Please find the Memorable Moments updates, as the page is now accurate through the 2006 season. Additionally, the Series Histories PDFs (under Historical Information) have been updated. And please note that according to the Metro League composite schedule, the 2008 opener will be on Tuesday, April 22, against Vergennes UHS on Saddlemire Field at 4 p.m., but the schedule is always subject to change - you all do live in Vermont, after all.
As members from the Class of 2007 finish up their first semesters of college, I'm finally getting around to finishing off the 2007 season, with Coach Phillips' help. A valiant effort at Rutland HS marked the end of the program's 32nd season, and my goal during some (relative) down time in the next few weeks is to update the site and hopefully also work on stats. I also plan on getting the 2008 tentative schedule posted, as I notice that the Metro League is again a 15-team conference, with Harwood Union HS dropping out. Check out the Metro League Web site for the complete schedule, and props to the good folks over there for already having posted it. Vergennes Union HS is also on the schedule as a non-conference team for the first time since we last played them in 2000, their last season as members of the league. Happy Holidays to everyone.
What I know about RHS is that they played a schedule composed mostly of Marble Valley League teams, as I believe their only venture out of the south was up to South Burlington, where they actually scored the most runs that any team did against the Rebels this year: 5. Granted, they lost 8-5, but it was against SBHS, the top seed in Division I that is currently 16-0. Rutland started the year 1-6 and won its last seven contests, twice defeating Mount Saint Joseph Academy, the No. 5 seed. Thus, this should be a good game, as you guys are riding high right now with the three-game winning streak. The fewest runs they've allowed in the last four games (that I could account for): 6. The fewest runs you guys scored during your winning streak: 8. Anyhow, go here for the complete bracket - you'll have to make sure the drop-down menu has "2007, baseball, div 1" selected before clicking on "Go!".
CHS has visited Giorgetti Park once - June 5, 2004, for a playdown game. As the No. 19 seed, we held tough with heavily-favored Rutland, the No. 3 seed that entered the game 13-3. In the end, we lost, 5-1, after they pulled out of a 2-1 game with three unearned runs in the fifth inning. Ask Sean Burns, he played second base that day and had one of our only two hits.
We also have played a Rutland-based team one other time, facing MSJ in the 2003 play-in. We won, 3-2, a game I missed due to a trip to Staten Island but was at in spirit. It was the 200th win in program history, as well. Quick nugget: The last time CHS ended the regular season riding a three-game winning streak was in 2002, when we also finished the regular season with a 7-9 mark. We actually finished that year on a four-game run after starting the year 1-8.
Anyhow, good luck to you all tomorrow, especially you seniors. I hope to see you guys in action on Saturday - a win sets up a trip either back to Rutland to face MSJ or down to Brattleboro. I plan to be there, one way or another.
Mickey pitched. And well. I thought him appearing in the Burlington Free Press was a typo on that fine publication's part, but he did well against MMU, one of the perennial Vermont baseball powerhouses. And consider this: the four runs allowed matches the fewest CHS has yielded to MMU since allowing only three on May 1, 1984. In fact, during 47 all-time series meetings, we've held the Cougars to less than four runs only four times. Try to process this all as you realize that Mickey had never pitched a varsity game before.
Now for the Mount Abraham-related tidbits, all of which I'll try to put a positive spin on. First off, the Eagles won the 2006 Division II state championship and entered yesterday's game 11-1 overall and 10-1 in the Metro, sitting just one game out of first place. In the last two seasons, they were 25-7 overall and 19-7 in league play. They had won eight in a row, and in their prior seven games, they allowed as many as four runs only once. In those seven games, they allowed 16 runs total. So to score 11 runs off of them is quite something. And considering last year the same pitcher shut you guys out on three hits, it looks like big strides have been made offensively. The 23 combined runs tied the most in CHS's 31-game series with Mount Abraham, matching the total from May 6, 1977. In the last seven trips to Bristol, CHS has now hit double digits in runs four times. In the program's 534-game history, this was only the 64th time the Lakers scored at least 11 runs. Of those 64, this was just the sixth time the other team scored as many as 12 runs, and the fourth time out of those six that CHS lost. This was also just the 16th time in program history that both teams scored at least 10 runs.
This already marks the eighth time that you guys have scored six runs this year, as the last team to exceed that total was the 2001 squad, which tallied at least six runs on 11 occasions. With seven more runs on the road, you guys would match last year's squad for the most runs scored on the road since 2001. Four regular-season games remain to tally 18 times and match the most runs overall since 2001, and five have already scored in that suspended North Country game. Oddly enough, you guys have already played four one-run games this season, all of which have come on the road. That's the most one-run road games for CHS since 1994, and if none end up occurring at home the rest of the season, that would easily be the most one-run decisions CHS had on the road without having a one-run home game. In fact, the Lakers have had at least one one-run game at home in 29 of 33 seasons - but none this year or last, and only once in 2005. And even then, that was a nine-inning game against BFA-St. Albans.
With four games remaining, a playoff spot is still a possibility. Not to ruffle any feathers among Metro League teams and players who read this Web site, but I'm speaking the truth here when I say our last four games occur against two teams below us in the conference standings and against two teams which we're within 2.5 games of. With the parity that has existed in the league this year - Nos. 1 through 3 are running away with the league, Nos. 4 through 11 are all within 1.5 games of each other but no closer than 3.0 games of third place, and Nos. 12 through 16 are all within 1.5 games of each other but no closer than 2.0 games of 11th - anything can happen.
Still, a 4-6 record isn't a terrible thing, and those two wins on the road will come in handy come playoff time. In calculating your index rating, which is used to determine postseason seed, the two road wins give you more points - you guys have a rating of 1.80 right now. (Let me back up for a second and re-print something I wrote last May 27 in regards to playoff positioning: A team gets five points for a road win over a team of the same division, four points for a home win over a team of the same division or for a road win over a team from a lower division, and three points for a home win over a team from a lower division. For everyone's information, the only teams we play from a lower division are Milton High School and Mount Abraham Union High School. Those two are Division II teams, and everyone else on our schedule is from Division I - CHS is also Division I. With all of this being taken into account, take all of those points, add them up and then divide by the number of games a team played during the regular season, and there's your index rating.) Last season, CHS received a No. 12 seed with a 1.87 rating, and the last Lakers team to host a playoff game beyond the play-in round (which doesn't exist anymore) was the 2000 squad, which drew a No. 6 seed with a 2.86 rating. For the uninitiated, the top eight seeds host playoff games. With that in mind, I checked over the last four years' worth of brackets, seedings and index ratings - the average No. 8 seed during that stretch had a 2.42 rating. In fact, in each of the last two seasons, the eight seed had a 2.25 rating and posted an 8-8 record. So you guys aren't too far off that pace. A couple more wins here and there...
Only 50 runs left to score until the 3,000th in program history crosses the plate...
Let's go back to the Milton game for a second. This was the third consecutive game which has been played to completion (no, I'm not counting the North Country game, because that will become a May 26 game once it goes final [ed. note: apologies, this reverts back to the date on which it began, so it really still counts as a May 10 game]) in which you guys scored at least eight runs. Last time that happened? May 16-20, 2000. That was actually the end of a four-game run, as the 2000 team also had a three-game run earlier in the season. That May 16-20, 2000, run of games was also the last time CHS played three straight contests in which the teams combined for 15 runs. This already marks the seventh time that you guys have scored six runs this year - the same total as the 2006 team needed 16 games to accomplish. The last team to exceed that total was the 2001 squad, which tallied at least six runs on 11 occasions.
A number of things have occurred since I last sat down to write for the site. For instance, the Spaulding game sounded like a heartbreaker, and a controversial one at that. Coach Phillips reported that everyone had a good time in Cooperstown, N.Y., which is great to hear. I've been there four times, three of which were trips to the actual museum and field themselves. (If you're unable to appreciate the ambiance of that small town and the field, then I just feel bad for you.) If anyone took digital photos that they'd like me to post, feel free to e-mail them to me. Last time we were there for a game, in 2002, I didn't take nearly enough. As it turns out, this was the first time in the 39-game history of our series with South Burlington that we met at a neutral site, and only the second time we played any team out of state. The other time was May 20, 2002, that first trip to Cooperstown. That was a 7-0 win over Milton - we scored seven times in the first then only had one base runner over the last six innings. That was also a great time. Your guys' win over Middlebury was the 20th in program history against the Tigers, as that victory total and the 12 we have against them in Colchester are both the most versus any opponent. As an aside, with no neutral-site game last year, and being blanked by SB this year, the last time the Lakers scored in a neutral-site game was when Mickey scored in the bottom of the eighth against MMU at Centennial Field in 2005. Some of you guys will remember leading 7-0 before needing extras to win, 8-7. There was some excitement.
I've grazed my way through the first four games worth of stats, along with Coach Phillips' help, and there are a few things worth noting (among many, which I don't think I have enough room to mention). Sean Burns is closing in on the career games, innings played, at bats and plate appearances records, and he's within shouting distance of being among the top three in hits. For Nick Barton, and let's keep in mind that only eight freshmen had ever played on varsity at CHS before him, Nick now holds many of the program's freshman records. Just from the first four games' worth of stats, I know that he broke Sean's hits record, and he's approaching all sorts of records for freshmen. Assuming he didn't triple before doing so on Tuesday, he's the first CHS freshman to ever triple. Which brings me to that record-tying barrage of three-baggers against Middlebury - three tied the school mark, set on five prior occasions. Oh yeah, and none of these six occurrences came against schools in Chittenden County. Mount Abe (three times) is in Addison, as are Middlebury and Vergennes, and BFA-St. Albans is in Franklin. Go figure. I mean, we only play seven Chittenden County teams, not to mention having played 20 games with Winooski before they left the Metro. And those three triples in one game exceeded the season output of eight prior Lakers teams, including our powerless-to-the-gap 2003 team, which hit exactly zero. More randomness: I hear that Galen Doud is now a pitcher. If he only pitches out of the 'pen, he would become the first southpaw to appear during a season solely as a reliever since Curtis Esden '98 in 1997. A very belated congratulations to Zack Aubin, Nick Barton, Tom Critchlow, Galen Doud, Sean McGary and Nick Ringuette on your first varsity hits. (If I've missed anyone since then, I apologize.) May they not be your last! Some of us were one and done. With 41 wins, Coach Phillips is second in program history, having passed Ron Matthews. Finally, in just three home games, you guys have scored 24 runs, which is an average of eight per game, which would be second only to the 1982 team averaging 10.1. Let's compare this to the recent past (avert your eyes if paltry numbers make you uneasy):
With a 2-1 home record, you're also on your way to the program's most home wins since recording four in 2001. With 45 runs through eight games, you should approach 100 for the season, as the 2001 team was also the last squad to hit triple digits in runs.
And with that, good luck tomorrow against North Country!
This is the first time CHS leaves April with a record of .500 or better since 2003, but we only played two games in April that year, so let's go back further - the last time we completed April with a record of .500 or better when playing at least four games was in 2000, when we were 5-1. It's also the first time since 2000 that we opened the season by scoring at least five runs in four straight games. It sounds like you guys are on a roll - good luck against Burlington on Tuesday.
We're now 4-17 at MMU. Also, these were the most runs scored by us against MMU since also plating nine on April 27, 1993, in Jericho and most runs scored in a season opener since 2000. That year, we won, 10-0, on April 18 versus BFA-St. Albans. It was also just the fifth win in our last 28 April games since 2001. And the icing: it marked the first time we had a winning record until prior to the final pitch of our May 30, 2001, playdown game at Rice. We were 9-8 until the Green Knights (then the Little Indians) hit a walk-off single in the fifth inning to invoke the 10-run mercy rule and make it 12-2, ending our season at 9-9. Today at MMU, Nick Barton also became the ninth freshman ever to play on varsity at CHS. It also marked 19 years and 11 months to the day - May 21, 1987, against visiting Milton - that the last freshman caught a game for the Lakers, as Reed Beaupre was the receiver for the first three innings in his only varsity appearance. No freshman had caught before or since.
That's it for now - I doubt many, if any, of you will glance at this before the Missisquoi game, but good luck to all!