Cincinnati CoBALTS Baseball Club

With a 22-2 record and two wins over the rival Cincinnati Suds Team, the Cobalts finish as the #1 seed going into the League Tournament. Recent victories include wins over the Astros (Morgan gets the win) and the Bulls (Wags gets the win). The Cincinnati Roy Hobbs Tournament will begin next week. It is a 2 and Out tourney that will be played primarily on Wednesdays and Sundays.

After winning the CRC City Championship and NABF Regionals, the Cobalts headed to Louisville to play 9 other Regional Champions from across the United States. The Opening game versus the powerful Jet Box from Detroit had the stiff Cobalts dropping a 12-2 game. Errors and lack of clutch hitting against a tough pitcher were the story. In game two the Cobalts got their act together and played good defense behind the always spectacular Shannon Morgan. Clutch hitting by Steve Stigler and Mike Hatfield brought home the winning run in the 9th for a 3-2 Victory. Game 3 against the host team Louisville River Rats started rough and stayed rough in a 9-3 loss. The heat, humidity, and blown hammies and calves started to take it's toll against a very solid young River Rat squad. Game 4 was the heartbreaker as Keith Becker threw 8 shutout innings and Frank Arnold hit and scored the go ahead in the 9th only to see it erased by a 2 run rally in the bottom half as the Cobalts dropped to the Latin American Florida Cardenals 2-1.

On the Eve before NABF Regionals, the Cobalts hoped to sneak a win out of Roy Hobbs league play and almost succeeded. Blowing an 8-4 lead going into the last inning, the Cobalts dropped their 8th loss of the season. To their credit, The Royals and their CF played inspired ball. File this one under the heading: " $&!# Happens "

The Cobalts finish the Round Robin Tournament with a 3-1 Record. This gave us the Championship birth because in head-to-head play versus the Stogies, the Cobalts won by a score of 3-1. Final Standings: Cobalts: 3-1 Stogies: 3-1 Chiefs: 2-2 Cheviot: 2-2 Meridians: 0-4 Friday (8/11)...Cobalts 10 Chiefs 4 The Cobalts took on the youthful and energetic Chiefs who had a solid season. The Cobalts jumped out early and scored runs in the first 4 innings which gave Shannon Morgan enough breathing room to continue his streak of incredible pitching in big games. Hitting was spread around with some big hits coming from Mike Hatfield, Frank Arnold, Brandon Beyerlein, and Steve Stigler. Saturday (8/12)...Cobalts 3 Stogies 1 Paully Krause took his sore aarrrrmm to the hill and threw a 4 hit GEM against the always tough Stogies. Jess Bechard's solo HR was the game sealer. This was the 2nd straight victory in Tournament Play over the rival Blue Note Stogie Squad. Saturday (8/12)...Cheviot 2 Cobalts 1 Mikey Taylor threw tough into the 6th inning but Jeff Saunders recorded his second straight win against the Cobalts allowing just one run. Sunday (8/13)....Cobalts 6 Meridians 0 Cobalts needed a shutout to guarantee the tie-breaker potential and still had Wags and Becker yet to throw. So, they threw a shutout. An early 5 run 1st inning was all the Cobalts needed to put this one away. Congrats to all the CRC League Champion Teams and best of luck in the 18+ Roy Hobbs World Series this coming week.

Back to Roy Hobbs League action as the Brew Crew blew into McNicholas with upset on their minds. El Vic-a-tor Carreon pitched well going into the 6th but then another "cat-mating scream" ended his outing with bad hammies. So Monster Spriggs was wheeled out to the mound and promptly shut down the Crew. And, his teammates started to find some holes and ultimately got the Monster his first Win of 2006. More Roy Hobbs action Wednesday night at Crosley Field (8:30) vs. Royals (wear gray pants, navy jersey, gold sleeves and gold hat).