Monday Madness!
Today we unveil Monday Madness: a series of factoids, statistics and accolades ripe for digestion by Harrisonburg Turks fans who are jonesing for fodder at the water cooler.
News & Notes:
Major League Baseball’s draft is famously thorough, and the 2013 iteration is no exception. This year, MLB teams drafted six current or former players from the Harrisonburg Turks organization.
Emilio Pagan (2010)- Round 10, Pick 297 (Seattle). Pagan pitched 10 1/3 innings for the Turks three seasons ago, but found great success this past season with Belmont Abbey, racking up 39 K’s and earning four saves.
Sam Dove (2011)- Round 14, Pick 422 (Milwaukee). Dove started every game for the past two years for Georgia Tech, hitting .340 in his outstanding junior year. He was an Academic All-ACC selection in 2011 and was named Capital One Academic All-District in 2012. Playing second base, he led Georgia Tech to a the cusp of a Super Regional game in his final season, losing to Vanderbilt in the regional championship game.
Trae Santos (2013)– Round 17, Pick 596 (San Diego). Trae is a big first baseman that’s yet to join the Turks, but his legend proceeds him. Trae hit .300 this season at Troy, tallying 18 bombs and 70 RBI. Both are team-high marks.
Niko Spezial (2011)– Round 19, Pick 586 (Washington). This leftie from Jersey has had an outstanding senior season, posting a sparkling 6-1 record in 23 relief appearances in 2013. Spezial’s ERA has improved dramatically in his final season at Wake Forest, sinking down to 2.83.
Pat Christensen (2011)- Round 27, Pick 797 (Houston). This right-handed pitcher was drafted from a hotbed of Turks talent, the LaSalle Explorers. Christensen has been showered with awards and watchlists for three years, including being named Big-5 Co-Athlete of the Year in 2011. During his sophomore season, he managed a team-best 1.17 ERA.
Jay Gonzalez (2011)- Round 39, Pick 1,180 (Texas). Auburn product Jay Gonzalez is the only Turk to be drafted from the outfield. (He’s also the only junior to be drafted, too.) The quick-footed Gonzalez stole 30 bases this spring, leading a team that stole the second-most bases in school history.
Away from the Majors, a scheduling reminder: last Thursday’s rained-out game at Covington has been rescheduled for this week. The Turks and Lumberjacks will play a doubleheader on Thursday at 4 p.m in Covington; Thursday night’s game, originally a home game schedule for Veterans Memorial Park, will now be played in Covington.
Each game will be seven innings long, with a 30 minute break in between contests.
Stats:
Inclement weather has limited the playing time of the Turks over the past seven games, but Harrisonburg has still managed to get three games off. The Turks are 2-1 in those games.
-Turks pitching has been all-or-nothing so far: opponents are averaging 2.3 runs in Harrisonburg wins, while they are averaging 6.0 runs in losses.
-Harrisonburg is 0-3 against Rockbridge & New Market. They are 3-0 against all other league teams.
-Staunton leads the Southern Division with a 5-2 record, but one of those losses is to the Turks. Harrisonburg piled up a season-high 11 runs down in Staunton last Wednesday. The Turks and Braves will play their second game of the seasons series Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Park.
-Leadoff man Andy Perez has had a strong early showing so far. Perez leads the team with 14 at bats in the last seven days, piling up a .286 batting average over that timespan. He is one of five Turks to bat .275 or better over last week (minimum 10 plate appearances).
-OF Jace Whitley looks way more comfortable on base than he does in a dugout. Over the last week, Whitley has led the team with a sky-high .583 on-base percentage. He’s had five hits (four singles, one double), taken two walks, and driven in two runs. Not bad, but the star of the week is…
Player of the Week:
Left fielder Eric Kalbfleisch has been out of his mind so far, batting a ridiculous .538 and ranks in the top 3 in RBI so far. He’s the season’s first Harrisonburg Turks Player of the Week.
Upcoming games:
Tuesday, June 11- Staunton at Harrisonburg (7:30 start time)
Wednesday, June 12- Strasburg at Harrisonburg (7:30 start time)
Thursday, June 13- Harrisonburg at Covington doubleheader (4:00 start time)
Friday, June 14- New Market at Harrisonburg (7:30 start time)
Saturday, June 15- Rockbridge at Harrisonburg (7:30 start time)
Sunday, June 16- Harrisonburg at Waynesboro (7:00 start time)