Legends’ All-Star Nominations Cap Off a Trying Road Trip South with Cheer
The Menlo Park Legends hit the road and traveled to face the Santa Barbara Foresters and San Luis Obispo Blues over the weekend. Although the setting and the opposition were new, the Legends continued their recent struggles and did not come away with a win. A stretch of seven straight losses has left their record at 10–17.
Meanwhile, the league announced the North Division roster for its Showcase Game on Monday, and these seven Legends made the team:
– C Ethan Bergan
– OF Evan Bilter
– DH Jordan Crawford
– OF Hayden Jung-Goldberg
– 1B Emmitt Phinney
– RHP Dawson Radik
– RHP Michael Taylor
Bergan joined the Legends late but has become a steady presence behind the dish. Bilter, Crawford, and Jung-Goldberg lead the team in batting average. Phinney has blasted two home runs and earned himself a Division I commitment to San José State for next year. Radik did not allow an earned run until this past Sunday, and Taylor owns the second best ERA—at 0.90—among CCL pitchers with at least 20 innings.
The CCL Showcase Game is scheduled for tonight, Wednesday, at 7:00 p.m.
Evan Bilter is batting .322 and was named to the North Division team for the CCL Showcase Game.
The week began in the Bay with a pair of contests that were decided in the late innings. On Tuesday against the San Francisco Seagulls, RHP Drew Brown put together his best start in a while for the Legends, going five innings to tie his longest outing of the summer. Seagulls starting pitcher Matt Moreno exited with an injury before his second inning, but the Legends could not get the bats going against four relievers. A 1–1 game slipped away from Menlo Park in the seventh inning, where the Seagulls plated two runs without a hit. San Francisco tacked on two more in the eighth and secured a 5–1 win in the season series finale.
Before the Legends left town, the Sonoma Stompers visited the College of San Mateo for what turned out to be an intense competition. The Stompers struck first and went up 2–0 in the top of the third, but 2B Ryson Ujimori responded in the bottom, lifting a majestic solo home run over the right field fence. SS Joshua Quinn sped from first to home on a Max Shor double to tie the game the next inning. Sonoma pressed on, though, and picked up two unearned runs off an unlucky Radik and took a 5–2 lead in the ninth on a Paul Contreras home run to left.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Legends very nearly pieced together a game-tying two-out rally. Before anyone reached base, Ujimori was the second out on a highly controversial strike three call. The following two batters then walked and Bilter drove them both in on a double. Pinch-hitting with the tying run in scoring position, Rowan Felsch sprayed a ball inches outside fair territory down each foul line, but ultimately went down swinging. The Legends came up just barely short in the 5-4 loss. A couple inches, one strike call, one pitch to Contreras, and a couple costly errors turned the game the Stompers’ way.
The team had an off day Thursday and made it down to Santa Barbara for a Friday evening matchup with the CCL South-leading Foresters. The Legends lineup had a hard time facing the Foresters’ Cody Howard, a right-hander from the University of Texas at Austin. Howard held the Legends to one run over seven innings while his offense built up a 5–1 lead. A miserable seven-run home eighth put the game away. The 12–1 victory improved the mighty Foresters’ record to 17–8.
Emmitt Phinney launched his second home run of the summer on Saturday and has earned himself a spot in the CCL Showcase Game.
Next up was a two-game series with the Blues. Based about halfway between the Bay and Los Angeles in San Luis Obispo, the Blues play in the CCL North Division. They currently hold third place in the standings and possess the final wild card spot for the upcoming playoffs. Reliable RHP Richard Kiel continued his consistent success on the mound on his start day. He pitched two batters into the seventh and allowed just one earned run, but he departed with his team behind 2–0. Phinney, the DH, provided a glimmer of hope in the eighth, as he tied the game with a two-run long ball off RHP Matthew Gonzales. LHP Kevahn Ebron could not keep the score there in the bottom half of the frame, however. The go-ahead run came around bizarrely on a walk, two balks and an RBI single. LF Jeriah Lewis then answered Phinney with a two-run home run of his own to make it 5–2, which held for the final score.
On Sunday, the second game against the Blues stayed close early. John Paul Avila broke a scoreless tie in the top of the sixth with home run number four on the summer, a rocket to left field that came off his bat at 100 miles per hour. That solo shot was all the Legends got against RHP John Damozonio, who struck out 13 in six innings of work. Menlo Park held its 1–0 lead only briefly, as the Blues rallied off Radik in the bottom of the sixth. They took the lead on an RBI groundout, then added on a pair of runs with two outs to push the score to 4–1. The hosts got two more insurance runs later and the Legends fell, 6–1.
The team’s last win came on Friday, July 5 in San Bruno over the Seagulls. They have eight league games remaining to first snap their losing streak, then make a last-minute push to gain ground in the standings.
The Legends have a light schedule in the coming days. The Showcase Game gives them a break from league competition, and they take on a non-league opponent in the California Tigers to begin the week. The only other other action scheduled is a Friday home game against the Walnut Creek Crawdads and a Saturday away game versus the Alameda Merchants.
