The Royce Files

On July 10th I went to my first RedHawks game of the season. Boxscore here . Foul ball I caught at the RedHawks game July 10th The 'hawks were down by 5. The Kansas City T-Bones had mastery over the RedHawks bats. Inning after inning the home team failed to turn on the offense. Fortunately the RedHawks defense kept the game from getting totally out of hand. Plus the pitching improved. In the bottom of the 5th with 2 outs Ryan Stovall came up to the plate. The first pitch he hit a foul over the the home plate stands. It hit the press box and rocketed down towards my seat and 2 women sitting next to me. In a moment of odd courage I put out my barehand and caught that ball. I had never done that before- catch a foul. The women and my MFW were grateful. The next pitch Stovall eeked out the first hit of the game for the RedHawks. But the RedHawks do not take advantage as Carlo Cota flies out. It was not until the 8th inning until the RedHawks put some runs on the board- ...

It was a cool and slightly wet night in Fargo. But it didn't matter much to the home team. The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks again won the Northern League title defeating the Kansas City T-Bones 3-0 in the a 3 game sweep. Pitcher TJ Stanton (he has no beard in that linkage) had a 1 hit shutout and struck out the first 8 batters he faced. The game was sort of unbelievable considering the last time I was at Newman Field. The RedHawks were also facing the T-Bones about a month ago and they got rocked big time. Nothing was clicking for the RedHawks that night. Tonight, however, was a pitcher's duel. The T-Bone's offense was cold and the RedHawks were not much better. Thankfully a few errors and masterful placed hits put Fargo on the scoreboard. Later Eric Campbell hit a solo home run. It was chilly but fun to be with friends and also see The Champ. This was the only RedHawks game he's been to all season. At least he chose a good one. After the game and a whole bunch of champa...

Haven't found time to write about the last leg of the bike trip but I did manage to take in a baseball game. The Red Hawks took on the Goldeyes at Newman Outdoor Field in the Northern League Playoffs. The RedHawks didn't do so good. It was a well fought game and there was even a point where it looked like both teams would be fighting in the middle of the field. Jeremiah Piepkorn and Carlo Cota both hit solo homers but it wasn't enough to erase Winnipeg's powerful 7th inning. With a little more offense and some consistant pitching the RedHawk could have won. Eventually the Goldeyes won 7-3. On and there was a condiment race, too! Ketchup won by a whisker. It appears Hawkeye, the RedHawks' mascot has tackled mustard.