The Hawk Soars Again!

Jonathan "Hawk" Koch made his triumphant return to the rubber Thursday night for the Press Box Rangers.  Playing on the same field where his season almost ended 7 weeks ago, Hawk took the rubber after a rehab start in Rosendale Wednesday night. 

Protected by his new facemask, Hawk threw fearlessly at the opposing Press Box crew striking out 3 batters and cleanly fielding some outs up the middle as well.

He also made his bat do some work as well going 3-4 with 2 RBIs and 3 runs.

The Big Green Machine provided ample support for Hawk with Peter Reschke hitting 2 long shots, one of which was a grand slam. Also providing Ranger Bombs were Josh Klismith and Nick Reschke.

The 9 runs scored in the 6th inning were enough to quiet the opposing offense who was taking advantage of the strike zone and tired arm of the Hawk.  However, the Boys from the Box cleaned up with a 24-8 victory.

Again the real story of the game was the return of Hawk and the team was easily more pleased to see him return than concerned with any other individual performances.  Many players stated their joy and relief to see Hak return and were quite pleased with being able to win the game in his return.

The Rangers travel north this weekend to play in some state warm-up, round robin action at BS's Bar & Grill Field on Shawano Ave in Green Bay.

Ranger Bombs Are Born!

Many of you are aware of the softball tradition of buying bombs for hitting bombs? Maybe, yes, no, whatever.  Well the Press Box Rangers have their own bomb now to take for home runs, wins, loses, basically whenever we're together.  The development team of Josh Klismith, Brad Leonhard and Tim Rutkowski, with the help of bartenders Tim Snow and Courtney Gutreuter finally zeroed in on the delicious drink Saturday June 23rd.

For those of you curious here's the official recipe:

2 parts Sour Apple Pucker

1 part Blue Curacao

1 part Bacardi O

Energy Drink

Enjoy and Be Responsible

Cardiac Kids Strike Back

Rangers Snatch Victory from Jaws of Defeat

After starting pitcher Sam Munson was abused by the umpire in the first three innings and allowed 11 runs on 3 hits, Josh Klismith came in from the outfield to relieve Munson. Klismith confused the batters with differing speed and location. He would finish the third inning without surrendering anymore runs. He would only allow 3 more runs the rest of the game.

Klismith taking the rubber seemed to energize the bats as well, during the bottom of the 6th inning the Rangers would score 6 runs to tie the game.  The rally was again spearheaded by Klismith as he cleared the bases with a triple and was made the equalizer himself when Munson launched the ball into deep centerfield sacrificing himself to score Klismith.

The Press Box would go back ahead when centerfielder Adam Zakos hit a leadoff triple and was knocked in on a sacrifice fielders choice with the bases loaded and no outs.  But Klismith would stop the leak after that, and turn it over to the bats.

Jon Oldenburg would take a walk to start the inning and Cory Tjader would follow with a bouncing infield single.  Matt Schroeder would come up and tie the game with a double and Derek Robinson would end the game with sharply hit ball that was fielded cleanly by shortstop Dan Roberts but thrown just out of reach of the firstbaseman allowing Tjader to score the winning run.

The Rangers won 15-14 and are now 5-1 in Minor Blue League play.  They will take to Sabish North next Thursday at 7pm to take on Fat Joe's.

Double Trouble for the Rangers Tuesday Night

It must have felt like a Monday at the St. Peter Athletic Club Tuesday night as the Press Box Rangers were greeted coming out of the holiday weekend with a double header against the top two teams in the league.

Things started off quickly with the top of the first for the Rangers as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead after Brian Hauer hit a 2 RBI single driving home Dan Roberts and Craig Obry, who both reached on bunt singles. Scott Woicek knocked in Jake Kalmus with a solid single, and Peter Jessen brought in Hauer with a sacrifice fly.

Team Sports would take a quick lead in the bottom half though and add another in the second to go up 6-4 at the end of 2. But the Rangers fought back in the top of the 3rd with Jessen again sacrificing to deep left center to knock in Kalmus and Derek Robinson driving in Hauer.

Team Sports would then step on the gas pedal and start spreading out their lead before finishing the game in the bottom of the 6th with Logan Will's solo shot to get the difference to 10 and end the game on a mercy rule.

The Rangers would turn right back around and face off against the top team in the league the Press Box Blue Sox. Unfortunately a fresh faced line-up would make no difference to the defending Wisconsin ASA Class A Champions. After a quick 1-2-3 top half of the 1st, the Blue Sox picked apart pitcher Nate Schears and the Ranger defense scoring 8 runs before recording an out in the bottom of the 1st and taking a 9 run and what would turn out to be an insurmountable lead.

The Rangers would fight back with RBI singles from Schears and Cody Emerich in the second, a sacrifice fly by Obry and an RBI single by Hauer in the 3rd and another RBI single for Schears and RBI single for Steve Goeser in the 4th. Cody Emerich would end up scoring on a defensive error on a Keith Kaiser pop-up in the 4th as well.

After dropping contests of 17-7 and 20-7 this week, the Rangers will look forward to a week off of competition in the St. Peter league. They will most likely use this time off to prepare for another double header (June 12th) when they return from the bye facing the Press Box Bulldogs as visitors at 7:30 and then 8:30 as the home team versus Taco Bell.

Rangers win Clash with the Coliseum

It was an overcast and blustery twilight game at Fond du Lac's Kiesler Diamond Thursday Night. The matchup pitted two 1 loss teams from Fond du Lac's Minor Blue Modified Pitch Top League, and featured the return of 2 Rangers veterans to the island.

Pitcher Brad Casetta missed last week to officiate in Wisconsin's State Rugby Tournament and utility stud Nick Reschke who will be limited in the amount of action he'll see this year because he wants to make a living, both made their returns following the Rangers first loss in league since last year.

Things did not start off too great for the Big Green Machine as Coliseum put up 4 runs before the Rangers could produce an out.  Stopping the bleeding at 4, it was the Rangers turn, and much like the defense, the offense took a little bit to get going.  After 2 quick outs, Josh Klismith got things crawling back with a hard single and was moved over to second when the shortstop made an errant throw trying for the force after Nick Reschke made solid contact. With runners on first and second "Big Cat" Peter Reschke drove the pair home with a double to the lackadaisical right fielder.  Bill Kieckbusch and Cory Tjader both took walks to load the bases before Derek Robinson was robbed of a potential inside the park home run when centerfielder Joey Bertram layed out for a desperation grab to halt the 2 out onslaught from the Rangers.

Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the second, the Rangers stuttered again as they quickly had 2 outs before Peter Jessen worked for a walk.  Then with Jeff Greeno hitting a sharp ball on the ground to the shortstop he made another bad throw that Jessen kicked into the outfield as he was sliding, he was able to advance to third because of the deflection and ultimately home due to the insightful guidance of his manager Brad Leonhard noticing the ball not yet in the hand of the centerfielder.  This would bring the Boys from the Box to within a run before a Klismith grounder would end the inning.

The two teams would trade runs in the third to put it at 5-4 and it would stay like that until the bottom of the 5th inning.  That's when Josh Klismith hit the equalizer down the third base line that ended up getting played around with in the outfield corner and after many bobbles and poorly thrown relays it was too little too late for the defense and the Rangers blistered his way around the pads. One out later Peter Reschke would start a lefty-righty connection with Kieckbusch both striking with triples abusing the lollygagging rightfielder.  Cory Tjader's second walk of the game was followed up with a Robinson RBI double that also scored another run on a fielding error. And the Rangers would pull ahead 8-5 at the end of 5.

In the bottom of the sixth, Klismith would knock in the winning insurance run with Jessen plating his second run. And despite a 2 out flurry from Coliseum, the Rangers defense would finally close the first chapter of this now chippy Thursday night rivalry 9-8.

The Rangers are now 3-1 for the season looking to stay in the hunt for the league title knowing that another stumble could derail their title hopes already in this young 2012 season. The Big Mean Green Machine rolls into Jimmy George field next Thursday at 8pm vs Jack's Team Sports. This game will conclude the first cycle through the teams in the league and also finish off May and start a 5 week stretch where they'll play at Sabish North 4 times.