Goldeyes thump Railroaders as bats come to life in back-to-back wins

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This article was published 14/05/2024 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It would have been easy to get discouraged after starting the new season with four consecutive losses by a combined total of just six runs.

Instead, the Winnipeg Goldeyes responded to some early adversity by coming out swinging — quite literally in this case — as they wrapped up a six-game set with the Cleburne Railroaders with back-to-back dominant victories.

A 16-0 shellacking on Monday night in Texas was followed up with a 9-0 thumping on Tuesday afternoon. Just like that, the fledgling Fish are suddenly flying high and full of confidence.

“It was great to see the guys stay positive and fight through some close losses,” manager Logan Watkins told the Free Press, in a phone chat. “We had a chance to win every single game of the series, and in those four losses just had some tough luck.”

Indeed they did, with the first four games ending in frustrating defeats by scores of 5-3, 6-4, 5-4 (which included giving up two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning) and 1-0. Despite that 0-4 start to the 100-game campaign, the first-year skipper was confident the situation would quickly sort itself out.

After scoring just 11 times in the first four games, the offence has clearly woken up. Five players had multi-hit games on Monday night, while six drove in at least two runs. That is some impressive balance and depth.

Overall, Winnipeg scored 25 runs on 27 hits in less than a 24-hour span.

“The offence really looked great the last two games,” said Watkins.

Among the notable players so far is last season’s rookie-of-the-year Dayson Croes, who leads the squad with a .467 average (7-for-15) and has five RBI through the first six games. The 24-year-old third baseman from Aruba finished fourth in league batting last season at .351.

Croes missed the second and third games of the year so he could attend his college graduation in Illinois.

Winnipeg’s other all-star from last year, Max Murphy, got off to a rough 2-for-23 start through the first five games but came through in a big way Tuesday, going 3-for-4 with four RBI, which included belting his second home run of the season.

“It’s no secret that when he hits well we tend to be a lot better as a whole,” said Watkins. “And it was tough not to have Croes for two games as he’s very important to our lineup as well.”

Don’t overlook pitching and defence, which held Cleburne to just 17 total runs over the six games — and just one run on nine hits over the last three.

“We pitched great the whole series against a very strong and experienced Cleburne offence,” said Watkins

Canadian Landon Bourassa took the hard-luck loss on Sunday despite tossing six innings of one-run, three-hit ball. Fellow Canuck Travis Seabrooke followed that up Monday with six shutout innings, giving up just a pair of hits. And then opening-night starter Colton Eastman shook off a mediocre first outing with a sensational second one, giving up just two hits over five innings Tuesday.

The Goldeyes now head to Kansas City, Kan., where they’ll face the defending American Association champions for four games beginning Thursday night.

“Hopefully we have a lot of momentum,” said Watkins.

Then it’s back to Winnipeg where they’ll host the Chicago Dogs in their home-opener at Blue Cross Park on Tuesday night.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

X: @mikemcintyrewpg