Futures League News & Notes It's getting tight at the top

Read Time:3 Minute, 8 Second

Another month is about to come to an end in the Futures League. When August begins over the upcoming weekend the final stretch of games will be all that is left before the championship series takes place. The standings show this race is now a three-team duel between Brockton, Vermont, and Pittsfield who are making a late charge. From here on out, every game these teams play will have a bearing on the standings. Let’s take a look at where we stand.

The Pittsfield Suns at 26-21 are making a late-season statement on the division. They head into the final week of July with a three-game winning streak. They are two and a half games behind the leaders Brockton Rox (28-18) and are just a game back in the loss column of Vermont (29-20). Over their last ten games, the Suns have played .500 ball at 5.5. The schedule might become a problem for Pittsfield in that they have only two games left with Brockton and three left with Vermont. These games will probably decide things in the league unless someone else gets real hot.

The Suns are being led by a player who plays his college ball on the other side of the country. Javier Rosales came to Pittsfield from Long Beach State and leads the team in batting average at .340, home runs with four, and RBI with 25. He also has 10 doubles to go along with the long balls. In his last ten games, Rosales has hits in eight of them. Five of these games have been multi-hit games. He has driven in runs in seven of them and scored in seven. His spray chart shows that Rosales likes to hit the ball to left field showing an ability to pull the ball. He was also named Player of the Week (8-20, .400. HR, 2 Doubles, 6 runs scored, 9 RBI).

On the mound, Pirrsfield is led by starter Christian Womble who is 3-1 in four starts and seven appearances. He has won three of his last four decisions going six innings in his last two wins. The Cloud Country right-hander has an impressive ERA of 2.62. The closer role has been occupied by Ryan Langford from Florida Southern and he has four saves to his credit in 24 innings of work. He has fanned 44 in those innings while allowing 22 hits with seven of those being doubles. Ryan has shown good poise with runners on bases. He has gone two innings or more in four of his last nine outings.

The Pitcher of the Week is Brockton Rox’s Jack Snook who in his start last week went six innings of one-hit baseball, striking out eight and allowing zero runs or walks. Snook, who is also from California attending Saint Mary College, is 3-1 in seven starts and 10 trips to the mound. He has posted an ERA of 1.65 with 43 punchouts in 32.2 innings He is second on the team in wins with three, second in K’s, and third in ERA. It will show you just how deep and good Brockton pitching has been this summer.

For a first-place team, putting people in the seats has been a bit of a problem for the Rox. Through 18 home games, the team is only averaging 463 folks per game and for the summer, the team’s total attendance is under nine thousand. People in Brockton are missing out on some pretty good baseball that’s on display.

Next week we will check back on the Futures League to see how things are shaping up.

Stay tuned to NGSC Sports for more coverage of the Futures League.