Hats off to the Bulls on a great series with both games coming down to 1 run, which is how a championship series should be. 

 

Reflecting on our season, we led the league in hits (410), doubles (85), triples (14), home runs (22) and batting average (.370). On the mound, we led the league in ERA (2.34), ER (65) and strikeouts (255). A lot of positives going into next season to make another run at this thing. 

 

Now for some individual shoutouts..

Zak Farmer was a dawg all year offensively and on the mound. Farmer finished hitting .483, leading the league in hits (58) and RBI (42), adding on 12 doubles and 3 bombs. On the mound, he finished the season 9-0, giving up 12 ER in 86.2 innings, 2nd in strikeouts with 99 and a league leading ERA of 1.25.

Mitch Elliott finished the year hitting .463, 2nd in hits (50), 2nd in doubles (14) and 1st in triples (8) while adding in 3 home runs and 35 RBI. Defensively, Elliott played one of the best centerfields in the league this season.

Jack Deeds (Rookie) finished at .462 while playing an excellent shortstop. Andrew Crane finished at .433, hitting 14 doubles, 2 home runs and 34 RBI. Seth Willoughby (Rookie) hit .420 on the season with 4 bombs.

Kenny Owens was 8-0 on the season and 2nd in the league in ERA (1.89) with 52 Ks.

Despite a rough playoff showing, Mike Hilliard was 8-2, 5th in qualfying ERA (2.80) with 68 Ks (8th).

 

Overall, not how we wanted to finish the season, but still a great season. Manager Jeff Hannah makes all of it possible and we can't thank him enough. Until next year!

 

 

Bulls repeat as champs with a 2-run rally in the bottom of the 11th as Depenbrock scampers home with the winning run on a wild pitch. Newman's RBI double had tied it earlier in the inning. Hats off the Chiefs. Our games are always a battle that come down to the last out. 

 

Bulls trailed 5-2 after 6. An RBI groundout and error scored 2 in the 7th and Sneed's RBI single in the 8th got us even.

 

2 hit games for Muse 2-5,2B,2RBI,Dep 2-5,2R, and Sneed 2-4,RBI.

 

Miller gets the win in relief - 3IP,1ER. Polking battled into the 6th and Sand comes up huge with 2.1 scoreless in his first pitching appearance since July. 

 

2025 Year in Review.

 

We quickly found out that repeating is hard. Injuries took out 2 starting outfielders before the end of May. We had a number of life events - new jobs, new babies, coaching responsibilities, etc. that had guys away from the team at different points and it took a while to sort out. We spent a good portion of the summer in 3rd or 4th place and even being that high required winning a number of close games with late inning rallies. We can point back to mid-August and back-to-back wins vs the Chiefs and Dodgers as when we flipped the switch. We got to September largely healthy without overworking our starting pitching. 
 
While our 2024 tournament run was dominant with 4 of 5 wins by 8 runs or more, this one was much tougher. In the end it was a methodical march playing our brand of baseball. An offense that puts together long, grinding at-bats with guys up and down the lineup coming up with key hits, a pitching staff that battles and pounds the strike zone, and a string of solid defensive games.

 

As a team, we led the league in walks. That's it. 2nd in HR, 3rd in runs scored. Pitching-wise we were 2nd in a lot of categories.

 

We have to acknowledge the 3 new guys that fell into our lap. Polking was Dep Sr's PT after surgery, Sneed wandered up to ask how to join a team when his kid played soccer at Schuler, and Tabler is Dep's co-worker. No acquisitions from other teams to complain about this year. 

 

Individual Shout-outs.
Schunk is the glue and our leader. Offensively had 35 RBIs, over .500 OBP, and only 5 Ks in 131 plate appearances. His defense and handling the pitching staff can't be overstated. He needs to win a 2nd MVP at some point. Why not this year?

 

Our double-play combo were on-base machines: Dep again led the league in times on base (39H + 26BB + 9HBP = 74 in 30 games). Newman led the league with 15 doubles and was second with 73 times on base. Snare tied for the league lead with 7 HRs despite not being 100% at any point in the year. Fuller was 2nd in the league with 37RBIs and his walk-off HR vs the Yankees and go-ahead HR vs the Chiefs were our 2 biggest plays of the regular season. Muse fought through 2 elbow surgeries and came up with the key hits in the finals. Sneed joined mid-year and found his swing late with 3 HRs in September. Gaskins and Hoeffler sacrificed their desire to pitch more for the good of the team and settled into being position-only because of the outfield injuries, both contributing over 20 RBIs. 

 

On the pitching side. Kroell had another pitcher-of-the-year type of season going 9-1 with a 70/7 K/BB ratio and wins in the final game of pool play and game 1 of the finals. Polking settled in as our normal Wednesday starter and came up with 7 wins in his rookie season against a tough string of opponents and was kept extra busy as our de-facto team trainer. Miller gave us a ton of innings both starting and in relief throughout the season and was at his best in September with 2 wins and a save in the tournament. 

 

Now we look to the offseason 16-Bull golf outings and getting everybody healthy. The middle of the league has gotten a lot better and we hear their footsteps. The road to go back-to-back-to-back will be challenging. Can't wait for BP to start in January.