AHIBA3

Mary Jane Pleasant
Wingate Gazette
June 13, 2011


The Wingate Gladiators (43-21) having just come off a 12 game winning streak have moved into a tie for the lead in the tough Mantle Division with the Asheville Smokies. The two teams meet again tonight for a 3-game set in Asheville. Asheville sends Bill Bowman, Branson Rathwell, and Angelo Gallegos to the mound against Toad Bart, David Marino and Jimmy White of the Gladiators. Wingate swept the Smokies three straight games when the teams last met at Gladiator Field. Tom Lifsey, the General Manager for the Smokies, had this to say about the series, "Wingate is a tough team and their pitching staff really keeps them in games. We hope to be able to win this series, but I believe this will be a race that goes down to the last week of the season." 

I asked Jeff Palin, General Manager for the Gladiators, what he thought about this series. "Wow, this season is starting to get fun! We finally took a series from Asheville last time and we hope to sneak out this series on the road. Our pitching staff has been great the last month or so, and our hitters have come around a bit of late. Asheville has a really well-balanced team and I agree with Mr. Lifsey that this race will last the whole season. Don't forget about the other teams in our division! Every team has a .500 record or better, so there is no time for a letdown against any these teams."

About 5,000 Gladiator fans piles into buses yesterday and headed for Asheville. Billy Hillfinder, Wingate Gladiator Team Correspondent, put together the packages that included tickets to all three games, hotel accommodations, and buses to take the fans to Asheville and back. "We bought the 5,000 tickets and sold the packages out in a day. If we could have gotten more tickets, I think 5,000 more Gladiator fans would have gone," Billy said when asked about the promotion. "It was really a good deal for the fans as we put it all together and just charged them what it cost us; and since there were so many people, we were really able to get great rates on the hotels and the bus fares."

Tune into the MLB Network all three nights at 6:30pm for the pre-game ; the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm. All the games will be carried on the MLB Network for those of you that will not be attending.

Gladiator Notes: Jimmy White was named the Sluggers League Pitcher of the month for May. He now has 15 consecutive starts without a loss and has run his record to 9-0 this year with a 2.70 ERA in 100 innings this year.

Not to be outdone, David Marino has 13 consecutive starts without a loss and has run his record to 8-0 with a 3.97 ERA in 88 innings this season.

After a miserable April, Ron Berry has hit .308 in May and June. He still hasn't shown the power that he demonstrated last season.

Sun Min has now played in 166 games for Wingate. His stats: .285 batting average, 49 HR's, 170 RBI's, 93 walks, 125 K's, and an OPS of .974! Very impressive indeed.

Injury Notes: It appears that while Himmi Nsoah is making progress from elbow surgery, he is still a month away from starting a rehab assignment.

Zak Thorson is aiming to make his return in September from his torn back muscle. He still has not begun throwing since the injury occurred however. "I'll be ready, don't you worry about that," Zak said when asked about his progress.