FED REPORT /// WEEK ELEVEN
(July 12th - July 18th)

With just two weeks left of the season, the contenders and pretenders are starting to take form and every game has a Kevin Bacon degree of importance around the league with division titles, state bids and playoff seedings for all brackets start to shake out.

Many eyes were looking East to see the rematch of Lakeville and East Metro, and it didn’t disappoint. Both pitchers were in control early as Matt Grill and Jamie Steinberg were stumping hitters early in the night, not until a costly Lobos error in the outfield helped the Mammoth plate three in the bottom of the third and take the lead 3-0. Lakeville rallied back with four runs of their own to take the lead 4-3. Both pitchers were cruising once again until the bottom of the sixth when a botched double play ball kept all elephants safe and the heard rallied for two runs off an exhausted Steinberg – Mike Meyer emerged from the parking lot to take the mound and finish off the inning for Lakeville, but it was too little too late as the Lobos came up short in the top of the seventh and the Mammoth won 5-4. If Meyer had missed a couple red lights on the way to the field, we could easily be talking about Lakeville going back to State. But now it looks like East Metro will be the favorite coming out of the East Division.

The Cannons and South Metro split wins at the friendly confines of Greenfield Park. Steve Kleppen took advantage and homered twice while driving in eight runs between the two games. James Zapf also homered for Cap City. Wes Hanson, Aaron Breuer, Terry Knop homered for South Metro. The South Metro win pushes them up the standings and seedings while the Cannons loss could backfire as their path to the AAA bracket might be out of range.

Don’t look now but St. Anthony are swinging hot bats and winners of the last five, including four in the last week, including a 25-12 route of the Diablos and a 16-1 win over St. Croix. The Norse definitely bumped up the seedings after an incredible week.

Richfield split over the week winning over the Diablos 15-5 and making the St. Paul JTs nervous in a 5-3 loss. Steve Soderling had a week batting .500 and driving in three for the Rockets. Ron Cottones bunch has shown glimpses of taking off and could take their flight in the post season and be a favorite in the B or A bracket.

In the West two of the hottest teams in the league faced off Saturday night in Anoka as the Crystal Snappers who are riding a six game winning streak faced off verses the Minnoka Grays who have won twelve in a row. The game started off shaky for the Wolves are the Snappers took advantage of a jittery start from Alex Gonzalez and platted three runs in the top of the 1^st. Gonzalez settled down and found his form in the later innings. The turtles were up 5-1 as Crystal’s Jason Kapaun was holding the Grays offense in check through five innings. But Jon Widerski’s two RBI double helped finish a four run inning tying the game in the bottom of the sixth 5-5. Mike Dougherty came in and pitched a quick seventh for the Grays which led to a Jack Nelson double and a walk-off single from Steve Cupryna scoring Nelson from second for the 6-5 win. Dougherty picked up the win, Gonzalez finished the day striking out nine in five. Minnoka sits on top of the West at 13-0 and still hold the top seed in the AAA.

Red West wins two games this week and finds itself back in the AAA race. They defeated Chaska 9-5 and beat the Bombers with the exact same score; 9-5. Jon Harris homered Sunday for the Legends and Greg Setterland went 3-4 with four reds knocked in and two runs. Rumor was Paul Bennett pitched for Red West in the game, but the box score says otherwise?

Rockford dodged the sword and won 2-0 over St. Michael. The Railsplitters pitching committee of Shawn Fondow, Troy Loomis and TJ Aalid outlasted the Angels Jesse Gaibor. Fondow picked up the win, Troy Loomis with a hit, run and an RBI. Rockford sits just two back from Minnoka with two weeks left of the season.

Chaska lost to Red West but turned around and beat Metro 3-1.

Things were quiet in the South as New Market sat idle and watched Elko pull back into first place in the South with two wins last week, 14-3 over Veseli and 10-7 over Lonsdale. The Chuggers also climbed up the AAA seedings with the two wins as the race continues between the Northerns, Chuggers and Groupers.

But River Falls fell to St. Patrick 3-2 with Kevin Hart pitching a complete game for the Shamrocks, only allowing two earned and fanning one. The Groupers lost pushed them back in the standings and seedings even with a win 7-0 win against Milltown on Sunday. The Outlaws earlier in the week downed Veseli 6-1 led by Andy Howie’s pitching performance. Mike Marquardt doubled and scored twice for the Dundas boys.