixth in tow if they can perform an upset of one of the top teams.  Prediction 5-3 regular season with at least a first round playoff victory.  Good luck Ginny, and good luck to the Gnaturals in the Fall 22 season!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

High Voltage Summer 2024 Champions!

Image
  New Lenox, IL - It's been a long time coming for the team that started in this league in 2015.  Dozens of players and non-players who were called into action have taken at-bats for the Master Batters, Gnaturals, and High Voltage. Last night was the night that everything came together and High Voltage got over the hump to win its first championship in the team's 19th season. The first game of the evening pitted the #3 seeded Volts against last year's Summer League champions #2 seeded Chuck's.  The game was nip and tuck all game long until Chuck's rolled a five-spot in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 15-12 lead over the Volts.  High Voltage has seen this movie many times in the past and has gone out quietly to end the season without ever having gotten a chance to play in the finals.  This year seemed no exception with the Volts making two outs in the first three batters in the top of their final inning.  The tide changed with a runner on first whe...
Read more

Dog Days of Summer

Image
  New Lenox, IL -  Some rando thoughts on things in no particular order.  Thanks to Jack for the title. By The Numbers - High Voltage was the class of the field heading into the playoffs but bad luck or fate had the team finishing in third place during the regular season.  Everything panned out like it should by the numbers except the Ivy win over BJ.  It does make sense when we all know, if you've ever read a playoff edition of the Gazette, that BJ struggles in its first playoff game.  Don't know why that is but they've underperformed their record nearly every "first playoff game" and in fact have lost some upsets in the process.  HV ended up with the most wins at 10, tied for the least losses at 3,best winning percentage at .769, most runs scored per game 15.31, and fewest runs allowed per game 7.77.  Folks, when you are statistically ahead at the end of the year in each category, you should be holding the championship trophy,  In this cas...
Read more

Volts Slice Up Beggars

Image
New Lenox, IL - The first round of the playoffs saw High Voltage taking on Beggars in a rematch of last week's game that ended with the Volts winning a 13-3 run rule shortened game. The weather was hot and emotions were high on "Pink Out" night in support of the real captain of the Schoenhofen ship, Kathy.  Beggars started out the game auspiciously with a leadoff walk but the Volt defense, which has been the stingiest unit in the Summer league, continued its brilliance with a nifty fielders choice to record the first out of the game and snuffed out the inning with a 5-6-3 double play.  High Voltage started the scoring when Stapes knocked in Jay on a SAC fly, and was followed by a Sutes solo homerun to cap off the inning ahead 2-0.  Beggars clawed back into the game by scoring two runs in their half of the second inning.  Volts came roaring back when Jake led off the bottom of the inning with a legged out double and was knocked home on a Noah triple.  Jeff follo...
Read more