Miners walkoff win 8th Straight

6,264 fans came out tonight to support the Miners in the Miners final home game of the season.

Joey Metropoulos had a great night, Again! RBI Double in the 5th, and an RBI in the 9th to tie the game.


Andre Marshall singled in the game winning run in the bottom of the 12th.

The Miners are 2.5 games behind for the wild card.

Miners Organization win's Awards

The Southern Illinois Miners were named the Organization of the Year.

2B – Ralph Santana – Southern Illinois Miners

Newspaper of the Year – The Southern Illinoisan

Blog of the Year- Mine, ok maybe not, but I try.




The Frontier League is pleased to announce its 2007 All-Star Team and award winners. In one of the closest votes in League history, Travis Garcia, shortstop of the Chillicothe Paints has been named the League’s Most Valuable Player and wins The Morgan Burkhart Award. Garcia is a 3-time Post-Season All-Star. His stellar defense and clutch hitting led the Paints for the entire season.

Aaron Ledbetter, of the Washington Wild Things claimed the Brian Tollberg Award as the League’s Most Valuable Pitcher. In 2007, he became the new Frontier League career record holder for wins. The right-hander ranked among the League leaders in wins, ERA, and innings pitched.

Windy City Manager, Andy Haines, has won the Roger Hanners Award for Manager of the Year, after leading his club to a new League record for wins in a single season. Haines, in his first year as a manager, led the ThunderBolts to their first Division title and post-season appearance in the club’s history.

In other League Awards, Ryan Basham, outfielder of the Florence Freedom claimed The Jason Simontacchi Award as the League’s Rookie of the Year. The Fran Riordan Citizenship Award was won by River City Rascals pitcher Steve Brook for his many efforts in off-the-field endeavors in the O’Fallon, Missouri area. The Southern Illinois Miners were named the Organization of the Year. Gateway Grizzlies General Manager, Tony Funderburg, was named the Executive of the Year.

The following is the entire list of 2007 All-Star Team and award winners.

1B – Mike Breyman – Gateway Grizzlies
2B – Ralph Santana – Southern Illinois Miners
3B – Joe Ramos – Kalamazoo Kings
SS – Travis Garcia – Chillicothe Paints
OF – Jon Armitage – Gateway Grizzlies
OF – Mike Coles – Windy City ThunderBolts
OF – Jason James – Rockford RiverHawks
C – Mike Russell – Kalamazoo Kings
DH – Dustin Roberts – Gateway Grizzlies
SP – Aaron Ledbetter – Washington Wild Things
RP – Matt Petty – Windy City Thunderbolts

Morgan Burkhart Award (Most Valuable Player) – Travis Garcia – Chillicothe Paints

Brian Tollberg Award (Most Valuable Pitcher) – Aaron Ledbetter – Washington Wild Things

Roger Hanners Award (Manager of the Year) – Andy Haines – Windy City ThunderBolts

Jason Simontacchi Award (Rookie of the Year) – Ryan Basham – Florence Freedom

Fran Riordan Citizenship Award – Steve Brook – River City Rascals

Organization of the Year – Southern Illinois Miners

Executive of the Year – Tony Funderburg – Gateway Grizzlies

Coach of the Year – Brendan Sagara – Windy City ThunderBolts

Trainer of the Year – Geof Manzo – Gateway Grizzlies

Groundskeeper of the Year – Chris Young – River City Rascals

Broadcaster of the Year – Roger Redmon – Florence Freedom

Newspaper of the Year – The Southern Illinoisan

Writer of the Year – Phil Gray – Chillicothe Gazette

Umpire of the Year – Jim Schaly

Marshall's bat helps Miners win 7th Straight

Chris Little(8-7) Was our Winning Pitcher The Miners won their 7th straight game tonight 14-9 Home runs? Yes, power has been wonderful during this stretch, Hall got one, An Inside the park home run, Head first slide. Andre Marshall got one (A Grand SALAMEEEEEE) 3-5 1 run 6 RBIS for Marshall..Metropoulos has been on fire, he got a 2-run double, way to go Joey. The Miners are just 3 games behind Kalamazoo for that last playoff spot. 4,862 fans watched the Miners win tonight.

WP: Little (8-7) LP: Michael (0-2)

SIL) Marshall HR (5) 6RBI (19 ), Hall HR (13) RBI (55), Metropoulos 2RBI (29)

(EVN) Pace RBI (25), Rachal 3RBI (12), Spry RBI (27), Carr 2RBI (19), Teller RBI (5)

Miners Win 7-4 in Home run Fest

WOW, What a night, the Miners won, Kalamazoo lost, Rockford lost, 3rd in the wild card just 3.5 games behind Kalamazoo for the last spot in the playoffs. The Miners 47-45 play at Rent One Park again on Thursday against Evansville.

WP: Hope 4-3) LP: Benacka (2-5);

RIV) Miller HR (7) RBI 25) Czyz RBI (18 ) Lup RBI (22), Hough RBI (48);

SIL) Hall RBi 49), Metropoulos HR (9) RBI (27); Scanzano HR (1) RBI (20), Victor RBI (27), Hall HR (12) RBI (51)

Miners win 10-4

In consecutive order, Andre Marshal, Scott Simon, Jason Arrowood and Chris Hall hit for a combined cycle in a five run third inning that saw the Miners go from Trailing 3-1, to leading 6-3.

Hall, who was already 2-2 with a 2-run homer, lead off the sixth with a single and then later scored when Joey Metropoulos ended an 0-14 streak against the Rascals with a double off Doherty that hit the top of the left field wall to plate Hall making it 7-3.

It was 7-4 going into the bottom of the eighth. Taylor Fowler worked a scoreless seventh, but walked the first two he faced in his second inning and was taken out for Jordan Thomson. Metropoulos was the first batter Thomson faced and the big first baseman crushed the Miners second home run of the night to left center to make it 10-4

Lovell (2-1) went seven innings, giving up three earned runs, six hits and struck out two. Both his wins have come against River City this season.

WP: Ben Lovell LP: Steve Brook;:

(SIL) Simon 2RBI (35); Arrowood 2RBI (21), Metropoulos 4RBI (26), Hall 2RBI (48);

(RIV) Czyz RBI (17), Hough HR (8) RBI (47), MIller HR (6) 2RBI (24)

The Miners pull ahead of Rockford for the wild card spot, but Kalamazoo won keeping the wild card lead at 4.5 games.

Miners win 8-1 Now 4.5 Games back of The Wildcard Spot

Drew Moffitt is becoming a monster, and I don't mean Halloween boogieman. Moffitt hit another HR tonight, going 3-4 with 3 runs. Joey Metropoulus hit a huge HR going 3-5 with a double.

The Miners thanks to Kalamazoo and Rockford both losing are now only 4.5 games behind for the final wild card spot.

WP: Chris Little (6-7) 4.47 LP: Stephen Obenchain 7IP, 6R, 5ER, 12H, BB, 7K

SIL--Drew Moffitt 3-4, 3R, HR(2) Joey Metropoulus 3-5, 2B, HR(7) 4RBI Ralph Santana 3-6, R

EVN--Mike Spry 1-3, RBI

Miners Win 1-0

The Miners won again on Sunday night 1-0 Kalamazoo also lost which draws us to 5.5 games behind the Kings for the final Playoff spot. Evansville had some good pitching tonight along with solid defense, but Newest Miner Andrew Moffitt had a great hitting night, going 2-3 with a double and a run scored.




WP: Marcus McKenzie (3-3) 6.2IP, 0R, 2H, 5BB, 4K LP: Mark Murray (3-4) 6IP, ER, 7H, 2BB, 2K SV: Travis Hope (14)

SIL- Drew Moffitt 2-3, 2B, R

Miners Win 6-3

Miners beat out a good Rockford team tonight behind Home runs by Joey Metropoulos and Andrew Moffitt and some good Defense

The Miners picked up a Game and a half on the Kings because the Kings got swept in a double header against Florence. Leaveing the Miners 6.5 games behind Kalamazoo for the final Playoff spot.

WP: Hummel (3-2) LP: Watson (10-2) Save: Hope (13)

(RCK) Hagen RBI (55), Kimbrough RBI (12);

(SIL) Metropoulos HR (6) 4RBI (17), Arrowood RBI (18), Moffitt HR (1) RBI (3)

Miners Win 5-4

WP: Blomquist (4-8) LP: Parker (6-2) Save: Hope (12)

(SIL) Arroowood 2RBI (17) Perdomo HR (1) RBI (4) Metropoulos HR (5) 2RBI (13);


(RCK) Cohen 2RBI (25), Huskins (19), Hagen RBI (54)

Miners lose 2 vs Rockford

Miners lost both games of a double header on Wen. 3-1 and 11-7

Double Header today

The Miners will play 2 games against Rockford today starting at 5:35pm

Go Miners

Miners lose 13-1

WP: Billy Phillips (7-5) LP: Chris Little (6-7)

Double Header Tuesday

Game 1

WP: Nick Tisone (8-3) LP: Amos Ramon (5-1) S: Travis Hope (11)


Game 2

WP: Shawn Phillips (7-4) LP: Marcus McKenzie (2-3) Phillips (WCY): CG, 1 H allowed, 5 K, 1 BB

Miners lose 4-1

ROCKFORD - Rockford got runs in the first and second inning, then added two more in the eighth to take a 4-1 win over Southern Illinois Saturday.

W-Parker (6-1) L-Blomquist (3-8) HR - Sauls 2B - Anthonsen, Hagen, Sweet, Huskins

Southern Illinois only run came in the eighth, when a Mike Victor ground out scored Drew Moffitt. Moffitt finished 3-for-4 for the Miners.


Southern Illinois will try to salvage today's series finale with Rockford before embarking on a three-game set to Windy City beginning Monday

Miners lose 6-4

The players who were left after 3-4 Miners Including Mike Pinto got ejected after a weird set of events. More Info coming on this.

W - Dowling (6-5) L - Bailey (2-3)

HR: Marshall, Henderson 3B:Simon 2B: Marshall, Arrowood, Sauls

Miners lose 3-1

The Miners lost today 3-1 and it would have been 3-0 if it were not for New Miner Drew Moffitt in the bottom of the 9th.

LP: Chris Little (2-3), WP: Amos Ramon (5-0),

S: Matt Petty (19);

WCY) Billak RBI (32) HR (3), McCarthy RBI (20);

SIL) Moffitt RBI (1)

The Miners travel to Rockford Game starts at 6:05pm Friday

Miners lose 10-4

LP: Marcus McKensie (2-2), WP: Shawn Phillps (6-4)

(WCY) Long 2 RBI (54) HR (6), Mejia RBI (16), Concepcion 2 RBI (16), Ramon RBI (12), Coles 2 RBI (61), Marconi RBI (31);

(SIL) Arrowood RBI (13), Santana RBI (46)

4,132

The new record for attendance on Aug. 15th against Windy City is 218,285 Wonderful Miner Fans.

Info

New acquisition Drew Moffitt took swings in the batting cage after Tuesday's game and could see action Wednesday night. He is nursing a hamstring injury and will be used as a pinch-hitter until fully recovering, Pinto said.

The Miners released righthander Charlie Hahn to make room for Brian Logan's return.


With the attendance Tuesday night, the Miners' total for its first season is 214,157. That's 3,343 fans away from breaking the previous Frontier League mark set by Gateway.

Miners beat Windy City 10-5

The Miners hit their way into a win against the best team in the league. Miners had 13 hits, 10 runs, 3 Home Runs.
Andre Marshall hit a HUGE blast over the right field wall, Joey hit 2 Home Runs, way to go Joey. Nick Tisone pitched a great game after the first inning. The Miners stay behind Kalamazoo 3.5 games for the wild card.

WP: Tisone (7-3) LP: Fussell (9-2)

WCY) Coles RBI (59), Long RBI (52), Hawke RBI (68) Horn RBI (43);

SIL) Simon 2RBI (29), Metropoulos 2HR (4) RBI (11), Marshall HR (3) 4RBI (10), Scanzano RBI (18)

Some rules of The Frontier League

The Frontier League, based in Troy, Illinois, is a professional, independent baseball organization located in the Midwestern United States and Western Pennsylvania. It operates mostly in cities not served by Major or Minor League Baseball teams and is not affiliated with either. Though not part of the official minor league system, its level of play is considered about equal to A-level. The league was formed in 1993.

The Frontier League exists so that professional baseball players who are not signed by a Major or Minor League organization could have another chance at playing at a higher level. Although the level of Frontier League play can be categorized at the single A standard, players in independent baseball are usually not scouted heavily by Major League teams. Many Major League alumni have played for Frontier League teams in an effort get back to the Majors. The league also caters to players who are not quite talented enough to play at a higher level.

Teams in the Frontier League must recruit and sign their own players, which usually consist of undrafted college players or one-time prospects who have been released by their teams.

Frontier League rules limit teams to three "veterans" (those with three or more years of professional experience), two two-year players and seven one-year players (those with at least 150 professional at-bats or 50 innings pitched). The other half of the 24-man roster is confined to rookies. Players cannot be older than 27 as of Jan. 1.

Pay in the Frontier League is minimal, as each team has a salary cap of $60,000 and the league minimum is set at $600 per month. Due to the low pay, players typically live with host families.

The first league champions were Zanesville. Only three teams have won more than one championship: Springfield in 1996 and 1998, Johnstown in 1995 (as the Steal) and in 2000 (as the Johnnies) and Richmond (now Traverse City) in 2001 and 2002. The Florence Freedom (including years as Erie and Johnstown) and the Rockford RiverHawks (including years as Portsmouth and Springfield) are currently tied for the most league championships with each franchise winning three.

Transactions

Former Wichita State University standout Drew Moffitt is now a Miner, and Brian Logan is a Miner again.

Moffitt, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound outfielder/designated hitter In 198 games from 2002-04, hit .300 with 60 home runs and 217 RBI's
Moffitt was first drafted in the 25th round of the 2003 major league draft by Boston, but didn't sign, In 2004, after busting 26 homers for the Shockers, Moffitt improved his draft status. He was then selected in the 10th round by Baltimore, who in turn signed him.


Moffitt, who'll celebrate his 26th birthday this Sunday, played two seasons in the Orioles' organization before being released in 2005.

Brian Logan was 2-1 with a 2.81 earned-run average in 24 games with Southern Illinois, but his trade to Gateway turned into a nightmare. Picking up just five innings of work, Logan had no record with a 14.40 ERA in six games.
We picked him up via Gateway trading him to River City, and Pinto calling River City up and offering a draft pick for him.

Age restricted league

Hummel, Rick
Hall, Chris
Santana, Ralph
Marshall, Andre
Wirth, Rob
Sounds like an all-star team? Its guys unless I'm figuring wrong, which I hope I am, that will be to old to play next year, the league has an age restriction, which says if your 27 you cant play in the Frontier league.Also all teams have to have a set amount of rookies on the team. Someone tell me I'm mistaken. Please. I hope for our sake I am. I don't wanna lose these guys.

Former Miner Gets Signed by Detroit Tigers

SAN ANGELO, Texas – For the second time in less than a week, a San Angelo Colt player is on his way to a Major League organization. Only five days after the Yankees signed Stephen Artz, the Colts and United League Baseball announced today that the contract of San Angelo shortstop Eric Harryman has been purchased by the Detroit Tigers.

Harryman, 22 years old, has been assigned to play for the Gulf Coast League Tigers, the Rookie-level affiliate of the big-league club, and is expected to be in uniform with his new team Thursday night. Harryman and Artz join John Anderson and Drew Coffey as the four Colts who have gone onto play affiliated baseball this season.

“Eric is an outstanding young man who has tremendous hands, great instincts as an infielder, and was great to watch here,” said Colts manager Doc Edwards.

Harryman, a defensive specialist, posted a .957 fielding percentage in 39 games as the Colts’ shortstop. He committed only seven errors in 163 total chances and recorded 97 assists with 59 putouts. In addition, the Corona, California native participated in 26 double plays during his time in San Angelo.

After playing at California Baptist University, Harryman began his professional career in 2005 with Yuma of the Golden League. In 70 games there, he hit .256 with nine doubles, three triples, three home runs, 25 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. Splitting time between second base and shortstop, Harryman amazingly only committed four errors in 199 total chances that season.

He began the 2007 season with the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League before joining the Colts on June 15. He hit .198 with San Angelo but was surging with a .243 average in July. In addition, Harryman posted seven doubles, one triple, and one homer with nine RBIs and two steals in two attempts.

“If his bat grows the way we expect it to, he will certainly make it to the big leagues because defensively, he’s a Major League shortstop,” said Edwards.

The Colts continue this seven-game homestand with game two of this four-game series against Alexandria at 7:05 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31; it will be a “Two-for-Tuesday” at Foster Field, as fans can enjoy two hot dogs for the price of one all night.

Advertising, ticket, and group information are available by calling the box office at (325) 942-6587. All Colts games are broadcast live on “Cool 100” – KCLL 100.1 FM and online at the Colts’ official website, www.sanangelocolts.com, which is updated daily with the latest team news.

The San Angelo Colts are a part of a six-team league that make up United League Baseball. The independent league has teams located in San Angelo, Laredo, Amarillo, Edinburg, and Rio Grande Valley, Texas as well as Alexandria, Louisiana, and began play in the 2006 season.

Taken from http://www.sanangelocolts.com/news/?id=6158

San Angelo Colt's Website.

Wild Card Standings

As of 8-14:

Kalamazoo 41 32 –
S. Illinois 39 37 3.5
Rockford 37 35 3.5
Chillicothe 37 39 5.5

Miners Win 11-10

O’Fallon, MO,
The Miners won their 4th straight game tonight, Chris Hall, Andre Marshall and Mike Victor all hit Home Runs on Sunday night on their way to a 11-10 win. A Solo Home Run by Chris Hall , Andre Marshall had a 2 run Home Run, Mike Victor had a 3 run Home Run. These are some high scoring games vs. River City, tonight was no exception. The win tonight was the Miners 15th come from behind win this season. Travis Hope finished off the Rascals in the 9th, but had a tough time of it, the Rascals scored a run on an infield hit, Hope seemed to be affected by the Umpires bad calls.

The Miners are now 39-37, 3.5 games back from Kalamazoo in the Wild card standing’s.

WP: Charlie Hahn (4-3) LP: Joe Newman(0-1)

SV:Travis Hope (10)

RIV - Jeff Miller - 2-5, HR(2), 3 RBI's, 2 runs Angel Colon - 1-3, HR(7), 2 RBI's, 2 runs

SIL - Chris Hall - 3-6, HR(9), 2 RBI's -Andre Marshall 2-6, HR(2), 2B, 3 RBI's


The Miners have Monday off and play at Rent One Park on Tuesday at 7:05pm against Windy City.

Miners win 13-9

The Miners won tonight behind 18 hits and 13 runs.


Seth Beason had a 2 run hr, Jason Arrowood went 4-4 with a 3 run hr and 5 rbi’s.
Blomquist was pulled in the 2nd inning after giving up 5 runs.
New Miner Andre Marshall had a 2 run Home run,a triple, 2 runs, 3 rbi’s

21 hits on july 8th is the season high for hits in 1 game.

WP: Ben Lovell (1-0) LP: Steve Brook (9-5) SIL - Jason Arrowood - 4-5, HR (2), 5 RBI RIV - Andrew Sweet - 2-4, HR (3), 3 RBI

The Miners play River City again Sunday. The Miners are now above .500 again with a 38-37 record. 3 and a half games behind for the wild card.

Miners Win 8-0

The Miners shut out the River City Rascals tonight 8-0 behind great pitching by Chris Little. Mike Victor hit a left center 2-run home run. New Miner Andre Marshall got on base 3 of 4 times and had a RBI. Nice Job Chris on your 6 innings of shutout work.

WP: Chris Little (6-5), LP: Gryan Hansen (1-4)

SIL) Marshall RBI (1), Keene RBI (31), Victor 2 RBI (20) HR (5), Hall RBI (38), Arrowood RBI (6)

I was at the game and won the Show me the money contest, in which I had to show my Bank of America card and go crazy. I won $50.00 Woo Hoo way to go me.

The Miners set an attendance record tonight with 6,757 or so and had a great Fireworks show after the game.

Miners travel to O’Fallon, MO to play the rascals in a 2 game set.

New left fielder

The Miners will have a new left fielder Friday night after Andre Marshall, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound switch-hitter, signs a contract Friday morning. ... Marshall, a former 13th-round draft pick of Philadelphia out of the University of Washington, is expected to provide a big bat in the lineup. ... "He's an LS-2, with three years' experience in the Phillies organization," Pinto said. "He just finished up the MBC World Series in Wichita. He's a big guy who hit 18 homers in a tough Wooden Bat league in Washington

Pray

For the Miners that are still buried deep beneath the earth in Utah. If the six trapped miners are alive, they may be sitting in inky darkness, their headlamps having burned out. Wearing thin work clothes in the 58-degree cold, they could be chilled to the bone if water is seeping into their chamber 150 stories below ground. How much air they might have is any one's guess.

So lets PRAY! ever one that reads this post please stop and say a prayer for the rescue of the 6 Miners trapped below the earth in Utah.. My heart goes out to them, the family's and to all working to get them out. Thank you

Miners Win 6-2

Woo Hoo Reggie, the best time I've ever had at a Miners game. Reggie was great. And we won, good offense, great, great, defense, and great pitching, Way to go Miners, and Management did great also hiring Reggie.

WP: Marcus McKenzie (2-1), LP: Jonathan Miller (5-3) SV: Hope (10)

(RIV) Miller RBI (11), Bielski RBI (5)

(SIL) Santana 2 RBI (43), Arrowood RBI (5), Hall RBI (37), Beason RBI (3)

Momma told me to cheer the Miners to the Wild card, Thanks Mom for being my Mom, Go Miners!

The Miners play River City Again Friday night at 7:05pm

Miners lose 7-4

WP: Roush (6-3) LP: Tisone (6-3), Save: Staatz (2)

GTW) Breyman RBI (51), Holdren HR (19) RBI (57) Lisk HR (10) RBI (29), Andrews HR (6) RBI (43) Saltzgaber HR (4) RBI (15);

SIL) Hall RBI (36), Simon RBI (25), Victor 2RBI (18)

Time to make some changes.

We've got 3-4 players we need to drop. Ouch, I know that hurts to say, But, we want to win, Right?
So here we go,

Seth Beason, batting .188 in 16 games, hitting some dh, pinch running at points.

Mike Victor, batting .226 in 37 games, is he even still with us?

Jon Qualls, He pitches 75 mph, thats his fastball, which is ok, but he has a 5.53 era, batters are hitting .314 against him, which is the 2nd highest opp avg on the team..

This of course is my opinion, and is only that, an opinion. But we need to try and beef up our lineup, Our offense is lacking that blast off hitter, Joey M. is a great add, Jason is a great add, We should trade Jon Qualls for some Rookie prospect or a player to be named while he is still worth something. Seth seems to be needing more at-bats, trade him away.

Miners lose 1-0

The Miners lose in a pitchers duel 1-0, 1 HUGE blast by Gateway's Andrews was the only offense in the whole game. The Umpire on 1st base made a horrible call on a throw from shortstop to 1st. Us Miners fans let the Ump know he made a mistake. But, that call did not lose the game for us, great defense by both teams, Gateway walking the bases loaded so we can hit into a double play, twice. The Miners play a hot one at 2:05 pm Tomm.



(WP: Hertel (6-1) LP: Bailey (2-2) (Save: Ridener (18) (GTW) Andrews HR (7) RBI (25)

Miners win 5-3

The Miners came out with a RARE win against the Grizzles 5-3 Monday night in front of 4300 or so at Rent One Park. The Miners are 3-14 against Gateway. The Defensive play and Player of the game in my eyes, Ralph Santana, had a great game. Gateway lead off the first inning with Roberts hitting a huge blast to dead center field, making it 2-0 right out of the gates. The Gateway 2nd baseman gave us a couple of runs on errors, and we pounded out some good timed hits to pull out the win.

WP: Wilburn (1-1), LP: Kellbach (7-1), S: Hope (9);

(GTW) Roberts HR (21) RBI, Andrews RBI (24);

(SIL) Kane RBI (13), Suttle RBI (18), Scanzano RBI (17), Simon RBI (24)

Info

The Miners released relief pitcher Scott Holcomb Sunday after getting handled by Gateway.
The Miners will host "Miner's Night" at 7:05 p.m. tonight.

Miners lose 15-2

WP: Eril Dessau (10-1) LP: Chris Little (1-2)

(GTW) Breyman HR (15) RBI (50), Paula 2HR (9) RBI (30), Holdren RBI (30), Beck RBI (14), Sullivan RBI (27), Vincent 3RBI (42) ;

(SIL) Suttle RBI (17)

Miners play Gateway again Monday night. I'll be at the game Section 113 row B seats 12-13. come say hi.

Congratulations Barry Bonds

Congratulations to Barry Bonds who hit #755 last night. What the man had to endure the last few years most men could not handle. Love him or hate him, the man has created one of the biggest stories of the decade.

With a short swing, a half stare and an emphatic clap of his hands, Barry Bonds rounded the bases. After so many days and so many tries, he had finally caught Hammerin' Hank.

"The hard part is over right now," Bonds said.

No. 755 was a strong shot for all the doubters, an opposite-field drive of 382 feet to left-center, moving Bonds within one swing of having baseball's pinnacle of power all to himself. It came on a 2-1, 91 mph fastball Saturday night.
"This is the hardest thing I've had to do in my entire career," he said. "I had rashes on my head, I felt like I was getting sick at times."
And it was a long time coming.
It had been eight days and 28 plate appearances since Bonds hit his 754th home run, and he came out for early batting practice Saturday, hoping to break his slump. He did it quickly, leading off the second inning.
"No matter what anybody thinks of the controversy surrounding this event, Mr. Bonds' achievement is noteworthy and remarkable," Selig said in a statement.

Way to go Barry!

Miners win 9-4

The Miners picked up a game on Kalamazoo Sat. night by defeating Traverse City 9-4.
Southern Illinois opened a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning and took advantage of five unearned runs to capture the win.


W: Marcus McKenzie (1-1) L: David Nathanson (3-2)

SIL - Joey Metropoulos 2-3, R, 2RBI; Willie Keene 3-4, 2B, BB, 3RBI

TRA - Brad Vericker 3H, 2RBI, BB; Zack Kalter 4-5, 2B, 3R

Gateway at Southern Illinois 2:05 pm at Rent One Park

Miners lose 7-5

W: Ryan Gehring (5-7) L: Brian Wilburn (0-1) SV: Tyler Meigs (4); TRA - Aaron Garza 2-4, 2 2B, 2RBI; SIL - Ralph Santana 2H, R, 2RBI


The Miners are now 33-34 and below .500 for the first time in awhile. The Miners play Traverse City again Sat. night at 6:05

Miners lose 7-3

The Miners fell 5 games back of Kalamazoo for the wild card spot with a 7-3 loss to Traverse City. Traverse City scored runs with 2 outs in the 2nd and 3rd inning's, I don't even know where to start, so I wont.

W: Jeremy Dow (1-0) L: Griffin Bailey (2-1) SV: Tyler Meigs (3)

SIL - Eric Suttle, 2H, 2B

TRA - Aaron Garza 3R HR (4); Zack Kalter 3-4, 2B, R, RBI

The Miners play Traverse City again Friday at 6:05pm

Miners lose 7-1

The Miners are now 4 games behind Kalamazoo for the final wild card spot, and now travel to Traverse City to play a 3 game set.

KZO WP: Trenton Lare (3-1)
SIL LP: Brian Blomquist (3-7)