The Voorhees Version

by Brent Voorhees

Ride to repeat! The Twins are entering the final stretch of the season two games out of first, trying to repeat as Jayhawk League champs. We have added two new players, one new face and one familiar, Jordan Cruz and Sam Janca, respectively. Cruz comes in as a Big 12 outfielder from Kansas State, and Janca enters after being a two-year letterman at Texas Tech University. Janca brings another power arm for the Twins, and also provides pop in his bat. After a successful summer last year catching and pitching in relief, he returns looking to help the Twins down the stretch before he transfers to play at Angelo State for his final two seasons of college ball. Cruz enters the team as an all-around threat. He has a lively bat to go along with great speed and defensive ability. He will be a senior for K-State in 2009. Both of these players will try to help the Twins, in second behind the Hays Larks, try to take back first place in the final ten regular season games.

Too little too late. The Twins took their first place standing into Nevada, but after falling behind 3-0 going to the seventh, the Twins finally responded. The Twins got within one after two home runs, the second homer being a mammoth blast from Eric Shortell: his first home run as a Derby Twin. In the top of the 8th, Levi Ferguson singled up the middle and Brett Douglas motored around from second to tie the game at 3 apiece. But in the bottom of the ninth, the Twins came up inches short of twice retiring Nevada's Dan Ward. With an 0-1 count, Ward attempted to bunt, hitting a foul pop-up just out of the reach of diving Alex Martinez. Then with an 0-2 count, he lined a shot deep into dead center that just landed past the outreached Brett Douglas' glove. This hit was the game winner, scoring Nevada's lead runner from first. With the loss, the Twins fall back into second place. The Twins still have two more chances for revenge against Nevada: Saturday night at 7 and Sunday night at 7.

The Twins snapped a season high three game losing streak with a 12-5 win over first place Hays Larks tonight at Panther Field. Behind a great pitching performance from Ben Graham, the Twins were able to move ½ game back from first place. Most of the Twins early offense came from Alex Martinez, smashing his 6th and 7th home runs of the summer. The rest of the offense was able to find its groove with a seven run eighth inning, which gave the Twins a commanding 12-4 lead going to the ninth. Graham attempted to pitch his second 9 inning complete game against the Larks, however he was replaced by Nathan Johnson in the ninth with one out. The Twins will take on the Hays Larks for the last time this summer tomorrow night, with the winner finishing the series holding first place in the Jayhawk League.

Happy 4th of July! The Derby Twins had a chance to celebrate with the city our country's Independence Day by participating in the Derby parade. It was a great experience; we were given much candy to throw out to the citizens who help support us and provide opportunity for us to play baseball here. We also had a chance to catch up with some of Derby's residents at the park after our game. Here we also enjoyed signing autographs and were able to watch a magnificent fire work show. It turned out to be a great day full of fun activities.

The Derby Twins tight-roped their way to a 4-0 road trip getting solid pitching performances to go along with timely hitting and good defense. This defense almost cost them; Kyle Price made a great catch in centerfield, however hurt his ankle in the fall. With myself out with an infection and Danny Brown and Colin Murphy being returned home for the duration of the summer, the Twins were left with no extra position players. The Twins were up to the task, and will return back to Derby riding a four game winning streak.

The Twins finished off their 6 game road trip with an unfortunate two games to one series loss to Liberal on Sunday night. Consistency was a bit of an issue for the Twins on the road trip, however, the Twins showed much character throughout the series. In the first game of the series against Liberal, the Twins were staked to a 3-0 lead until the fifth when the Bee Jays put up 6 runs, 5 of them before an out was recorded. The Twins did not fret; in the top of the sixth the Twins put 5 runs of their own on the board before recording an out. On Sunday, many of the Twins struggle from the start, but behind Ben Theriot's bat, the Twins nearly came back from a 7-1 deficit in the last three innings. If the Twins continue to play with this character, look for good things to come when the Twins find their consistency.

The Twins just finished a rough series with Hays, winning the first game and losing games two and three. Both losses were tough to swallow, especially with the second loss coming in the last inning of the game. The Twins had a hard time scoring runs early in both games, something that had been an early strength for the Twins. The Twins had put up 25 runs in the early innings (1-3) in the first 7 games of the season, but in the two losses were only able to muster one run in those innings. The Twins will have an opportunity to rebound and hopefully get started out of the gate with a three game series against Liberal beginning on Friday, the 20th.

The Derby Twins have started the season off playing well together leading to a 6 and 1 record. In my opinion, much of the success is due to a team learning to communicate and jell together quickly. Most collegiate teams spend much of the fall letting their middle infielders work together and develop chemistry, catchers and pitchers form strategy and tactics. The struggle, in my experience, has always been to develop this chemistry and camaraderie with teammates in a timely manner in a short season. Here 7 games in, I believe the Twins have learned to play well together and encouraging other's strengths. Hopefully, the Twins will continue to build on their early success.