The Dodge City Athletics capped off a rollercoaster season Thursday night on a high note, coming from behind to defeat Liberal 9-7.
Although the A’s went 11-21 in the Jayhawk League to finish in a last-place tie with Derby, they improved from their 2009 campaign where they finished 5-25 in league.
“It was a funner year this year,” said Cruz Sedillo, the only player to play on the A’s the last two seasons. “Baseball is baseball and you have fun playing the game because you love it, but the group of guys you were around this year made it a little funner than last year.
“Everyone wanted to hang out all the time. It was like we woke up and we hung out before we went to the field. We hung out the whole time at the field and when we got done playing or practicing or whatever it was, we would go home, shower and go right back to hanging out with each other. … That helped out quite a bit, because if everybody is playing I-baseball you are not going to win anything.”
The 11-21 record may have not been what A’s fans were hoping for, but it was the best finish any Athletics’ team has had since they came back as a franchise four years ago.
“What I saw this summer, from other years, our fan base has continued to grow and we had the largest amount of host families,” A’s president Glenn Kerbs said. “I think what we want to do is take all the things that were positives, and take it back into next year. We hope to take a handful from players from this year and have them back.”
A’s first baseman Brock Green said that he is interested in returning in 2011 and thinks plenty of others are too.
“I think a few of the guys have talked and some of us might want to return and try to get a little nucleus going in Dodge City,” Green said.
In 2010, there were plenty of high and lows and twists and turns for the Dodge
City A’s.
“It was really an up and down summer,” Kerbs said. “We had our best start since we have exisited, our longest losing streak and a midseason coaching change. It was a challenging summer.”
Dodge City started the season as hot as anybody, going 10-3 and winning five games of a six-game road trip.
The A’s success, however, came to an abrupt halt, losing 14 straight games, resulting in a coaching change.
The A’s never returned to their early season form, winning only seven of 17 games to finish the season.
When Phil Stephenson took over as head coach when Jeremy Irlbeck was fired on July 7, five of the A’s seven victories were comeback wins.
While Dodge City was not able to make it to the National Baseball Congress World Series, Will Hagel and Green were able to join teams that qualified.
Green was picked up by Haysville Heat and pitcher Hagel is going to the Gunnison Colts.
“I got a phone call and I thought it was a chance to get some different exposure,” Green said. “(With the A’s), we were disappointed (we did not qualify for the NBC). We had a bunch of good guys, we had a good summer, but not as good as we wanted to play ball. I wish our team could have made it with all of our guys.”
Throughout the season, the A’s saw a lot of faces come and go through Dodge City. Players like Kris Hecktor, Chase Durham and Vinny Zazueta left the team early to make way for the likes of Daniel Olinger, Brian Voigt, CJ Bula, Andrew Longoria and Lance Day.
By the final game, a roster of over 20 dwindled down to 15 players for the season finale.
With the season over, Kerbs said the board members would start meeting in a few weeks to prepare for next season. Kerbs added that they do a lot of their recruiting for next year’s roster in the fall. Also in the fall they will be securing sponsors, looking for host families and deciding on a coach.
What the team succeeded in during the season, is what the National Baseball Congress summer-league program is all about, giving players a chance to get more experience and improve their game and at least one Athletic got that.
“I got a lot a more confidence in my pitching sequence,” Sedillo said. “I can throw any pitch on any count. I was not able to do that before. I would hesitant to throw my slider 0-2 because I used to not be able to get it down in the zone. I just learned to have fun and just throw it. … Other than that, I think I am stronger as a pitcher because I faced the top hitters in the league a
couple times.”
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The Dodge City Athletics capped off a rollercoaster season Thursday night on a high note, coming from behind to defeat Liberal 9-7.
Although the A’s went 11-21 in the Jayhawk League to finish in a last-place tie with Derby, they improved from their 2009 campaign where they finished 5-25 in league.
“It was a funner year this year,” said Cruz Sedillo, the only player to play on the A’s the last two seasons. “Baseball is baseball and you have fun playing the game because you love it, but the group of guys you were around this year made it a little funner than last year.
“Everyone wanted to hang out all the time. It was like we woke up and we hung out before we went to the field. We hung out the whole time at the field and when we got done playing or practicing or whatever it was, we would go home, shower and go right back to hanging out with each other. … That helped out quite a bit, because if everybody is playing I-baseball you are not going to win anything.”
The 11-21 record may have not been what A’s fans were hoping for, but it was the best finish any Athletics’ team has had since they came back as a franchise four years ago.
“What I saw this summer, from other years, our fan base has continued to grow and we had the largest amount of host families,” A’s president Glenn Kerbs said. “I think what we want to do is take all the things that were positives, and take it back into next year. We hope to take a handful from players from this year and have them back.”
A’s first baseman Brock Green said that he is interested in returning in 2011 and thinks plenty of others are too.
“I think a few of the guys have talked and some of us might want to return and try to get a little nucleus going in Dodge City,” Green said.
In 2010, there were plenty of high and lows and twists and turns for the Dodge
City A’s.
“It was really an up and down summer,” Kerbs said. “We had our best start since we have exisited, our longest losing streak and a midseason coaching change. It was a challenging summer.”
Dodge City started the season as hot as anybody, going 10-3 and winning five games of a six-game road trip.
The A’s success, however, came to an abrupt halt, losing 14 straight games, resulting in a coaching change.
The A’s never returned to their early season form, winning only seven of 17 games to finish the season.
When Phil Stephenson took over as head coach when Jeremy Irlbeck was fired on July 7, five of the A’s seven victories were comeback wins.
While Dodge City was not able to make it to the National Baseball Congress World Series, Will Hagel and Green were able to join teams that qualified.
Green was picked up by Haysville Heat and pitcher Hagel is going to the Gunnison Colts.
“I got a phone call and I thought it was a chance to get some different exposure,” Green said. “(With the A’s), we were disappointed (we did not qualify for the NBC). We had a bunch of good guys, we had a good summer, but not as good as we wanted to play ball. I wish our team could have made it with all of our guys.”
Throughout the season, the A’s saw a lot of faces come and go through Dodge City. Players like Kris Hecktor, Chase Durham and Vinny Zazueta left the team early to make way for the likes of Daniel Olinger, Brian Voigt, CJ Bula, Andrew Longoria and Lance Day.
By the final game, a roster of over 20 dwindled down to 15 players for the season finale.
With the season over, Kerbs said the board members would start meeting in a few weeks to prepare for next season. Kerbs added that they do a lot of their recruiting for next year’s roster in the fall. Also in the fall they will be securing sponsors, looking for host families and deciding on a coach.
What the team succeeded in during the season, is what the National Baseball Congress summer-league program is all about, giving players a chance to get more experience and improve their game and at least one Athletic got that.
“I got a lot a more confidence in my pitching sequence,” Sedillo said. “I can throw any pitch on any count. I was not able to do that before. I would hesitant to throw my slider 0-2 because I used to not be able to get it down in the zone. I just learned to have fun and just throw it. … Other than that, I think I am stronger as a pitcher because I faced the top hitters in the league a
couple times.”
