Swamp Bats NECBL Champions

The Keene Swamp Bats completed an excellent season winning the Championship over Laconia in 2 games.  Winning the final game of the season 7-1 over the Muskrats, Whit Mayberry K'd 11 batters in his 6 innings of work. 

Keven Brown and Brett DeLoach led the way with their bats.  DeLoach launched 2 Home Runs and Brown added one of his own.  The entire lineup contimued its hot hitting as well with the combination of  Colby May and  Esteban Gomez producing big hits to up the Swamp Bat lead.

Not that the pitching needed much help as Mayberry kept the Muskrats to one run during his 6 innings of work and Eddie Medina finished off the last three innings putting up nothing but blanks. 

All in all this has been one of the best hitting Swamp Bat teams to pass through Keene.  Several players had batting averages around .300 and the power was spred out up and down the lineup.  I am sure we will see several of these plays in the Cape League next summer and them moving on the the pros. 

The pitching was also among the best I have seen in Keene.  They had a great balance of solid starters and relief picthing.  The trio of Whit Mayberry,  Taylor Williams and Jeff Thomson was the best in the league, (not to forget All Star Brad Monroe).   The Bullpen with Medina, Scott Silevstein, Kyle Gehrs and Anthony Cervone finished off games all year.  Again I expect to see some of these names come up again in the pros.  

Great Year Swamp Bats and Congratulations

Playoffs

First place in the Western Division!  For that the Swamp Bats get to play the hard hitting Danbury Westerners.  Andrew Garner and Tyler Horan come in with Batting Averages in the high .300's and Horan is leading the league in Home Runs.  The team batting average is .298, unheard of for a pitching dominated league. 

The Swamp Bats start off the playoffs on a bit of a hot streak of their own.  They Beat Danbury and Vermont in the last week of the season to win the division.  Keven Brown continues his hot hitting with a Home Run in the final game.   Alex Chittenden and David Lyon also are swinging hot bats along with the Georgia Boys, Brett DeLoach, Colby May and Curt Powell all holding their own as well. 

The pitching staff is looking strong as well.  Tay;or Williams,  Jeff Thompson and Brad Monroe are as good a rotation as you can find. 

It should be a good series and fun to watch with lots of fireworks!

2005 Swamp Bat Josh Fields was traded to the Red Sox this week as part of the Erik Bedard trade.  he will start in AAA, but could become the first Swamp Bat to play for the Red Sox,

Final week of the Regular season

                                                        Alex Chittenden

As we roll into the final week of the regular season we find the Swamp Bats in third place, assured of a playoff spot.  They reeled off an impressive string of wins in the last 2 weeks to make it to the post season.  The hitting of Brett LaRoach, Alex Chittenden and Kevin Brown have made it possible.  Colby May started slowly but has also really started hitting the ball recently.  The picthing has been pretty good for the most part lead by Jeff Thompson, who is one of the best pitchers in the league and started the All Star game yesterday. 

Danbury contiues to lead the league, with a team batting average of about .300, which is pretty amazing.  Vermont and Holyoke make up the other 2 teams from the western division the will make the playoffs this year.  It should be fun to  watch!

Swamp Bats Roll

The Keene Swamp Bats rolled or should I say hit themselves past the Danbury Westeners into first place.  Taylor Williams pitched 7 innings of shutout ball, mowing down the best hitting team in the league.  After watching this game it looks like the Swamp Bats are the top hitting team. 

The hitting attack was lead by Georgia Bulldog players Colby May and Brett DeLoach each with 2 RBI's.  Mark Podlas chipped in the a Grand Slam of his own, that sailed over the pines in right center and on into the night.   The team finished the night with 17 hits.

Home win and lose on the road to a No Hitter

The weenend started off on a winning note at Alumni Field with a 5-2 win over a hot Vermont team.  Brett LaRoach hit a long 3 run Homer in the 7th to give the hometown crowd something to cheer about and the pitching took it from there. 

Jeff Thompson started the game, his only blemish on a good outing being a 2 run long ball off the bat of Rob Kelly the Vermont 1st baseman.   Colby May had a long ball of his own to give the Swamp Bats the lead in the 4th.  

The Bullpen made it stand up, with Kyle Gehrs getting the win and Eddie Medina picking up his 3rd save.


On Sunday night it was quite another story for the boys from Keene as they were no hit by Laconia pitcher Chris Costantino.  Other the a Mark Podlas long fly out there really wasn's anything else close to a hit.   It was the 5th no-hitter in NECBL history and the first against the Swamp Bats.  Costantino walked two batters and mowed down the rest, making a strong case for pitcher of the week or maybe the year!

Swamp Bat All Stars

Two former Swamp Bats played in last nights All Star game and made a difference.  Andre Either came through with a RBI single and Brian Wilson finished the night off getting the save.  

The current Swamp Bats had the night off, but will be back in action tonight at Vermont.  Leading the Western Division with a 17-9 record.  David Lyon is back with the team after spending some time with Team USA, so having his bat back will be a nice addition for the remainder of the season.

Thursday July 7

Last night the Danbury Westerners came to town with their big bats, they came into the game with a team batting average of .325.  That is really amazing for a league that is usually dominated by pitching.  Taylor Williams, David Malony, TJ Ferguson and Eddie Medina didn't completely silence them, but held them in check most of the night. 

Keven Brown was a one man wrecking crew with his bat, coming up only a double short of hitting for the cycle.   Everytime he made contact all night he hit the ball right on the nose.   Brett Barrett chipped in with 2 hits of his own.  

Danbury had Home Runs from Kyle Richardson and Andrew Garner late in the game, but that was all the offense the Westerners could muster for the most part.

In the ninth inning Danbury rallied for 2 runs and was threatening to make a run at the Swampbats, but TJ Ferguson got a rally killing double play,  Then the Westeners sent up Munsonville's Steve Swindle to face Westmorelands Ferguson with 2 out, but Keene coach decided to bring in Medina and he induced a ground out to end the game.  I for one would have liked to see the match up of local talent, but I guess Marty Testo had other ideas.

Rain, Rain go away!

The Bats won their second game of the season, but since then, its been 2 rainouts.  They beat Holyoke in the second game of the season 2-1.  Another strong pitching outing from Swamp Bat pitchers and  some timely hitting.  Nick Neuman went 4 innings, Kyle Gehrs 2 and Taylor Williams picked up the win giving up no runs in his 3 innings.  Ken Holland led the hitters with 2 hits and 2 RBI's.  Alex Chttenden added 2 hits of his own to continue his hot hitting.  

Rained out, MLB Draft

Thursdays game was rained out.  So lets look at the MLB Draft and the Swamp Bats.  Adam Conley was the first Swamp Bat player taken in the second round by the Florida Marlins.  Conley was chosen as the Top Pro Prospect in the NECBL in 2009 as well as the Top Pitcher.  Adam pretty much dominated in the NECBL that year, showing pro scouts just we he had against some of the best College hitters in the country 

Aaron Westlake went next to the Detroit Tigers in the third round.  He was taken as a 1st baseman, but if my memory serves me right, he played 3rd for the Swamp Bats.  He has been a power hitting first baseman for Vanderbilt and play for Chatham last summer on the Cape. 

Kyle McMayne a pitcher went in the forth round and Ryan Woolley, another pitcher went in the 13th round. 

Ben Klafczynski - 20th round, Cubs
Ryan Terry - 21st round, Rays
Paul Karmas - 25 round, Padres
David Colvin - 27th round, Mariners

Day 3 of the draft (rounds 31-50), saw more Swamp Bats taken

Tyler Maloof
Jeff Thompson
Peter Verdin
John Barr
Buddy Lamouthe
Brian Maloney
Brandon Lodge
Tyler Bernard
Corey Baker

Game 1

The Swamp Bats take the season opener 7-0 in a rain shortened affair.  Keene wasted no time getting on the board early and often.  In the first inning they got off on the right foot as the first two batters of the season, Mark Podlas and Alex Chittenden reached on base hits, clean up hitter Kevin Brown then cracked a double and later scored and scored on Forrest Chadwick's infield single and error.  Vermont starter, Ryan Fasano, lasted 3 innings giving up 8 hits and 5 earned runs.   Chittenden and Brett Barrett paced the Swambats 13 hit night.

Keene starter Jeff Thompson went 4 innings giving up no runs on only 3 hits.  Tyle Skulina came on in the 5th and pitched 2 1/3 innings allowing no runs and only 1 hit. 

The game was called due to thunder and lightning in the area in the top of the 6th with 1 out, giving the Swamp Bats their first victory of the year.  They are back in action thursday night against Holyoke.

30 Game Hitting Streak

Andre Either upped his hitting streak to 30 games last night.  This puts him in second place on the Dodgers list, just one game behind Willie Davis who had 31.  Its the longest streak since Chase Utley in 2006, who safely in 35 games that year.  This is the 70th anniversary of Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak.  Ethier wasted not time last night singleing to right center in his first at bat.

28 game hitting Streak

Andre Either has a hit in every game this season, thats 28 games and every game in April.  Looks like he is off to his best start yet.  Although the Dodgers are a team in with lots of ownership problems he has been one of the lone bright spots this year.  Stay tuned!

Andre Ethier

Andre Ethier played for the Keene Swamp Bats in the summer of 2001.  He was born and raised in Phoenix AZ, he attended Arizona State University in the fall of 2000 and was advised by the coaching staff that he didn't have Division 1 talent and he would do better to play Junior College ball.  So he went to Chandler-Gilbert Community College for a season.  While there he batted .468 and was the teams MVP.  That fall after playing summer ball with the Swamp Bats he re-enrolled at ASU.  He went on to have a stellar college career there and after his Junior year was drafted by the Oakland A's in the second round. 

He was voted the Oakland A's Minor League Player of the year in 2004.  In December of 2005 he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez.  The following season he made his Major League debut on may 2 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the following night he hit his first home run. 

Andre has been a big league regular ever since, making the All Star team last season as a starter, getting over 2.7 million votes.  In 2009 he topped 31 home runs  and 106 RBI's.  I think its' safe to say that he is one of the best position players to ever play in the NECBL.

Brian Wilson...Fear the Beard

The closer for the World Champion San Francisco Giants, not bad for a 24^th round draft pick from Londonderry NH.   Brian attended High School at Londonderry High and was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 30^th round.  He decided to attend Louisiana State University  where he worked as a starting pitcher and the Keene Swamp Bats during the summer.  He was drafted in the 24^th round by the San Francisco Giants.  He quickly worked his way through the minor leagues making his major league in 2007.  In 4 short years Brian has made himself into one or the premier closers in the game.

Sporting a Mohawk haircut and a black beard, Wilson has not only become the most effective closer in baseball, but also one baseball’s true characters.  During the Giants march to the championship, fans would call for Brian with chants of “fear the beard”.   On November 1^st 2010 he was on the mound to close out the World Series, not bad for a New Hampshire guy. 

Best of the NECBL

I was wondering who is the best player to ever play in the NECBL?  So I pulled up the league web site and took a look at the alumni in the Pros.  Four names jumped out at me immediately, Joe Nathan, Andre Ethier, Brian Wilson and Stephen Strasburg.  Today let’s look at the career of Joe Nathan.

Joe Nathan was a shortstop, not a pitcher when he played for the Fairfield Stallions back in 1994.  He didn’t switch to pitcher until he was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the 6^th round.  Well kind of, he played his first year in the minor leagues as a shortstop and refused to try pitching.  He left the game and returned to college at Stony Brook for a year and graduated.  He returned to the Giants minor league team the following year as a pitcher.  He worked his way up the ladder to the Major leagues arriving in 1999. 

In November of 2003 he was traded to the Twins and they made him their closer for the start of the 2004 season.  He was the only Twin to make the All Star team that year, striking out Bobby Abreu and Miguel Cabrera in one inning of work.

Joe has been one of the best closers in Baseball year in and year out since.  Every year he has been among the league’s leaders in Saves, ERA and a perennial All Star.  So you may not remember the Fairfield Stallions but I am sure you have heard of Joe Nathan.

Jason Berken Big Leaguer

Jason Berken the ace of the 2003 champion Swampbat team is starting his third season as a Baltimore Oriole.  After a stellar career at Clemson, he was taken in the 6^th round of the 2006 major league draft.  He quickly moved through the farm system and was called up to the big club in May of 2009, beating Toronto in his major league debut.  He struggled for much of the balance of the year and was moved to the bullpen for the 2010 season.  Jason found a home there as the most consistent middle reliever posting a 3.03 ERA before being shut down in mid-August with rotator cuff fraying.  After a winter of rehab and losing 30 pounds Jason is ready for a strong 2011 season in Baltimore.   You just may see him on NESN this summer facing Youk, Big Papi and Pedroia.

A View from the swamp

Well its almost March, so we have about 100 days and counting until opening day!  That sure does sound like a long time, but us hearty New Englanders are used to waiting for things. 

I was looking over some of the College Baseball websites and noticed that one of last years players is getting quite a lot of preseason hype.  Jeremy Baltz out of St. Johns University and last years Swampbat team, is a preseason All American.  That means he is considered one of the 3 best college outfielders.  Being just a sophmore he won't be draft eligable until next year, so I would guess he will either play on the Cape or Team USA this summer.