Position Breakdown: Outfield (by Zach Bigley)

As the Walla Walla Sweets’ season draws even closer, we take a look at the outfield for the ball-club. Playing outfield at Borleske Stadium can be difficult because of the deep gaps and very deep centerfield, so that led to manager Frank Mutz, general manager Katie Biagi and team president Zachary Fraser to search for guys who are athletic and can cover some ground. They came up with a class of outfielders that can all play center and that, for Mutz, is the best case scenario.

“At this point I really don't know where each guy will fit in. I do know however they all can play centerfield and that's a good problem to have,” Mutz said.

One of the stars of the outfield looks to be Hunter Villanueva (Fresno Pacific) who won the West Coast League MVP award playing for Kelowna last season. He hit .378 for the Falcons with seven home runs and 33 RBIs. He also swiped three bases and walked 34 times in 46 games. He played infield on the left side for the Falcons, but he will take his athleticism to the grass for the Sweets.

“We had to plan to pitch around Hunter last year and I know we weren't the only ball club which did that,” Mutz said. “Hunter is a contact hitter with power and will fit very well in our number three slot in the line-up.”

He is not the only one that may impress this summer. There are a slew of young ballplayers that just finished their freshman season in college and will be making their way up north. Jordan Myrow (UCLA), Ryan Johnston (UC Irvine), Connor Doyle (San Diego) and Alex Muzzi (Long Beach State) all fall into that category. The youngest member of the class is Zach Weisz (Cal State Fullerton) who will be heading to Fullerton for his freshman season after this summer.

While the focus is on defense, Mutz wants his outfielders to produce on the offensive side as well.

“Having six outstanding athletes on offence allows me to create run production throughout the entire line-up,” Mutz said. “With the way these guys run and the way they put the ball in play, we will be very difficult to contain. Having athletes throughout the line-up gives us many options how we run the offence each series.”

Position Breakdown: Infield (by Zach Bigley)

            The Sweets have put an infield together that has a potential to not only save a lot of runs, but score and produce a fair share as well. The infield looks to improve from a position group that last season had its problems in both of those facets.

            “Last season we could score runs but continued to give teams extra opportunities to score,” manager Frank Mutz said. “At times are pitching had to get 4 and 5 outs each inning. Our focus this off season was to shore up the defense particularly the infield and I believe we accomplished that.”

            One of the most impressive parts about this group looking at it from afar is the ability of the players to field at multiple positions. There is Myles Hager (Cal State Monterey Bay) who played second, shortstop and third for the Sweets last season and he is joined by Nick Nyquist and Patrick Chung (Gonzaga) who can also play different positions. Jarren Duran and Chris Fife (Long Beach State) can both play up the middle on either side and so can Coby Kauhaahaa (Cal State Fullerton). Ben Baird (Washington) presents young talent up the middle and Cole Rutherford (Cornell) brings veteran leadership to first base.

            Mutz is pleased with the polished playing style that these players bring into Walla Walla.

            “I believe all of these guys are special players,” he said. “What I like about all of them, is they are all MLB prospects and not projects. They are all steady players which will give our ball club a chance to be competitive every game.”

            This allows Mutz and the rest of the coaching staff to trust their durability throughout the season, but it also gives him options in the different positions. He says that there are no favorites for the starting positions currently, but he is sure that a lot of the players will get significant playing time over the long season. 

Position Breakdowns: Pitchers (by Zach Bigley)

            The Sweets bring an almost entirely new set of faces to the mound in the 2016 season after the staff struggled last year.

            It was a staff that saw a strong starting rotation last season, but the bullpen was shaky at times. It ended the year with a 4.15 team ERA, but the Sweets saw great performances by Joe DeMers (Washington) with a 2.07 ERA and 27 strikeouts in 30 and a third innings pitched and Easton Lucas (Pepperdine) with 2.43 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 48 innings pitched.

            “After last season was completed we took a good look at where we could get better,” manager Frank Mutz said. “We would get through most of our games with a lead or in every game if we fell behind. I feel great about all the arms we have signed for the 2016 season.”

            “I believe we did a great job last year keeping starters in reasonable pitch counts and this coming summer it should be the same,” Mutz added.

            While there is no clear direction as to who will start or pitch in the bullpen, Mutz is confident about the back end of the ‘pen as compared to last season.  

            “You never knew what to expect when one of the relievers took the mound [last season],” Mutz said. “We had some great relief appearances throughout the summer but it was not consistent enough to help us hold leads. We lost over 15 games last summer late with the lead. I'm very excited to have the arms we have coming out of the pen this summer.”

            It will be a diverse pitching staff this summer as well. As the roster currently stands, Mutz and pitching coach Michael Dingilian will have five lefties and seven right-handers to work with.

            There is also a large range of ages on the squad, but most are young. There are seven pitchers who will be a freshman in college next year and three who are currently in their first year of college. The staff in anchored age-wise by senior returners Clayten Ayers (Georgia College and State) and AJ Carkner (Pikeville). This youth did not escape Mutz’ concerns, but he is looking at the positives of the situation.

            “I'm excited to see the young high school arms we have signed for this summer,” Mutz said. “Last year’s arms Demers, Molnar, and Lucas were incredible. My hope is we are better overall this coming summer.”

            The duties of controlling these talented pitchers fall not only on Mutz, but mostly on the shoulders of Dingilian. Mutz feels good about was Dingilian can do with the arms. He is just in his second season of coaching, but he and Mutz work well together as Dingilian played for the Sweets’ manager back in high school.

            “Michael is a very intelligent baseball guy and is becoming a fast study rather quickly,” Mutz said. “Michael will handle the majority of dealing with the pitchers during pre-game and bullpen sessions. My responsibility will be to work with the catchers calling the games, setting up the rotation and helping pitchers with the mental part of pitching.”

            Mutz said he is not sure who will start game one against Victoria, or who will fill in at the other roles in the bullpen.

            He and the rest of us will find out on June 3 when the HarbourCats come to Walla Walla for the season opener.

Position Breakdowns: Catchers (By Zach Bigley)

            The most important position on the field may be behind the dish. Whether or not that is the case, the Sweets are set to have an excellent platoon of players at the catcher position in 2016.

            The three catchers that will be wearing the red, white and blue this summer are Willie MacIver (Washington), Hayden Duer (Cal State Monterey Bay) and Griffin Mazur (UC Irvine). Each bring their own traits to field and the batter’s box.

            “All three catchers either start or play significant innings for their teams,” Head Coach Frank Mutz said. “All three catchers can really throw and are offensive. It's a strong catching core and they are interchangeable. It's also possible there will be games all three are in the lineup at the same time. Duer is the most offensive, MacIver is the most athletic and Mazur has a great balance of offense and defense.”

            MacIver returns for his second season with the Sweets. In his first West Coast League campaign, he hit .215 in 32 games where he played catcher, designated hitter and also played a game at second base. He added four doubles and eight RBIs, but he led all Sweets’ catchers with a .984 fielding percentage and was one of the more consistent catchers defensively with his lateral movement. 

            “MacIver returning not only brings leadership to the catching core but leadership for the entire team,” Mutz said. “He is a very talented player, is well liked by his teammates and wants to win!”

            “You will see his [offensive] numbers jump up,” Mutz added. “He's facing Pac 12 pitching on a regular basis and he won't have to catch 60% of the games this summer. With injuries to a couple of catchers last summer we had to over extend Willie which was tough for any player coming straight out of High School.”

            One of the most important focuses for any catcher is to handle a pitching staff and wood bat league catchers must handle a young, sometimes wild and frustrated group of pitchers.

            The Sweets last year saw a pitching rotation that finished ninth out of 12 teams in ERA (4.15) in the West Coast League. Those numbers were elevated because of struggles down the stretch in the season, but there were some instances that the pitching staff did not perform up to the standards that Coach Mutz and company had set for them. Mutz is confident that this group of catchers can handle the pitchers that will be in Walla Walla this summer.

            “I believe all three catchers are intelligent and will surely be able to handle the pitching staff” Mutz said. “MacIver and Mazur both have played for me and understand my expectations and how I call a game. Duer is a seasoned catcher who plays for a quality program and will definitely be able to handle a pitching staff.”

            At the beginning of the season, Hayden Duer will be the starting catcher for the Sweets because both MacIver and Mazur will be in school in early June. He has shown his offensive capabilities so far this season at CSUMB. Through April 10^th, he is hitting .292 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 32 games.

            Duer will be behind the plate on June 3^rd when the Sweets welcome in the Victoria HarborCats to Borleske Stadium for opening day. To purchase tickets, you can go to wallawallasweets.com or check out the Sweets Shoppe in downtown Walla Walla.

            Check out the blog in a couple weeks for when we breakdown the pitching staff that these catchers will be relaying the signs to!

Position Breakdown Announcement 2016 (by Zach Bigley)

While 2016 is bound to be a great year for the Walla Walla Sweets, it is going to take special performances at different positions for the Sweets to make it truly memorable. To get you as a fan more excited for this season and to get to know the positions a little bit better, I am going to break down this team position group by position group.

Every other week, I will release a breakdown and here is the schedule:
April 12: Catchers
April 26: Pitchers
May 10: Infielders
May 24: Outfielders

These breakdown will include quotes from coaches and analysis of what they have done in their careers and their possible impacts on the Sweets this summer.

If you have an idea of what you want to see in these recaps or any other videos, interviews or previews you want to see, feel free to email me at zach@wallawallasweets.com.

You've been a host family if...

To be very honest - it's 10:30 at night, I have a 7 am meeting, and we are less than 80 days until Opening Day. Writing a blog post was almost on the list of "next week". Especially since I was struggling to get my other projects done for the day (we did manage to buy a new refrigerator for our home - so I feel good about that).

As I work my way down the list of things to get done for the start of the season, there is one item on my list (besides promotional giveaways) that keeps me up at night - and that is host families. I am not kept up at night because we don't have good ones - in Walla Walla, we have the best of the best. But, I always sweat this time of year as to whether we will have the right ones and enough of them.

I love our host families. I lived out of the country for two years, where I communicated in a different language, with a different culture. We had apartments that were arranged for us (which was nice), but while they were safe (usually) and provided the amenities of home, they weren't home. During the week, we'd have the opportunity to share a meal or visit with families in the area. Home-cooked meals, children happy and laughing, stories and a vibe that only come from a real home - that little slice of heaven kept me energized, happy and focused on the work that I had to do while abroad. That is what I believe our host families provide to our players every season.

Have you ever waited up until 11:30 pm with a prepared meal wrapped in tin foil, after everyone else has gone to bed, to visit with the young man that isn't your son? The young man that may have had the game-winning hit, or maybe the big error that cost the team the game, or possibly the toughest of all - the guy who's name never made it onto the lineup card? The guy who is likely 6-8 hours (at minimum) away from home, missing every creature comfort he has known to pursue a career in a game/profession where only 5% of the draft picks make it? If you have, you are likely a host family.

When a complete stranger leaves a
member of your family, you've been a host family.

Have you ever made a sign for a player so he knows at least (1) person in the crowd that night is cheering for him? Have you driven to the airport to pick up a girlfriend who is seeing wheat fields for the first time? Have you ever waited in an emergency room as a player had an x-ray or MRI...or was seizing? If you have, you are likely a host family.

Have you ever purchased eggs - 4 dozen at a time - knowing you will purchase thee same amount again next week? Did you know that they sell 2-gallon jugs of chocolate milk (1 gallon jugs held together with plastic wrap)? Have you ever wondered how a 170-lb young man can consume 4000 calories in a day? If you have, you are likely a host family.

Did you ever cautiously welcome a complete stranger into your home, only to have him leave as an older son, brother, or grandson to the rest of your family? Do you have picture frames and binders full of players past that are now a collection of life-long friends? Do you now FaceTime with a college sophomore? Have you ever cried a small tear when the young man you welcomed into your home as a freshman shoots you a text that he just graduated from college - the first in his family to do so? Have you ever invested so much into a person who is not related by blood, over a game with gloves and balls, that they become a permanent part of your life's story? If you have, you are likely a host family.

Host families allow our young men to become part of our community - not just part of our team. Walla Walla is an amazing place to live - and our host families provide that little slice of heaven that keeps our players energized, happy and focused all season long.

A bit of a ramble, but I love our host families. I'm excited to welcome them back to the park this summer. - ZF

Prepping for Broadcast and Game Day Duties (Zach Bigley: Broadcaster)

If you ask any broadcaster what the most important part of a broadcaster’s job is, they most likely say research. That is the most important thing for me before a game and it takes most of my prep time. 

              Many broadcasters do it differently, but I learned from Ryan Rouillard (former broadcaster for the Victoria HarborCats and Yakima Valley Pippins, now Ranger’s Double-A Broadcaster) that the best way to do it is by chart. I go through each and every player on a team’s roster and look up information for them. This can be simple, such as stats from the previous season as well as where they are from and stuff like that, to the in-depth stories that everyone loves. These can be obtained through thorough research and/or by interviewing them or someone close to them. For every team that the Sweets play, I spend anywhere from 5-8 hours researching the team’s players and then an extra hour or so researching coaches, team history and home-town fun facts/stories. This makes the broadcast a lot more interesting for the listeners and for me as well!

              As for game-day prep, it is a little more manageable in terms of time. At home, it all begins with a trip to the Sweets Shoppe in downtown Walla Walla at 9:00am, where I work in the back office to put out the Borleske Bulletin, our game program for fans at the games. That does not take long, but it must be emailed to our print shop by 11:00. With a little extra time, I will hang out at the office and finalize some things on my chart, but mostly just relax. From there, I pick up the copies of the Bulletin by 1:00 and make my way over to the stadium. 

              I am a little different than some broadcaster in the fact that I like to be at the ballpark SUPER early. For a 7:00pm game, I will usually get there anywhere from 2-3:00pm. That way, I can fill out my scorebook, chat with players and coaches and take in the sounds and feels of the park without having to rush. I love being around the game and being emerged in the atmosphere that a ballpark provides. After I do my pre-game video interview, I upload it to youtube and begin game prep. This is the most fun part for me. I can take my time to fill certain stats in and fun facts into my score book for certain players and circumstances. From there, I am usually ready to broadcast about 10 minutes before I go on the air. With a five-minute pre-game show, it doesn’t leave me much time to talk about the Sweets and what they need to do, so I fit as much in as I can. Then, my favorite part of the day: first pitch.

              After the game is over, I interview a player or coach and pack up my broadcast equipment. The long night ahead then ensues. It is about 10:30pm by the time I get home and I won’t eat until after I have finished all my post-game duties. These include a recap on the website and sent to the press, the post-game interview uploaded, my “highlight of the night” that I post to soundcloud, updating any game notes for the next day and continuing prep for the upcoming series. It is usually anywhere from 12:00am-2:00am until I get any food in my stomach and then I finally get to catch up on the MLB plays and scores from the day. I try to find time to keep up on my Mariners. 

              Not much sleep, a lot of work, but I could not be happier. There is no better feeling than feeling prepared to do a broadcast and putting out my best effort every night for the listeners. Everything I do is for my listeners and to make their experience the best one possible. If a hectic day all culminates to that, then I have done my job.

Game Day in a Nutshell

The season is always a blur for me. For the last 6 years I have looked at the calendar in early June excited for Opening Day, I've blinked and magically arrived in August with the season winding down. I always feel a bit like Dorthy in the land of Oz when the season winds down, and I'm guessing it's because game days are stuffed full of work, planning, and finally baseball. When I sat down to write this post I realized just how chaotic and unorganized most of my days usually are. Below is my attempt at generalizing what I do on a daily basis.

During the season, game day usually starts off for me with a 6:30 AM wake up (I certainly hope Ariana doesn't wake me any earlier this year), a trip to Starbucks, and then off to the office no later than 8 for the day to begin. The day always starts by wrapping up everything from the night before including logging employee hours and double checking all of our spreadsheets for accounting. After that I touch base with our broadcaster to make sure that everything we need for that night's promotion is ready to go and we're fully prepared for radio, social media, etc. Depending on when the next road series is scheduled the next item on my agenda is preparing travel documents, finalizing meal money, and touching base with the road hotel.

After a quick break for lunch (usually eaten at my desk) it's time to prepare the game script for the night. That involves making sure we have the right promotions set, have all of our PA announcements correct, and know which staff members will be executing certain tasks. Anyone on the staff can tell you I usually miss at least one correction which is all part of the fun each night. Once the game script is printed and ready for the night, I move on to any miscellaneous tasks that have accumulated over the last few days. Usually that entails touching base with staff on upcoming promotions, sending out an e-newsletter, emailing with corporate partners and season ticket holders, etc.

After afternoon tasks are completed I usually take a quick hour break to run home, hydrate, and eat a healthy snack before heading to the ballpark. Since I double as the stadium operations manager on game nights, I am one of the first to arrive at the stadium to get the box office open, get the BP music going, and make sure that our food and beverage manager has everything they need. Once 5:30 rolls around most things are ready to go for the night and everyone is busy making last minute preparations for gates open. Once we welcome fans through the gate the real fun can begin. Game nights are truly my favorite part of the job. I mostly just have to troubleshoot any issues - ticket printers, merchandise POS systems cause the most headache. Hopefully though I get to sit back and enjoy some home town baseball with family and friends with everyone else in the ballpark.

The past few weeks are among my favorite times over the course of the year. While the rest of the baseball is excited for pitchers and catchers reporting, I'm excited because games that mean something are now underway. College baseball has hurled it's first pitch. We can start to see if the fruits of our labors from the past 6+ months of recruiting will likely bear fruit.

The recruiting mix at this level is interesting. You see, each player is a free agent, so you can literally offer a contract to any collegiate baseball player in the country, without restriction. Some players from great programs just fail to pan out. Some players from schools you've never heard of will become great players at our league level. How do whittle down to find the right players?


First - you get on a plane. Or in the case of this past summer, in a car. From Walla Walla, WA to Riverside, CA, with 15 stops in between, and a return trip through Fresno and Stockton, CA. All in all, we met with over 20 NCAA D1 programs, two JUCO showcases and the best BBQ we've ever had in "Hills have Eyes" country in Northern California. In order to build (or develop) relationships

with key programs, we drove nearly 5,000 miles in 8 days. The route is in the pic here. Now imagine another 12 hours drive from Stockton, CA to Walla Walla, WA on the back end of the trip. And I don't let anyone else drive.

This is really the route that we took this fall recruiting.

After the many, many visits (and the great hospitality from some of the best coaches in NCAA history), we create our wish list of 75-100 players. We rate the players according to where they fall in our wish list, and then we start to work with the head coaches of the programs. In some cases, like UCLA or Cal Poly, we get their best, or at least who everyone thinks will be their best. That comes from years of long-term relationship development. In other instances, we are signing players from programs for the first time, based on either a recommendation from a relationship in the game (scout, coach that has followed the player, one of our partners who saw a particular player) or on specific numbers. When it comes to pitchers, the magic ratio is 4:1. When it comes to hitters, we are looking at a number in the range of 2:1, but can take closer to 1:1 (problem areas occur when those numbers are flipped - like 1:2-3). Sometimes we really pick well - like our 2013 class, that included (6) players selected in the 2015 MLB draft. Other times, we just miss. But I can assure you the effort is consistent.

As we are deciding which players to offer, I work most closely with our GM and our manager. Working the phones, developing relationships, communicating regularly, updating the white board in my office - for all the stuff about the WCL that drives me insane, this is the part of the business that I love.

Off Season of Waiting (Zach Bigley: Broadcaster)

              The off season for baseball always feels like an off season for me, even if more busy. I go through my daily life with work and school, but everyday I want baseball to be back.

             

              After the Sweets’ season ended, I went back home to Eugene, OR and got ready for the different sports seasons. Oregon football is very important to the radio station that I am the assistant sports director for at the U of O, but fall also presented volleyball, soccer and high school football as well as daily talk shows.

           

            It was a fun year for the station as we pushed boundaries and called Oregon football for the first time in our history. I got the chance to travel on the road to Washington, Washington State and Stanford for football games and it was an experience I will never forget.

            One of the highlights was completing a “Weekend in Washington”, where we called Oregon versus Washington volleyball and football on Friday and Saturday respectively and then drove across the state for Oregon versus Washington State volleyball the next day in Pullman. We got about three hours of sleep that night and drove a collective twelve hours that day, but it was a great experience as well.

            The fall sports schedule kept me busy and school did as well. This brought on the stress that all college students face, and there were many long nights of studying all year. As a journalism student, things do not come easily, but the challenge is what drives the student, right?

            After a fun high school basketball season for the station, the time that I have been waiting for all year is almost here: diamond sports time.

            Our station does not have the rights to call the Oregon baseball games on our airwaves, but we call Oregon softball. The softball team has had a lot of success over the past few seasons. They have made it to the Women’s College World Series three out of the last four seasons and have won three straight PAC-12 titles. This is where the fun begins for me as I will be calling my first game for them (since last season) down in Stockton, CA on March 11^th. I will be calling 30 games for them this season.

            I cannot express how excited I am for the season to start and to get up to Walla Walla for the summer. It is going to be a great year and baseball season is the only season for me.

            If you want to follow along with me in the Oregon softball season, you can find me @zachbigs on twitter, my station @KWVASports and the broadcasts on kwvaradio.org/listen-live.

            I’ll be talking to you before you know it, but if you have any questions or just want to talk, feel free to email me at zach@wallawallasweets.com.

A Most Unique Off Season

What did I do this off-season? I find this question amusing this year simply because this off-season was more than a little unique compared to all the others. In early November my husband (J.C.) and I welcomed our first child, a beautiful and healthy baby girl named Ariana. So while this off-season ended up meaning time away from baseball, it was by no means an off-season.

The last few months have passed by quickly, and quite honestly it's been a bit of an exhausted blur. The months of September and October were spent touching base with many of our corporate partners as I worked to transition out of the front office for maternity leave. Cue November and our bundle of joy arrived, meaning the next few months were spent elbows deep in diapers, laundry, more diapers, and more laundry, with a few late night feedings thrown in just for fun. I was overwhelmed after the arrival of Ariana by the number of people from the Sweets community who offered congratulations, brought by fresh meals, sent gifts, and overall embraced our growing family. It reminded me how fortunate I am to have met such amazing people and how grateful I am to call so many of you friends.

When I wasn't busy with diapers and sneaking sleep whenever I could manager, my time off was spent visiting with family and adjusting to parenthood. I will continue to be grateful to the Sweets organization for allowing me the time off. Despite Zachary's insistence that I not worry about the Sweets, I have to admit I wasn't really able to turn of the GM mindset entirely. I ventured downtown to check-in and visit more than once, and was excited to get back to work planning for 2016.

The transition back to the office has been relatively smooth, and baby Ariana makes an excellent Assistant GM when she finds herself tucked in behind my desk (even if she sleeps through 50% of the important decisions). It will come as a surprise to no one if her first word is baseball or Sweets, and I'm certain her best friend will be Sweet Lou.

As the season approaches (and it's coming faster than I was prepared for) there is still plenty of work to be done.  Over the next 100 days I'll be working with Frank to finalize the roster, finalizing promotions and in-game entertainment, preparing the menu, transitioning the stadium, hiring our game day staff, and so much more. The entire front office seems to be buzzing with life as we gear up for what is promising to be our best season yet. I truly can't wait to welcome everyone through the gates on Opening Day to celebrate season #7!

The off-season...that never is an off-season

I have become a bit nostalgic as the Sweets prepare for season #7. The fact that we're still here is a bit of a surprise - a pleasant one - to me and to my family. Not necessarily because we thought the Sweets wouldn't succeed, although there has always been that motivating fear. We just never intended Walla Walla to be our landing spot. It is very exciting that we are launching the 2016 and that we have grown roots in the community. 

What didn't I do in the off-season? To this day, I really enjoy the question of "What do you do all winter long?", because I am certain that the vision is that we roll up the carpet at Borleske, sit back, bathe in the money that we've made (aka Scrooge McDuck) and work in our pajamas (when there is work to be done). I'm kidding - I don't really think people think that, but I did want to figure out how to use a picture of Scrooge McDuck in this entry.

A few of the priorities this off-season included:

1. Making sure our manager was signed to a long-term deal. While we didn't have the finish we had hoped for, there were moments where the talent on the field and the direction of the coaching staff lined up well. I wanted to see what Frank could do with a full off-season under his belt and start building the continuity we enjoyed the first five seasons at Borleske. We were able to wrap that up right after the new year. We traveled together to the ABCA's in Nashville, TN and worked to develop the best relationships with college programs in the country. We should have a very, very good year on the field.
2. Re-connecting with our long-time season-ticket holders and corporate partners. A lot of people thought that I had moved, because the last two seasons I've spent primarily in Yakima getting the Pippins started (what a cool experience, by the way...I'll have to write another post on starting a second team and the ups and downs that go along with that commuting 240 miles round trip everyday). I didn't move. I'm still right here in Walla Walla. To prove it, I made sure that if it wasn't a thank you card, it was a phone call, a lunch or a pop-in visit. So many of our fans have become our friends - you've seen our children grow up at Borleske, you've helped us welcome in our baby daughter (who is now 4...seriously), you've grown as our company and roles in the community have grown. It was really, really nice to remind people that we still lived here, play here, work here.
3. Taking a vacation. It has been an exhilarating, and taxing, two years. While I've loved most of it, I've not done a very good job of disconnecting. While I've gone on family trips, I always have my cell phone or tablet within 6 inches, and I don't do anything that would mean I can't be reached. I committed to my family to make sure that this Christmas break, I was disconnected. For the most part, I was successful. I skied for the first time in a decade, I spent meaningful time (sans phone) with lifelong friends from college and our families, and I sat in a hot tub in -10 weather in the middle of a major snowstorm in Salt Lake City. It was awesome. 

I think getting back to my priorities has helped the Sweets and given Katie another person to help carry the load - we are trending to have our best crowds since 2011 (we drew 54K+ that season), our roster is good (GM Katie Biagi and Frank have done a nice job constructing a team to meet the style that our coaching staff will have), and we are really connecting with our sponsors and fans in ways that remind me of the early days. I love it! It is the energy associated with "small town" baseball that is what drives me everyday. The best part of the off-season - Yakima Valley and Walla Walla are no longer in the same division, which means they don't have to beat each other to make the playoffs, which means I can enjoy the season again. 

Like any small business owner, I know there isn't time (or margin) to take it easy. So - with 114 days left until opening day (as of today - check this out: https://days.to/3-june/2016), we keep chopping away at making 2016 the best season we've had. It sounds like a broken record - but that really is what motivates our team every single day.

Zachary

#SweetsCountry

Series Preview: Wenatchee

Wenatchee, Wa- On the outside, this match-up between the Sweets and the Applesox does not muster up the excitement that some might think. It is a series with two teams that are fighting to stay out of last place in the East Division, but it is much more than that. 

It is a series of bragging rights as the Sweets come in with a 4-2 advantage on the season series. After winning the season series last year 6-3, the Sweets just need one win to take the series again. The Sweets actually hold the advantage between the two, taking 22 of 40 games since 2010. 

Wenatchee has found a lot of success over the past few years as they missed the post-season for the first time in their history last year, but it has been a different story this season. They invite Walla Walla in with a 21-27 record this season. The pitching has been a problem this season as the Applesox post a 4.56 Earned Run Average this season as a team which is second to last in the league. 

The Sweets are coming into Applesox country with a five game losing streak and they have also lost seven out of their last eight games. During the losing streak, the Sweets' have struggled on defense, averaging three errors a game. They will turn to Kyle Molnar, fresh off his no-hitter in Kitsap, to try and stop the streak in game one.

-Zach Bigley

Soundboard - Yakima & Bellingham

The roadie has taken a big chunk out of our schedule at this point, and certainly taken me out of rhythm, but it hasn't taken the microphones out from in front of the players and coaches (as you'll see with the Sweet Scoop finally launching this afternoon).

Let's roll all the way back to Saturday, with Micah Gorman on the mound and dominating Yakima Valley for six scoreless innings. What did the young VMI right-hander think of his outing?



Mutz is a big fan of Gorman, and Skipper went into detail about why he likes what Gorman brings to the rotation.



Joe DeMers followed on from Gorman to make his WCL debut and got the side in order for the first two innings. Pretty impressive work for a kid straight out of high school, and Frank Mutz was impressed.



That upcoming start was Tuesday in Bellingham, and the youngster from Northern California didn't disappoint - a quality start, with two runs allowed in six innings and seven strikeouts, a new season-high for a Sweets starter.

How about a little offense before we move forward? The team seems to really be buying into the notion of going back through the box for hits. Here's Skipper:



That was a big part of the four-run fifth inning that gave Walla Walla a win on Wednesday night in Bellingham.

Let's fast-forward to that win in Bellingham, where Easton Lucas got the start. He spoke to us about battling through hitters despite having lower-than-usual velocity and coming back from home runs.



His relief was Chris Tate, who pitched four scoreless innings for the save, Tate talked about his approach in relief of Lucas, and the importance of a lead like the one he had coming in.



Tate might be pitching to contact, but not many guys are making contact against him - Tate leads the West Coast League with 20 strikeouts in 16.1 innings. I'll pause while you guffaw at that number. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Done? Done.

Back to the bats. Parker Coss made his debut with the Sweets on the road trip, and Frank Mutz loves what he's seen from the rising sophomore at UC Irvine so far.



Coss has settled in now, having been with Walla Walla almost a week, and capped the four-run fifth-inning that won the Sweets the game with an RBI single. He talked to us on the importance of those big innings.



Then there's the outtake for this edition of The Soundboard. Before our interview, Frank Mutz patted Tate on the back and said, "Good thing you found your uniform today!" I asked Tate what he meant, and he said this:



We've all been there, forgetting something important somewhere else. Just so long as he doesn't leave his off-speed pitches in the hotel, he should be just fine.

And that's the Soundboard from Bellingham. Rubber match tonight at 7:05!

The Lead-Off - Week 2

So, there were a few technical issues yesterday, which is why this is going up this morning. The chief one is, my computer refused to boot until about two hours before game time, meaning everything was scaled down or pushed back. Hence, The Lead-Off is on Tuesday this week. Everyone cross your fingers that this doesn't happen again.

The first full week of the WCL season is done, and the season feels like it's in the home stretch already. All teams have 1/6th of their schedules behind them now. When they say "short-season baseball," they mean "short season baseball."

Let's start with a clash that started the weekend with first-place implications in the East. After the Sweets won a three-game set of pitcher's duels with Wenatchee with a tenth-inning walk off from ten-day player Clayten Ayres - who has since been picked up for the full season - they headed to Yakima to take on Stanley Pippin and Friends. The Sweets won game one and were well on their way to the second tilt until the seventh. From there on out, the Pippins scored two runs in each of the last three frames, culminating in this number from Reid Martinez:


Ryan Rouillard, Pippins Radio Network

That was Martinez's first home run of the year, and the first Easton Lucas had allowed since April 30, 2014 - as a junior in high school. The Sweets got the better of the Pippins in the rubber match, though. After tying the game in the fifth and falling behind again, the Sweets went ahead in the sixth:


Keith Brake, Sweets Radio Network

That was just the third RBI of the year for Kopach, but it was the one that made the difference. Walla Walla's pitching staff closed the door, and the Sweets took the series from Yakima Valley. They've won three of the four series between the two teams in their combined history.

The Pippins were trying to hold off the Kelowna Falcons for first place in the division, but their half-game lead was eroded by the series loss. Well, that and a Kelowna surge to win four straight to end the week, starting with a win over Yakima Valley in the finale of their set at Elks Stadium and ending with a sweep of the Medford Rogeu. The Falcons have kept the long ball going with two more in the Medford set, one each from Justin Flores and Brandon Grimsley. They're tied for the league lead in home runs with seven total, and are in non-league action against the Okanagan Athletics before going to Yakima to face the Pippins for first place in the division.

Speaking of first place, that's where the reigning champs are. The Bellingham Bells had split their first two games with Klamath Falls after taking two of three from Corvallis in the midweek series. Much like the Falcons, the Bells used a power surge to put away the Gems.


Erik Oas, Bells Radio Network

The back-to-back homers came from Andrew Reichenbach and Bronson Larsen and pushed the Bells to a 9-6 win. Bellingham meets Walla Walla in a set starting tonight at Joe Martin Field.

Kitsap and Victoria both give chase to the Bells as they scrap to get back to .500. The BlueJackets took two of three from Cowlitz with an 8-1 win in a rubber match Sunday, while Victoria dropped two of three to the Bend Elks in their weekend set, then came home and dropped the opener of their set with the Black Bears Monday night.

Bend, meanwhile, is not only atop their division, but atop the lead with a 7-2 record entering today's action. Their pitching staff that led the league in ERA at the end of the first weekend has cooled off, but the Elks still got good outings from Patrick McGuff (2 runs on 3 hits with 5 strikeouts in 5 innings) and Aaron Leasher (1 run on 2  hits with 8 strikeouts in 5 innings). Oh, and their offense gave them a good outing, too: they beat Victoria by an eye-popping scoreline of 24-5 on Friday.

The Elks lead the South Division by two games, with Corvallis back in stride with a sweep of the Wenatchee AppleSox to string together four straight wins, while Medford sits two and a half games back after a rocky week, and Cowlitz brings up the rear in the South.

What will change? Who will rise and fall in the next week? The races will be much more developed when we lead off Week 3 in less than seven days.

Rinks, Diamonds, and Lost Twitter Passwords - The Sporting Life and Times of Jon Hechtner

On a breezy early May afternoon in Fargo, North Dakota, Jon Hechtner stood in against IPFW’s Evan Miller for his third at-bat. Miller was 6.2 innings into a shutout, completely unsuspecting of the two run rally in the eighth that would not only break that shutout, but cost his team the last game of their series at North Dakota State. He delivered a pitch a little too high and a little too tight - and it hit Hechtner square in the face, effectively ending his junior season.

“That was just kinda bad luck,” he said with a smile.

Spoken like a hockey player.

As natural as it seems for someone from Omaha - the epicenter of college baseball - to play the national pastime, Hechtner very much could have gone with skates instead of cleats. He was a winger for the local AAA hockey team - the highest level of youth hockey before a player makes the jump to the junior ranks. He faced off against a number of future draft picks and National Hockey League prospects, including 2013 first overall pick Nathan MacKinnon, now of the Colorado Avalanche, who played his AAA hockey at powerhouse Shattuck St. Mary's.

"I got to the point where I had to decide, do I want to play hockey or baseball?" said Hechtner, now a rising senior at North Dakota State. "I decided baseball because of school, and it's really tough in hockey. If you get hurt, you're left with nothing."

It’s not an unfamiliar path: Nyjer Morgan followed a similar one all the way to the Major Leagues, one that brought him to Walla Walla Community College after a stint with the Regina Pats at the turn of the century. Hechtner, however, was left with plenty of lessons that have carried over from one sport to the other, specifically using the word "determination" to describe what he gained from his time on the ice.

"This is not a guy who's 6'3", 210 pounds," said Sweets manager Frank Mutz. "I'm sure he's had to play his entire career to prove to everybody that he can play with anybody. I'm telling you right now, he can play with anybody at the Division I level. He is determined. He works really hard. He is a guy that will lead us through most of this year in the lead-off spot. The way he grinds out at bats and the way that he approaches the game, it's not too high, not too low."

It’s true smaller athletes like Hechtner, who stands 5’10” and 175 pounds, often find themselves needing to do more to find success when competing for playing time against bigger athletes, but that added challenge has shaped Hechtner into a player who can lead his team without big, boisterous gestures.

"He's not gonna be a guy that talks a lot or is really loud, but he goes on the field, and he makes sure the guys know the right way to do things," said hitting coach Jimmy Milkovich. "When guys see him play, they know that's what they need to do, and that's how they need to follow."

Unfortunately, the outfielder didn’t get many opportunities to set an example in Fargo this year. He dealt with arm injuries for much of the season, taking just two at-bats from March 15 to April 24. When he came back, he hit .476 with eight RBIs in seven games before getting struck by a pitch on May 3 against IPFW.

It’s very much to the benefit of the Sweets that Hechtner was able to fight through the bad luck and nagging injuries to come back at the tail end of NDSU’s season, playing in the final game of the year against IPFW at the Summit League Tournament then coming to Walla Walla less than two weeks later, ready to play and showing no sign of permanent damage from being struck by an errant baseball.

“We have a lot of young guys on this team, a lot of kids coming from high school going to Division I programs” Mutz said. “[Hechtner] is a guy that, when we go on the road, is going to have younger guys rooming with him. That’s a guy in the dugout that’s walking around talking to guys, and he’s a winner. If I'm going to go out and recruit guys to play in my program, I'm going to go watch and look for the guys that come from winning programs. The reason he's such a good leader, is he has learned how to win and do it the right way with the right attitude.”

Hechtner, one of three rising Division I seniors in the field for the Sweets, has found success at every level in some shape or form. At Creighton Prep, he was an All-Nebraska selection in 2012, leading his team to a Class A state title. That summer, he went to the American Legion World Series with an Omaha Post No. 1 team that won 51 games. As a sophomore, he was part of a Summit League championship with the Bison, along with Sweets alumni Jon Skrbec, Michael Leach, and Jay Flaa. Hechtner grabbed a spot on the Summit League’s All-Tournament team en route to the title and the NCAA Regionals.

But the hardware and accolades aren’t the only things that make Hechtner stand out. He has, at times, sported a bold mustache, which added handlebars this year but didn’t make it to the baseball season, and one locked social media account made him into something of an on-campus Twitter celebrity.

It’s quite frequent that high-level coaches, athletes, and other famous people of all sorts end up with fake Twitter accounts parodying them which are generally innocuous and used for humorous ends. Rarely did the target previously have control over the account, but such is the case with Boring Jon Hechtner, the outfielder’s parody handle on Twitter.

Hechtner explained he got locked out of his old Twitter account, but one of his friends had gotten hold of the password. Rather than delete the account, his friend insisted on keeping it and having some fun with it.

“I said, ‘Just don’t do anything to get me in trouble,’” he said. With that, Hechtner had what amounted to a fan-run Twitter account, profiling "his" adventures of walking into Wal-Mart through the out door and other assorted deeds. That account has gone quiet for some time, not tweeting anything since the end of January, but it’s still out there. If he continues to play like he has, Boring Jon Hechtner might be a little more lively.

“If he does have a fan club,” said Mutz, “I want to know what the password is so I can join.”

Sounds like the real Jon Hechtner has some new fans already.