By: Tim Beasley
I was lucky enough to be in La Crosse Saturday night to witness perhaps the game of the year in the NWL! Trailing 3-1 La Crosse put up five runs in the bottom of the eigth inning, capped by Robert Brantly’s 2-run bomb into the right field cabins, to take a 6-3 lead. Waterloo then responded with seven runs in the top of the ninth to take a 10-6 lead! Several Logger fans in my area left and were not shy in voicing there disgust. The Logger players and coaches however did not give up. A pair of walks began the rally and Chris Engell ended the night with a 3-run, no-doubter to left-center field. Those that left early missed quite the scene as the Loggers went wild at home plate and maintained control of their own destiny and their half game lead in the South Division. It was an incredible last 1 1/2 innings to an otherwise very normal but well played game through 7 1/2 innings.
La Crosse catcher Robert Brantly (UC-Riverside) was especially impressive. I had only seen him play breifly at the All-Star game this year but had heard a lot about his potential besides the great numbers and multiple Player of the Night awards. He smoked two line drives early in the game then added a cork screw single to left field before capping his night with the home run. The game ended with him on deck and I was certainly hoping to see him come to the plate with the bases loaded. What is so impressive about Brantly is that he is just a freshman, is 6’2″ and 200 lbs with a lot of room to fill out and really puts his barrell on the ball. I have played with and against several catchers who went in the first few rounds of the MLB draft and if Brantly stays healthy and continues to develop I will be very surprised if he is not in the Major Leagues within the next 5-6 years.
Congratulations to Rochester’s Zach Robertson for his recent assault on the NWL career pitching record book. The durability that Robertson has shown to pitch from start to finish for three straight years after his school season at Iowa is pretty remarkable. I watched him break the strikeout record Thursday in Rochester. The big left-hander really dominated Madison’s left-handed hitters striking most of them out with a big, sweaping breaking ball. The Mallard lefties did not put any good swings on him and he struck out 11 in just 6 innings of work.
While the drama in the North is now over it should be an exciting finish in the South. Both Madison and La Crosse have had incredible comebacks in the last few nights. The Mallards have been devestated by injuries this summer. Following Thursdays loss to Rochester, Mallards Manager CJ Theileke said they have had around 42 players play for them this summer. We’ll see if the Mallards have enough left in them to sweep Green Bay and hope La Crosse drops a game to Mankato at home.
