Rangers Advance to Semifinals

For the third straight season, the Rangers have advanced to the semifinal round of the playoffs. The Rangers took both first round games against the Dragons, winning 9-3 and 16-1.

The Dragons took an early lead in game one with an RBI sac fly that scored Brian Spears for a 1-0 lead in the second inning. The Rangers answered in the bottom of the inning with two runs. Robert Riley reached on a walk, and after a sac bunt by Jelani Arnold, Shane Fallen doubled to right to score Riley. Jacob Robinson walked with the bases loaded later in the frame to give the Rangers a 2-1 advantage. Jelani Arnold’s two-run home run to left center made it a 4-1 lead for the Rangers. A Spears RBI single in the fourth cut the lead to 4-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Jake Kingsolver singled in Jacob with two outs. Robert Riley followed with a two-run home run to give the Rangers a 7-2 lead. The Rangers made it 9-2 in the sixth as Shawn Schmitt hit a pinch-hit two run single to left field. The Dragons pushed a run across in the seventh for a final score of 9-3. Rookie right-hander Jonathan Silverman continued to look sharp on the mound, going 7 strong innings in game 1, allowing 5 hits, walking 1 and striking out 8 in improving his season record to 6-0.

Shawn Schmitt got the call to pitch game two for the Rangers. Shawn was sitting on 14 straight scoreless innings pitched against the Dragons this season (4 innings shy of Jacob Robinson’s record of 18 scoreless innings against a single opponent – Panthers (18)). Seth Bischoff would spoil that string with an RBI single in the third inning for the Dragons, ending Shawn’s scoreless mark at 16 1/3. Brandon Howard pitched three scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win. Howard also helped himself at the plate in game two. After Jake Kingsolver’s RBI double gave the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead, Howard launched a three-run home run to right-center to give the team a 4-0 lead after the first inning. Shane Fallen had an RBI single in the third and the Rangers pushed two more across on errors. Jelani doubled in a run in the fifth for a 8-1 lead. The floodgates opened in the 6^th as 11 batters went to the plate. Howard had a two-run single, Jelani had another RBI double and,Jonmarc Lippincott had an RBI single as part of a 6-run outburst. The Rangers plated two more in the sixth on an RBI groundout by Aaron Armstrong and a fielding error.

Brandon’s 5 RBI and 4 runs on the day pushed him into the elite 30-30 club on the team (at least 30 runs and 30 RBI in the same season – Brandon now has 30 runs and 31 RBI). The only other times this happened were in 1998 (Jonmarc 44-42, Jon Wolf 38-34), 2002 (Clint 36-42, Jake K. 44-36), and 2008 (Clint 35-33).

Offensive highlights: Brandon Howard 2-for-7, 4 runs, 5RBI, HR, BB; Steve Marshall 3-for-6, 4 runs, SB, 2 doubles, 2 walks; Jacob Robinson 3-for-6, 2 runs, RBI, SB, double, 3 walks; Jake Kingsolver 3-for-8, 2 runs, RBI, double; Robert Riley 3-for-6, 6 runs, 2 RBI, HR, 2 walks; Jelani Arnold 3-for-5, 3 RBI, 2 doubles, HR; Shane Fallen 2-for-5, 2RBI, 2B; Clint Wolf 2-for-2, 2 runs..

Historical notes: Jonmarc picked up his 200^th career walk in the first inning of game 2. Jake Kingsolver is 3 hits shy of 200 for his career and 3 walks shy of 100 for his career. Jacob Robinson picked up his 150^th career hit with a double in his 3^rd at-bat in game two.