SAINTSball
Welcome to SAINTSball. This blog will cover the St. Paul Saints, the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, and the Can-Am League
Friday, July 1, 2016
Short Post: Series Recap against Sioux Falls
The St. Paul Saints hosted the Sioux Falls Canaries Tuesday through Thursday at CHS Field in St. Paul. The Saints would come into the series having lost 2 in a row to the Winnipeg Goldeyes. Tuesday night would see the Saints start Alec Crawford while the tweety birds started Shawn Blackwell. St. Paul would drop the game and their 3rd in a row by a final score of 9-4. Wednesday would be a special matinee game starting at 1:05PM. One of the BIGGEST highlights of the game was in the bottom of the 4th inning when Breland Almadova successfully stole home from 3rd (which can be watched here)! The Saints took that game by a final score of 7-4, Mark Hamburger took yet another win to move to 7-0 with a 3.00 ERA. Ryan Rodebaugh took his 9th save of the season. On Thursday night the Saints would double up on the Canaries to take a final score of 6-3, Rodebaugh took his 10th save of the season that night.
The Saints take a quick road trip to CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Kansas City, KS to take on the T-Bones. St. Paul currently sits at 28-13 and leads the North by 5 Games over Fargo-Moorhead, Kansas City is currently 16-24 and 4th in the Central down 6.5 games to Sioux City. The 3 game series can be watched live on americanassociationbaseball.tv thanks to the T-Bones or here on "Club 1220" KLBB via the Saints Broadcast Network. Don't worry as the Saints will be back from July 4th through the 6th taking on the Joplin Blasters. Until next time remember Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Another trip to the Lake: Series Recap against Winnipeg
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CHS Field at Sunset |
Friday, June 24, 2016
We Found Something! Saints at Explorers Recap
Well everyone sorry for the long delay on this one, it will be an abnormally short recap but we'll be right back on it next time. The Saints finished up a 6 game roadtrip with a 3 game series in Sioux City and this is how it went.
The series opened on Monday night with the Saints on a nice winning streak, the X's wouldn't have any of that and absolutely crushed the Saints with a 13-5 win at Lewis and Clark Park in Sioux City. Tuesday night St. Paul would look to get back to their winning ways in game 2 of the series. The crowd on hand of 1,345 fans would see the Saints take the win 6-2 over the X's. And the series would end on Wednesday night in Sioux City. A crowd of a lowly 740 at Lewis and Clark Park would see the Saints win 6-4 that night and move to 24-10 on the year.
After 30+ Games this season the standings in the North Division have the St. Paul Saints (24-10) leading the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (17-15) by 6 Games, the Winnipeg Goldeyes (17-16) are 6.5 games back, and the Sioux Falls Canaries (12-21) are 11.5 Games behind. The Saints are currently the top ballclub in the American Association. Attendance wise the Saints also top the list averaging 7,963 after 10 openings for a total attendance of 79,630. The next best team in the overall category is the Kansas City T-Bones with 69,765 over 17 openings (4,104 avg) while Winnipeg is averaging 4,597 over 13 openings for a total attendance of 59,763. The worst teams in the league are the Laredo Lemurs averaging 676 over 19 openings for a total attendance of 12,839, while Joplin is not far behind with 686 per game over 19 openings with a total attendance of 13,041.
The Saints come back home for the longest homestand of the season (7 Games) starting tonight against the Winnipeg Goldeyes when they help open 2016 Twin Cities Pride and will wearing rainbow jerseys in support of the LGBT community, the game will end with Friday Night Fireworks featuring the music of Queen! Saturday it's the 30th anniversary of Top Gun, and Sunday evening the Saints will salute the Addams Family. Tuesday through Thursday the Saints host the Sioux Falls Canaries at CHS Field, with Wednesday being a special midday matinee at 1:05PM.
Don't worry if you can't make it to the games, you can watch ALL St. Paul Saints home games on americanassociationbaseball.tv, the Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday games are scheduled for 7:05PM, Sunday at 5:05PM and Wednesday at 1:05PM. We'll be at the Saints PRIDE game tonight and have pics up with our series recap. Until next time remember Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!
Monday, June 20, 2016
Gone Fishin': Series Recap from Winnipeg
Friday St. Paul went up to Winnipeg and would open the series with a 7:05PM game at Shaw Park. John Straka took the hill for the Saints while Duke Von Schamann would go on for the Goldeyes. The Saints would score the opening run in the second when Angelo Songco hit a leadoff home run. Winnipeg would tie up the ballgame at 1 in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a sac fly to right. St. Paul would add 3 more in the fourth on the backs of a Tony Thomas 2 RBI single and a Breland Almadova RBI single to make it 4-1. The Goldeyes wouldn't give up when David Rohm stepped to the plate and blasted a 2 run HR to make it 4-3. Even with a combined 8 runs given up Straka went 5 full innings and Von Schmann went 5.2 and was only pulled after he gave up his 5th run in the 6th inning. Winnipeg matched that run to make it 5-4 and the game would go scoreless until the 9th inning. In the 9th Songco drove in an RBI single to make it 6-4, but Winnipeg would match and get a home run in the 9th off Saints closer Ryan Rodebaugh. Final score Saints 6 Goldeyes 5, Straka took the win, Von Schmann the loss, and Rodebaugh got another Save.
Saturday would be a very different ballgame than it was on Friday night, with 4,330 in attendance at Shaw Park it would begin with a second pitch home run by Alonzo Harris which foreshadowed things to come. Even though Winnipeg did take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 1st, St. Paul would come back and hard. In the 2nd the Saints would tack on 5 runs, 3 from a Tony Thomas 3 run HR, Chad Christensen hit a solo home run and a Nate Hanson RBI single to make it 6-1. The 3rd wouldn't fare much better as Tony Caldwell drove yet another home run (2 Runs) and Alonzo Harris drove another to push the lead to 9-2 Saints after just 3 innings. From then on it would be a fairly calm game with Winnipeg scoring 3 in the 6th to make it 9-5, but St. Paul would score one run in each the 8th and 9th innings to finish it off with an 11-5 Saints victory. Saints starting Mark Hamburger went an astounding 8 innings of pitching giving up all 5 runs (4 earned) and taking the win, new Saints signee (we'll come back to that one) Gene Escat finished off the game, while Goldeyes starter Edwin Carl took the loss. Hamburger believe it or not is currently 5-0 in 7 starts with a 3.37 ERA, 26 K's in 56.1 IP with 2 no decisions!
The Sunday matinee game at Shaw Park couldn't have been better in 75 degree weather and a nice crowd of a little over 5,000 on hand to watch the game (Note the Goldeyes are the 2nd best drawing team in the league). A quiet first 2 innings happened and it was only in the 3rd that the scoreless game was broken open with a Nate Hanson RBI single. St. Paul tacked on 2 more in the 4th inning to put it up 3-0. The final runs of the game would be all scored in the 6th inning when Tony Caldwell drove a 3 run HR to make it 6-0, then in the bottom of the inning Winnipeg got there only run when David Rohm drove in Ridge Hoopii-Haslam to make it 6-1. Other eventful things saw Goldeyes LF Josh Romanski ejected in the 6th and Goldeyes Manager Rick Forney ejected in the 7th. St. Paul native and Concordia Golden Bear alum Kody Knaus pitched 6 full innings giving up just 1 run taking the win, while Goldeyes starter Ethan Carnes took the loss.
In the series in Winnipeg, St. Paul tied the franchise record of consecutive road wins at 8, they play a game set at Louis and Clark Park in Sioux City starting tonight and could annihilate the record by Wednesday. If you miss the Saints you can always listen to them here on "Club 1220" KLBB. On a player news front the Saints resigned relief pitcher Gene Escat to help bolster an already talented bullpen. Escat had entered camp with the Saints this season but decided to sign with Pirates de Campeche of the Mexican League (AAA/Unaffiliated) last season he spent most of the season with the Eastern League's Bowie Baysox (AA/Orioles). The Saints have placed Tanner Vavra on the DL (Hamstring) and released pitcher Alex Crawford. The Saints will be back in action at home starting Friday when they have a 6 game homestand. It all starts on Friday when they take on the Goldeyes at 7:05PM and help kick of Twin Cities Pride which features Friday Night Fireworks featuring the music of Queen. So come out and enjoy the fun and ALWAYS remember Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!
Friday, June 17, 2016
Rain, Rain, Go Away, Don't come back another day: Saints vs X's seriesrecap
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Down Goes Tweety: Series Recap at Sioux Falls
Saturday night would be a lot shorter than Friday was but St. Paul would have no less fun with that contest. The first 2 innings went scoreless but the Saints broke it open in the 3rd when Tony Thomas drove in Burzynski to make it 1-0. The Saints would make it 3-0 in the 4th before Sioux Falls scored one to close the gap at 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning. The 6th inning would be another one not to forget for St. Paul as they pounded out 5 runs which was followed up in the 8th by yet another 4 runs. Sioux Falls would try and rally in the 9th but only managed 3 and fell to St. Paul 12-4 in Game 3 of the series. John Straka (3-1) would go 7 innings and take the win and Shawn Blackwell the loss for the Canaries.
Sunday night the Saints would look to sweep the Canaries with the series finale at the Birdcage as a crowd of 1,554 would come see the series ender in the sweltering 97 degree heat. St. Paul would start hot in the hot weather scoring 3 of there 4 runs in the 1st including a Tony Thomas 2 run shot. No runs would happen again until the 7th inning when Nate Hanson drove in Sam Maus to make it 4-0 which is where the game would stay. Former Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bear Kody Knaus would go 5.1 IP and take his first ever professional win while Sioux Falls starter Joe Bircher took the loss.
The Saints swept Sioux Falls at the Birdcage and are now 17-8 on the season, they have the best record in the league and lead the North Division by 3 Games over the rival Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks. For all of you who have missed the Saints they'll be back at CHS Field in St. Paul Monday-Wednesday to take on the Sioux City Explorers. Monday night is the Metropolitain State University variety show featuring Mayor Chris Coleman and musical guest Har Mar Superstar. Tuesday night the fun continues with an Ugly Sweater Beanie Giveaway and finally on Wednesday is an Aviators Sunglasses giveaway. All Games in the series start at 7:05 PM but if you can't make it to the ballpark don't worry catch the action on americanassociationbaseball.tv or here on "Club 1220" KLBB radio! You can view the entire amount of pictures we took at http://s394.photobucket.com/user/dstroyer13/library/Saints%20Baseball%202016/Saints%20at%20Canaries%20June%2010th?sort=3&page=1. Until next time remember Fun Is Good and GO SAINTS!