Mormon Baseball

After rain delayed the first game of the PCL championship following the top of the 2nd inning on Tuesday, Clayton Mortensen took over for the Storm Chasers, giving them 5 strong innings, in which he gave up just 2 hits and 2 walks, while striking out 8. Unfortunately, one of the hits was a solo home run in the 4th that the Storm Chasers weren’t able to match until the 7th, Mortensen’s last inning. While he left the game with a tie, and ended up with a no-decision, the Storm Chasers went on to win the game. They then also won the 2nd game of the series last night and are now up 2-0 in the series. The Storm Chasers are just one game away from the PCL championship and a spot in the AAA championship game.

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Nik Turley’s strong pitching and the struggles of opposing pitcher Blake Treinen combined to give the Trenton Thunder the win in the first game of the 5-game Eastern League Championship yesterday. In 6 innings Turley struck out 10 and gave up 5 hits and 3 walks while allowing 2 runs. In contrast, Treinen lasted just 2 2/3rds and gave up 5 runs.

Perhaps this was also Turley’s present to himself, as today is his 24th birthday.

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Relief pitcher Bryan Harper’s Hagerstown Suns won the first game of the 5-game South Atlantic League championship series against the Savannah Sand Gnats yesterday. However, Harper didn’t see action in the game.

This was the only game featuring a team with a Mormon player yesterday. The other playoff games featuring the teams with Mormon players will be in action tonight.

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The first round of the minor league playoffs has completed in most leagues, and the last of the teams with a Mormon player has resolved its first series, as the Pawtucket Red Sox defeated the Rochester Red Wings to earn a place in the International League championship game against the Durham Bulls. The Mormon on the Red Sox, Mitch Maier, is on the DL and did not play in yesterday’s game.

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Phillies ace Roy Halladay was srong in his start last week against the Nationals, lasting 6 innings and giving up just 1 earned run while striking out 5. But Halladay didn’t have the control he has had in the past, as he walked 5 and hit two batters. But the outcome was good enough that we wonder if perhaps Halladay is back, or on his way back to his form of previous years. Commentors claim that his velocity is down, so Halladay may need to make the adjustment that aging (Halladay is 36) pitchers often have to make, trading velocity for placement and surprise. He has perhaps 4 starts left in the season; in those starts we may see what kind of pitcher Halladay will be for the remaining years of his career.

Also strong on the mound last week were relievers Kyle Farnsworth and Matt Lindstrom, both of whom held opponents scoreless in their relief appearances. Farnsworth struck out three over a total of 2 innings while giving up just one hit. Lindstrom struck out four over 1 2/3rds innings while giving up 3 hits and bringing down his era to 2.89. Neither pitcher walked a man.

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None of the Mormons in the minor league playoffs saw action, although 5 remain on teams in post season play. Yesterday the Las Vegas 51s were eliminated by the Salt Lake Bees, leaving Mitch Talbot out of any further playoff games–although since Talbot is on the DL, he likely wouldn’t have seen action anyway.

And Bryan Harper’s Hagerstown Suns won yesterday, eliminating the West Virginia Power and advancing to the South Atlantic League championship series that begins tomorrow. Harper, a reliever, wasn’t put in the game; and, frankly, he wasn’t needed. He last pitched Friday for 2/3rds of an inning. He may see action in tomorrow’s game.

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Playoff games tend to have clutch moments. In a 3-game series every game is a clutch situation. And even up a game, the Hagerstown Suns must have felt it in a clutch when the 9th inning of the second ended in a tie. And then in the 11th, after Justin Thomas put on two base runners and got just one out, they called up Bryan Harper in the clutch situation.

Unfortunately, Harper couldn’t stop the West Virginia Power from scoring. He gave up a double to Josh Bell, which scored the two runners left on base by Thomas, and then a single that scored Bell, before inducing a strike out that ended the inning. But the damage done was too much for the Suns to make up, and the Power tied the series at 1 game all. The Suns and Power play the deciding game tonight.

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Clayton Mortensen, who pitched in the Red Sox bull pen earlier this year, started for the Omaha Storm Chasers in their second post-season game and earned the win, despite a bad 4th inning in which he gave up 4 runs and nearly lost the game. The Storm Chasers had only scored twice before the bottom of the fourth, and Mortensen then struggled, giving up a single, followed by a walk, followed by an rbi single and then a 3-run home run, all before he managed to pull it together and get grounders to finish off the side. For another inning he faced the loss, but in the top of the 6th Omaha scored another 5 runs and the bull-pen shut down the Oklahoma Red Wings to give Mortensen a win. Still, it was an ugly one, as Mortensen ended up with a 7.20 era and 1.40 WHIP. He gave up a total of 5 hits, two walks while striking out 4.

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Its what every baseball fan dreams of.

Its the playoffs. Bottom of the 10th. Two out. Your team gave up 4 runs in the top of the 10th. You’ve already done well, 1 for 2 with 2 walks and no strike outs. If you can just get on base, maybe your team will find a way to tie, or win the game.

And then you get a perfect pitch. You swing, and watch as the ball sails out of the outfield.

For most of us that is a fantasy. We’ll never even be in professional ball, let alone pull off end-of-the-game heroics.

For Marcus Littlewood that was yesterday.

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With the end of the regular minor league season yesterday (except for the Pioneer League, which ends on Saturday, September 8th), the Mormons in the minors can look forward to further games in only two ways: they might get called up to the majors with the expanded 40-man roster that started September 1st, or they might play in any of the minor league championship games that have even begun for some teams.

Here’s a run-down of the seven Mormons in the minors who are on teams that will play in the league championships:

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