The Looters knew they had an improved team this year, and knew they had a light early schedule facing many teams expected to have below .500 records. However, the Looters in the past had struggled to win these games playing down to their competition. The other obstacle is the amount of early road games they have to play. 11 of their first 14 games were slated to be on the road. Beyond that, 21 of the first 30 on the road. So while the competition is on the lighter side over the early schedule, the road factor increases the difficulty.
The Looters though, picked preseason by OSA to win 97 games, are playing much better and are becoming road warriors early on jumping out to a 16-3 record and leading the NL South division by 1.5 games. A quick recap of the early series.
April 1-3: vs Orlando - W 5-2, W 13-5, L 6-7
The Looters got off to a good start against Orlando continuing their dominance from last year when the Looters finished 18-2 vs Orlando in 2014. The Looters broke open the first game with 5 runs in the 3rd-5th innings including a big 2 run homer by new acquisition SS Neil Bucker in the 4th. New trade acquisition SP Reginald Krause had his first start going 8 innings allowing only 2 runs and CL James Kelly notching the save. The second game was a slug fest from early on with the Looters failing to score in only 2 innings. Luis Alou hit for the cycle in the game becoming the first Looter to accomplish the feat and starting off on a better foot than his year long slump in 2014. The third game, Tyler Law started off allowing a 5 run first inning, 3 of which unearned after an error by Ramon Hernandez. Law settled and only allowed 1 more run in his 6.1 innings. The Looters tied the game in the bottom of the 9th on a 2 run homer Errol Hughes only to lose on a HBP in the top of the 10th.
April 4-7: @ Jacksonville - W 7-3, W 15-3, W 7-5, W 9-0
Looters pulled off the sweep against their bogey team from a year ago who they finished with a losing record against last year. The sereis saw the Looters high powered offense kick into overdrive outslugging the Hammers. The Looters also had a combined shutout in the last game of the series started by Gilberto Montano throwing 6.1 shutout innings before it being finished by Alex Torrez and Cameron Rowde.
April 8-10: @ Cleveland - W 8-5, L 2-5, W 3-0
The Monsters tamed the Looters offense some, but the Looters still won the series. Their lone loss came on a bad start by Armando Felix who allowed 5 runs in 2.2 IP. Reginald Krause missed his former team as his spot in the rotation dind't get the call. Bill Maddox threw 7 shutout innings in the finale.
April 11-14: @ Orlando: W 3-2, W 9-0, L 3-5, W 4-3
The Looters dropped their second game of the year vs Orlando matching their entire season losses to them the prior year, but improved to 5-2 on the year. New signing SP Ray Kennedy made his debut in the series throwing a complete game shutout in the second game of the series on an economical 101 pitches.
April 16-18: vs El Paso - W 13-7, W 14-1, W 5-4
The Looter bats woke up again this series. Armando Felix had a great start throwing a complete game 1 run effort.
Arpil 19-21: vs Baffin - W 9-2, W 10-9, TBD
Baffin is the Looters first real test being the first team over .500 they've faced and the Looters haven't disappointed taking the first two games. Montano threw 8 IP and only allowed 2 runs in the opener as Ramon Hernandez belted his 6th homer of the year. Not to be out done, Hughes hit his 6th homer of the year in game 2, and Marin upped them both belting 2 homers in the game to go to 7 homers on the year.
Early Leaders:
Avg: Errol Hughes .364, Tony Marin .342, Luis Alou .333, Sandro Cajani .333
HR: Tony Marin 7, Ramon Hernandez 6, Errol Hughes 6, Neil Buckner 5
RBI: Tony Marin 26, Ramon Hernandez 20, Errol Hughes 20, Porter Sanford 17
W: Gilberto Montano 3, Felix-Krause-Maddox-Torrez 2
ERA: Felix 3.48, Montano 3.86, Krause 4.50
K: Montano 27, Krause 20, Tyler Law 14, Leonard Lucas 14
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