3/8's of MINK represented at NBC

Beatrice lost the Central Regional tournament championship to Clarinda, but Beatrice goes to World Series as Clarinda already has a bid from the MINK regular season crown.

So Clarinda, Beatrice and Parkville will all be part of the field in Wichita this year. We wish them the best of luck.

Looking to the future

The Capital-Journal has an article this morning about the end of the 2005 season, and plans for 2006.

Quotes from the GM:

"We did OK, but we got a little thin on our pitching at the end," general manager Brett Cowdin said Thursday.

"We feel it was a success, without question," Cowdin said. "The big picture is we got the season started, we made it through financially and we were competitive. I think we lost seven or eight one-run games and that swings your record quite a bit one way or the other. That hurt us late in the year when we had a losing streak.

"Financially, we came out fine. We got all of our bills paid and had a little bit left over, so that was good."

"In our communication with the colleges, we're way ahead of last year because now we are established," Cowdin said. "They had never seen us operate before, but I think we've proven ourselves. They know kids can come here and have fun and be treated well.

"The kids we had were great and I think a lot of them will be back next year, and the community was very supportive of us. We'll be better organized next year. There's a lot of things I can do better and that's what we're going to be working on."

Mudcats end Giants season

The Chillicothe Mudcats defeated the Topeka Golden Giants in an elimination game at the Central Regional Wednesday night. The final score was 10-2.

The Giants final record including the post-season was 17-19.

Rainout delays Giants-Mudcats game

See comments below. They will try again tonight at 7:30.

Giants eliminate Omaha

The Topeka Golden Giants defeated Omaha Varsity Gold 7 runs to 4 (thanks Anonymous). Peter Davenport got the win. Nick Carlson hit a two run homer in the first.

The Giants will face the Chillicothe Mudcats tonight at 7:30 in another elimination game. A win tonight would mean the Giants would play again on Thursday at 4:30 against either St. Joe, Parkville, or Omaha winery. The winners' bracket has Beatrice facing Clarinda at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Golden Giants fans should be rooting for fellow MINK leaguers Parkville and Clarinda who already have secured NBC berths. The Central Regional's NBC World Series bid goes to the highest finishing team who has not already secured a bid. It is in the Golden Giants best interest to have Clarinda and Parkville stay alive, rather than teams who are actively competing against them for a bid. However, without a win tonight, all this scoreboard watching is meaningless. Go Giants!

Captial-Journal article

Giants face Omaha at 4:30 today

The Golden Giants opponent in today's 4:30 elimination game at the Central Regional will be fellow MINK expansion team Omaha Varsity Gold.

Bruins send Giants to loser's bracket

From the Bruins' website:

Tony Watson pitched 7 scoreless innings of 2-hit ball with 9 K's as the Bruins went on to defeat Topeka 4-0. Joba Chamberlain will pitch on Sunday night in a winner's bracket game against the Saints.

Which means the Giants will face the winner of tomorrows 1:30 game between Fremont and Omaha Varsity Gold (who apparently lost to the Saints this morning) at 4:30 on Monday.

Clarinda schedule

I found the NBC Central Regional Schedule on the Bruins' website.

If the Giants defeat the Bruins today, they would play the winner of the Saints-Varsity Gold game at 7:30 on Sunday. (Should they lose they would play at 4:30 on Monday against either Fremont or the loser of the Saints-Varsity Gold game.)

Details on yesterday's bizarre win

Despite my Topeka bias, I already felt a little sorry for the Fremont pitcher when I heard that the Golden Giants had won despite being no hit. The details in today's Topeka Capital-Journal generate a little more sympathy:

Fremont pitcher Peyton Lewis threw a no-hitter, and also produced his team's only run with a home run, plus a double.

Here's the other perspective from the Fremont Tribune, with the following quote from Generals manager Rich Ray:

"It was a great opportunity to play a team like Topeka," Ray said. "Peyton was on and he stepped up to the plate for us. Our other guys, I thought, performed well, too. ... We made the plays that we needed to make."

The Generals will play the loser of a Saints-Varsity Gold matchup on Sunday at 1:30. As stated below the Golden Giants play the Bruins today at 4:30.

Giants 1-0 at Central Regional

Per the posted below, the Topeka Golden Giants defeaded the Fremont Generals 2-1, despite being no-hit, apparently scoring the winning run on a wild pitch.

The Giants will now face Beatrice at 4:30 tomorrow (Saturday).

By the way, there was some good stuff in the preview of today's game in the Topeka Capital Journal. The Giants final regular season record was 15-17 overall and 11-17 in the MINK League, so apparently they lost all the road games that don't have results posted here. (Doesn't matter. All that matters now is that they are 1-0 in the postseason.)

Here's an Esposito quote from the article:

We've pitched well lately and we haven't hit, or we hit and we haven't pitched," Esposito said. "Or, we've hit and pitched but we didn't play defense. We have to have all three rolling. We have to find a high level and keep it there to win the regional.

"Nobody up there is better than us. They've played better than us at times, but when we have all three parts of the game going we can compete with anybody."

And just to be complete, here is the preview from today's Fremont paper.

Central Regional Game 1

The Topeka Golden Giants will play their first Central Regional game in Clarinda against the Fremont (NE) Generals at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.

Here's a brief article on the Fremont Generals.

Giants fall to Bruins

No newspaper article yet, but the Beatrice Bruins website is reporting that they defeated the Topeka Golden Giants 7-4 last night.

Final regular season game in Beatrice tonight

As I type this the Topeka Golden Giants should be playing the Beatrice Bruins in their last 2005 MINK league contest.

Score postings below are appreciated, but if all else fails tomorrow's Beatrice Daily Sun should have a story.

The post season begins in Clarinda on Friday with the start of the NBC Central Regional.

UMB leadoff hitter Josiah Enyert steps in against Randy Wild. 

One final Seventh Inning Stretch. 

Giants win final home game

The Topeka Golden Giants won their final home game against UMB Bank of the Ban Johnson league 17 runs to 9.

More details on Sunday

The opponent will be UMB Bank of Kansas City's Ban Johnson League, whose roster includes Ichabod Sam Sissom and a shortstop named Josiah Enyart who is leading that league in several categories. UMB Bank was 17-12 as of July 10th.

The hot dogs are now free. Admission is $2. Game starts at 7 p.m. at Seaman High School's baseball field. Come out and see your Topeka Golden Giants at home one more time this summer.

CJ article

Giants lose in St. Joe

I don't have a subscription to the St. Joseph News-Press, but a Google News Search shows enough of the article on last night's Giants-Saints game to determine that the Giants lost it in the bottom of the ninth. Final score 6-5.

Giants hand game to Saints
St. Joseph News Press, MO - 16 hours ago
... on an error — for a 6-5 victory against the Topeka Golden Giants. ... he wasn’t surprised that good things happened to the Saints (28-12, 14-11 MINK) in the ...

By my count the Golden Giants are now 11-12 in the MINK and 14-12 overall, the Saints are apparently 14-11 in the MINK, and we don't know the rest of the standings. The Giants now have more than their share of the MINK's losses, which doesn't make a pennant bid seem promising. Hopefully the momentum will turn back around in time for the start of the NBC Regional next Friday.

The Giants are playing at Parkville as I type this. Any score postings below are, as always, appreciated.

Speaking of the Sluggers, they have already secured an NBC World Series berth through the SW Missouri Tournament of Champions. So the MINK League will send at least 2 teams to Wichita this summer.

Giants swept by Clarinda

The Topeka Golden Giants lost twice to the Clarinda A's last night at Hummer Sports Park in a rare 2-9 doubleheader.

Game 1 was a pitcher's duel with a final score of 2 to 1. The Giants came close a couple of times with runners in scoring position in the 7th and 9th.

Game 2 ended up with Clarinda having 9 runs to the Giants 3. The game stayed fairly close for the first 8 innings, followed by four Clarinda runs in the top of the ninth.

So the Golden Giants lose 3 games to Clarinda in 2 days, falling to 14-11 overall and 11-11 in the MINK.

While this was the Golden Giants final home game at Hummer, it was announced last night that there will be one more home game on Sunday the 17th, a fan appreciation night at Seaman High School's recently renovated baseball field. $2 admission, $1 hot dogs. 7 o'clock start. Non-league opponent to be announced.

The Giants also have upcoming road games in Parkville, Blue Springs, Omaha, St. Joe and Beatrice on the schedule, followed by the Central USA regional in Clarinda from July 22nd to the 27th.

Giants in Clarinda

The Topeka Golden Giants played against the A's in Clarinda tonight. The A's will come to Topeka for a doubleheader tomorrow to make up for June 4th's rain out. I'd assume it's a 4pm start.

Anyone got a score for tonight's game in Clarinda?

Golden Giants win at Beatrice (in 14 innings)

The Topeka Goden Giants defeated the Beatrice Bruins 5-4 in Beatrice last night. From the Beatrice Daily Sun:

The Golden Giants tied the score with a two-out rally in the eighth inning, benefiting from a Bruins' error, a walk and two singles.With the game in extra innings, the Bruins were able to cut down a potential lead run at the plate in the top of the 11th inning, keeping the score knotted at 4-all.Topeka, however, was able to score a run in the top of the 14th inning on a single, sacrifice, groundout and another single to take a 5-4 lead.The Bruins tried to answer in the bottom of the inning, but Marshall was cutdown at the plate and the Golden Giants recorded the final out before Beatrice had another scoring opportunity.

Article on DH split

Here's the Capital Journal article about the DH-split with the Saints. The Golden Giants are 10-8 in the MINK, 13-8 overall.

Golden Giants split with St. Joe

I guess after waiting so long between posts, I should of just waited for the 10 o'clock news to be over. The Giants split the DH with St. Joe winning game 5 runs to 3, after losing the first game 5-2 in 8 innings.

Still need scores from the weekend road games, please post a comment if you have them.

Giants fall to Chillicothe

Apologies for the down time. The Topeka Golden Giants lost at home to the Chillicothe Mudcats on Friday night. The final score was 10-4.

I've missed a few games, including tonight's home doubleheader against Clarinda. Anyone out there have info on the road game in Clarinda or tonight's games?

Mudcats in Topeka tonight/down time

My apologies, but updates to the site may be limited for the next few days.

The Golden Giants face the Chillicothe Mudcats tonight at 7 p.m. at Hummer Sports Park. The Golden Giants are currently 9-5 in the MINK League and 12-5 overall (thanks to a win in Wichita, tip of the hat to the anonymous poster of that score).

Thanks to having yesterday's MINK standings we know that the race is tight, making the importance of tonight's game (and every remaining game) clear.