Diamondback season ends the way it began

By Tom Jalana
for TJSN.com

Published: August 20, 2009

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The 2009 Evergreen Park Diamondback season ended Sunday night the same way it began four months ago: back-to-back losses.

With the Diamondbacks taking the first game of a three game series against the Lansing Nuts, one win was needed to advance the team into the divisional finals, but as fate would have it, the Diamondbacks found themselves searching for answers after back-to-back losses on Sunday night.

“We had our opportunities in the first game,” said manager Joe Cipolla. “The game was there for us to take, but once again, we didn’t capitalize on the other team’s mistakes and we made mistakes of our own that came back and bit us in the ass.”

The Diamondbacks were leading through most of Sunday night’s first game when a rash of errors let the Nuts take the lead back. The end result was a disappointing 7-5 loss for the D-Backs.

“That was a game we should have won,” said veteran infielder Pete Gubricky. “It was a let down, a mental collapse – if you will. It was like a flashback to the 2008 Presidential Elections, where Barack Obama promised so many things, and 7 months later, nothing materialized.” Continuing on, Gubricky said “It was as if we won, but in the end, when it was all said and done and the final tally was in, we walked away utterly disappointed. We will look back on this years later and wonder ‘what were we doing?’.”

Game Two on Sunday was more of the same for the Diamondbacks. With the life sucked out of them from the Game One loss, little could be done to get the team out of their rut as they fell, 11-4.

“We tried to get Eddie Milas out for Game Two, despite having a very contagious case of Pink Eye,” said Cipolla. “Thad Sochacki was out as he was preparing for surgery on his torn ACL, but Sergio Senese found a pig ligament we were going to let him borrow for the game as a temporary solution, but (Thad) was having none of it.”

Pitcher Ed Sochacki was also not present at the game on Sunday as he was icing down his shoulder from Saturday’s 7-4 victory. “Everything was already on ice,” he said. “In addition to my shoulder, arm and the right half of my body on ice, I also had a bottle of Cristal Brut 1990 “Methuselah” champagne, which retails for $17,625 sitting next to me, waiting to be popped. I guess that will have to wait for the 2012 elections when the Republicans take the White House back.”

All-in-all, the 2009 Diamondback season will go down in the record books as a giant disappointment despite the team battling through major injuries to their star players, including Thad Sochacki (torn ACL), Eddie Milas (Pink Eye), and Jim Cezak (dislocated thumb) and the retirement of soon-to-be Pro Bowler, Teddy Andrysiak.

Everyone, including the fans, is awaiting what the 2010 season will bring. For this reporter though, and like the Evergreen Park Diamondbacks, plenty of work remains during the offseason before talks of next Summer can be taken serious.

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Tagged with: Ed Sochacki, Eddie Milas, Evergreen Park Diamondbacks, Jim Cezak, Joe Cipolla, Lansing Nuts, Pete Gubricky, Sergio Senese, Teddy Andrysiak, Thad Sochacki

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