Good Morning , here are last weeks sports stories from Dayton Ohio, just in case you may have missed them:
The Dragons did pretty well this last week. Though they didn’t see any action at home, they did win 4 games out of 6 including a double header this last Saturday that resulted from a postponed game on Friday against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. In the first game of the day, the Dragons managed their second shutout game of the year as well as their largest margin of victory by defeating Wisconsin 10-0. Outfielder Cameron Satterwhite has been on fire this year, hitting .476 over the last 10 games and .375 for the season. He had hits at his first three at bats during the first game of the double header, and achieved his first professional home run that night. Starting pitcher Jacob Johnson won his third straight decision, with 5 scoreless innings; Chase Ware and Jason Braun finished up the game. The Dragons started the second game of the double header by taking the lead in the third inning with a 3 man home run by Chris Richburg (.258). Wisconsin fought back later in the game but never regained the lead.
As I had hoped, the Dragons made a good drive against some less prominent teams in the league but dropping two against Beloit helped them get above .500 this week. Fort Wayne is up early this coming week, but the Dragons still have a good chance at starting strong against them. The Dragons have won 4 of 6 games against the Tin Caps this year, including a three game sweep in early May. This weekend however 5/3rd field will expectantly be packed for a series against the Great Lakes Loons. The Dragons have only played the Loons one other time this year, splitting a four game series 2-2. The Loons have a dangerously good win percentage while playing away (almost .700), so the Dragons need to keep on their feet and show the Loons who’s house it is.
There hasn’t been too much word from the Gems in the last week, and we’re still waiting on the announcement of who is going to actually coach the Gems next year but all was not quiet on the hockey front. As the merger between the CHL and IHL continues to develop, two IHL teams have announced they will not be playing next year: The Flint Generals and the Port Huron Icehawks. Including 13 returning teams from the CHL, that will make for a total of 17 teams to be split into two conferences. These haven’t been decided yet but most likely Dayton will still be playing it’s three adversaries of the IHL from last year. Last time I noted that Dayton is unlikely to continue busing it’s team from game to game, but upon examining the likely conference alignments, there is a pretty good chance few flights may ever be scheduled unless they end up making it to the playoffs. This is definitely positive, but it will mean The Gems will have quite a few long rides ahead of them in comparison to last year. Still, if they were playing in the ECHL, it would be the same story. Here is hoping these two leagues can come to an agreement quickly on how to merge together before the seasons starts.
The Dayton Dutch Lions started last week with their first loss of the season. An uneasy loss of 4-1 against the Indiana Invaders on Wednesday could have meant signs of trouble, but the Lions found redemption back at their home field against the Toronto Lynx three days later on Saturday 2-0. Whatever it was they put in those boys’ coffee that morning most have done the job because they out shot Toronto 14-4. Mounting frustration and unnecessary tackles from Toronto was awarded with 5 yellow cards and an ejection of their coaching staff. I was at that game and the swears coming off the field from Lynx players were loud enough to silence the crowd in the stands. Their aggravation was palpable, needless to say. It only mounted as the second goal from the DDL would come late in the second half as Steven McCarthy pitched the ball back into play near the Lynx goal and with a confounding luck and lack of an organized defense by Toronto, managed to fling the ball right into the net. The game paused around the 85th minute for inclement weather, but was resumed only 15 minutes afterwords, and the Lions took home the win before the clouds opened up that night.
The Lions have 3 games over the next 6 days. As stated last week, they will be travelling to Rochester NY for the first match against the Rochester Rhinos in the US Lamar Hunt Open Cup. On the 17th they’ll play The Cleveland Internationals, and Saturday will be back in town to face The Columbus Crew of the MLS at Baujan Sports Field. Buy your Tickets. Good luck Lions!
I will squeak out a few headlines here:
Several Wright State Baseball players have joined the professional ranks during this years draft. Gerald Ogrinc has signed as a free agent with the Milwakee Brewers and Alex Kaminsky has signed with the independant Northern League. Relief Pitcher Greg Robinson signed with the Arizona Dimondbacks, and second basemen Aaron Fields was drafted by the Cleveland Indians. Not a whole lot else floating around in Raider territory at the moment but congratulations to all those guys.
Last week I had mentioned two track athletes that were competing in the NCAA track and field championship this year. Some news here about how they did. Katie Nagoette finished 17th overall in the pole vault. Junior Mallory Barns placed 19th in the hammer throw and is Dayton’s first ever All-American in track an field. This is a dry spell for any collegiate sports, heck the next date listed on the Flyers page is in August, so that will tell you how quiet the summer can be. Still, as I mentioned before, things will start to pick up for both the Flyers and the Raiders in the next few months, but for now, I humbly pass along the news that is passed to me.
Take care for another week. There will be great games going on in Dayton next weekend with both the Dragons and the Lions, so what are you waiting for? Get to a game!
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