Jim’s Journal, June 6th, 2024

 

The Reds are back home tonight, fresh off their 3-game sweep of the Rockies out in Colorado.  And it wasn’t looking good for them to win that 3rd contest.  Cincinnati had already taken a pair of games from the Rockies, but it looked bad, when they were down to their last out, trailing 7-6 in the top of the 9th inning, after Colorado had jumped out to a 4-0 1st-inning lead.  Many were resigned to the game going into the loss column, but not quite everyone.  Spencer Steer went ahead when his at-bat came.  He apparently figured “what the heck?” and swung for it, belting what turned out to be a 2-run homer, suddenly putting Cincy on top.  Moments later with the score suddenly 8-7 Reds, Jonathan India put another one out of the park, but with the bases loaded, a grand slam.  Cincinnati was suddenly up 12-7, and that became the final score.

22 of the Reds’ 29 runs in the Colorado series came with 2 outs, and again they swept the 3 games.  They’ve now won 4 straight and 9 of their last 12, feeling pretty good after the plane ride home going into tonight’s match with the Cubs.  Join us for that one, the broadcast starting at 6:40 this evening, on the Sports Voice, 103.9 WRBI.

 

 

What a spring season this young woman had on the diamond…  and when we say young, we mean high school freshman, a 9th-grader.  Harper Adams of the Greensburg Pirates has been named Most Valuable Player in the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference, for the softball season.  In her first year of high school, Harper won 15 games and lost only 4, with an earned-run average of only 1.07, over 130 innings.  She also threw shutouts in 8 of her 19 games, striking out 257 batters, the 5th-most in Indiana.  Adams helped her Pirates to a 17 & 8 overall record, 10 & 4 in the EIAC.  Harper’s also been named to the Class 3A & 4A All-State 3rd team.  And another post-season honor for Pirates softball–  senior Carlee Adams has earned Academic All-State honors from the Softball Coaches Association of Indiana.

 

 

With the school year complete for most student-athletes, some are continuing to compete over the summer.  It’s the club swim season for one, and the Milan Aquatics team visited the Decatur County TigerSharks last night in Greensburg.  Decatur County won the meet, but Milan reports it had at least 15 athletes winning individual events, and as many as 27 swimmers capturing wins on relay teams.  Milan’s next meet is Monday, as the Indians host a dual with Southwestern High of Hanover.  Also getting some aquatic action in this summer will be teams from Batesville, South Dearborn, and Greensburg.

 

 

As anticipated earlier this week, the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark has indeed been named the WNBA’s first Rookie of the Month for this women’s pro basketball season.  In her first 9 professional games, Caitlin scored in double digits 7 times, 5 of those 7 reaching 20 points or more.  She’s only the 3rd player in league history to score at least 100 points, pull down 30 or more rebounds, and dish off 30 or more assists in her first 6 pro games.  And her whole team’s doing well with her being there…  drawing more than 82,000 fans to the first 5 home games of the season.  They got fewer people out to more than 20 games, all last year.

 

 

The next race in the IndyCar series, following last week’s Detroit Grand Prix, will be another Grand Prix, Sunday, at the 4-mile, 14-turn RoadAmerica course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.  The defending champ is Alex Palou, who also won at RoadAmerica in 2021.  Scott Dixon and Indy 500 champ Josef Newgarden have also each won twice there.  Also entered are past 1-time winners, Will Power, Alexander Rossi, and Felix Rosenqvist.