NOTCH TWO MORE IN THE "L" COLUMN

June 27, 2005

This past weekend of baseball for the Express couldn’t have gotten any more dismal as they dropped two more games. The last coming Saturday afternoon to the last place team in the CVL South, the Pearl Lake Lakers of Marty.

Wednesday evening the Express played the New London Twins in exhibition action at Eden Valley under the lights. It was another fabulous showing by the Express as they found themselves down 4-0 after the top of the first inning. They wouldn’t recover, eventually losing by the score of 11-7.

Kris Hagen started on the mound for the Kimball squad and takes the loss he was relieved by Joe Krippner in the fifth inning and Jim Brubaker finished it out going the last two innings throwing scoreless ball.

Offensively Brubaker had a triple and a homerun to lead the Express. Brian Marquardt also added a two run shot to aid in the offensive effort.

Pearl Lake

Saturday the Express made a stop in Marty to take on the Pearl Lake Lakers. Pearl Lake out hit and out pitched the Express coming away with a 5-2 victory over the trackless Express.

Bryan Hennen started on the mound for the Lakers and was on his A game as he and Dale Kraemer who relieved Hennen in the eighth inning combined to strike out 15 Express batters.

The Lakers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead highlighted by a Jeremy Wieneke solo homerun in the second inning. Kimball threatened and cut into that lead making it 2-1, but that was as close as they got. Pearl Lake erupted for three more runs in the sixth inning behind a two run double by Steve Loesch. Kimball couldn’t recover. They added a single run in the seventh inning before Dale Kraemer came on in relief of Hennen and shut the door on the Express striking out six of the seven batters faced.

Rail Report

The Express are losers six of their last seven games. The only win coming in the Miller Lite Invitational as they defeated the Fairfax Cardinals 6-3. Considering the losing streak, the Express record in the CVL is still pretty darn good as they are 7-2. They are now 9-6 overall. Not bad considering the current string of losses.

The current losing streak is reminiscent of the 2001 season when the Express started the season out 0-8. Right now it seems when the hitting is there the pitching isn’t or when the pitching is there the hitting isn’t. Seems to be more of the latter. In the six losses the Express have lost close games. Two of them being one run games, no real blowouts other than the loss against the Cold Spring Springers.

Poor defense and lack of big hits in clutch situations has been the achilles heel of this team in the current losing streak. The bright side is these are things that can be corrected.

Hopefully the Express can put the pieces back together and get back on the winning track as they wind down the last part of the regular season and get geared up for the playoff run. The talent is there to make some noise in August.

This week the Express play in Cold Spring at 7:00 Tuesday night as they take on the Rockies in CVL play. They will be continuing the previous game between the two teams that was halted due to rain. The score stands at 3-2 Rockies in the top of the ninth inning with two outs. The game is continued because the last run to be scored was in the top of the ninth inning and the Express have not gotten their turn at bat. If the go ahead run would have been scored in the eighth inning and the rain hit when it did, the game would have been called and the Rockies would have recorded the win. The regularly scheduled game with the Rockies will follow the continuation game.

The Express will also be in action Friday night against the Eden Valley Hawks. Game time for this one will be 8:00. Then on either Saturday or Sunday the Express will battle with the St. Nicholas Nicks. The game is scheduled for Sunday at 2:00 but with the Fourth of July weekend, players wanted the game switched to Saturday. Check the Express website at www.kimballexpress.com for updates concerning the game with St. Nicholas. Game time will be 2:00 no matter what day it is played.