In a hard fought game, the Yankees used 5 pitchers – David Hause, Zach Schmidt, Adon Stassi, Jake Melder and Blake Nelson – to hold off a late rally by the 1st place Rangers.

In a game closer than the final score suggests, the Nationals’ bats came alive and defense played solidly to secure a win. The Nats were led offensively by Matt Condrin, who had three hits, and Drake Charamuga, who had a pair. With one week of play remaining, five teams in the majors division are within one game of each other, setting the table for a lineup full of excitement on the Red Field.

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Steve Horning and Chris Keitges of Sportstime Baseball Academy will be hosting a free baseball clinic on Saturday, May 26th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Valley Oak Park.

If you are planning on attending, please notify Steve Horning at stevehorning@earthlink.com.

Additionally, for those looking for a summer baseball camp, Sportstime will be hosting an “All Skills” camp at Valley Oak Park from August 6th to August 8th.

For more information or to register, please visit sportstime.com.

White Sox pitcher J. P. McKeever stole the show pitching 5 and 1/3 innings of shut-out baseball while Josh Davis finished the effort in the 6th. McKeever helped his own cause with some fine defense on the mound, and teammates Josh Fowler, Kyle Nolan and Colin Brannan also contributed fine defensive plays. Tigers played well throughout, receiving some fabulous defense from Nate Berry and Matt Enos to keep it close, and hits from Noah Pettinato, Hayden Johnson and Blake Harris. White Sox also benefitted from some timely hitting from Adam Olsen who hit a two out double which scored two runs and helped put the game out of reach for the Tigers.

Miles Edwards had 14 strikeouts for the Cubs. Collecting hits for the Cubs were Ryan Nixon, Jake Couch, Jack Kotal, Scott Tooley, Jack Koewler, Sammy Schwartz and Miles Edwards.

Gavin Aguilar pitched a great game for the Mariners and also collected a hit as did Gunnar Reich, Jordan Rahe and Wills Vlasek. Ryan Maves had a spectacular running catch in right to save at least a double. Ben Smith made several great defensive plays at second.

The White Sox and Nationals teamed up for a thriller on Saturday. The Nationals started strong scoring three runs in the first with hits by Johnny Hartman, Matt Condrin and Eric Dupzyk, Matt Condrin pitched well for the Nationals yielding only two runs through 5 innings, with some stellar defense from Jack Solomon, Jack Flaningam and Garrett Cook. White Sox pitchers Lincoln Tadewald and Josh Davis were up to the challenge as they held the Nationals scoreless for the rest of the game and set the stage for a White Sox rally in the bottom of the 6th. Down 3 to 2, Josh Davis lead off the inning with a triple, Josh Fowler then walked and Kyle Nolan plated them both with one dramatic swing to win the game. Colin Brannan had the other two RBI’s for the White Sox and Josh Fowler scored three of the White Sox four runs on the day.

What a game! A classic battle that featured a pitchers’ duel and some timely hitting Saturday night. Ryan Nixon threw well for the Cubs, limiting the Tigers to 2 runs through four innings. Matt Enos started on the bump for the Tigers and threw 5 solid innings, keeping the high-powered Cubs offense to 3 runs and within reach of a comeback. Sam Schwartz, Miles Edwards and Jacob Couch each contributed well hit balls resulting in runs for the Cubs. In the bottom of the 5th inning, Noah Pettinato sparked a Tigers rally by driving a ball to center field for a triple. Matt Enos followed with a base hit and managed to score for the Tigers as well.

With the Tigers up by one run going into the 6th inning, Blake Harris was sent to the mound where he did a great job of managing a pressure packed half inning to earn the save for the Tigers.

Yankees were off to a great start and went through the entire batting and took an early 5 run lead then the Giants came back with some stellar pitching by Andre Condrin and some great batting to score 12 runs. Yankees battled back to a 14 to 12 lead and were able to hold the Giants back with a runner on 3rd and 1st Yankees pitcher Jake Melder closed the game throwing strikes to hold the Giants at bay.

Clutch 6th inning plays lift Rangers over the Nationals.

The Nationals and Rangers battled Thursday night in a well played game by both sides.  The Rangers’ Henry Ellis started things out with two shut-out innings of pitching, but was matched closely by Matt Ziegler, who kept the Rangers to only 4 runs in 3 innings. With the score tied at 9 going into the 6th, Mitchell Dixon hit a hard line-drive up the middle, tore around the bases and added 3 more runs to a strong offensive inning.  Ryan Young stayed in to shut down the Nationals in the bottom of the 6th with just three pitches – a well played grounder at third fielded by Danny Cunningham and shot across with a stretch by Mitchell for one, a hard line drive back to the glove of Ryan for out two, and a pop fly to shortstop Nick Knudsen to seal the victory.  The Nationals had great pitching support from Mason Benbrook, Coleman Dupre, and Anthony Murphy.  Hot bats from Daniel Giberson and Zack Coss helped the Nationals drive in runs during the middle innings to catch the Rangers and tie the score by the bottom of the 5th.

In yet another Mariners-Nationals back and forth, hard-fought, drama-filled nail biter, the Nationals escaped a bottom of the 6th rally in which the Mariners had the bases loaded and no outs. After getting the first out with a force at home, Nationals catcher Mike Lee turned a 1-2-3 double play to end the game. Jack Flaningam had two hits and gave up 2 runs in 3 and 2/3 innings of relief to earn the win. The Nats’ offense was led by Johnny Hartman’s two triples, while Jack Soloman added two hits, and Drake Charamuga had a key two out hit to drive in a run.

Gavin Aguilar of the Mariners pitched gallantly for 5 1/3 innings, and had 3 hits, while teammates Wills Vlasek and Gunnar Reich also had three hit nights. Ryan Macomber added a hit for the Mariners.