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.