June/July 3/4 in Review by Heskin

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June/July 3/4 in Review by Heskin

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CRYSTAL LAKE HERALD

SPORTS – GNATS NOW
June/July 3/4 in Review by Heskin
Updated: July 21, 2025 – 09:30AM CDT

By Howard Heskin, Staff Writer – Twitter @HowardHeskin1

Crystal Lake's big money pitching staff continued to disappoint through June, but have consistently rebounded through July slowly lifting Crystal Lake out of a hole dug through a 10-12 June. The return of the 25 man roster at full strength off the DL was sort lived. On July 3rd, SS Orlando Barrón was listed with an intercostal strain, out for 3-4 weeks. His return should be in another 3 days with a rehab stint in AAA Evansville before returning to Crystal Lake. In the interim, SS Spencer Lewis has been called up. Lewis fills in with strong defensive capability at Short Stop with a below average bat. Though Barrón posted less than stellar numbers with .226/.309/.286/.594 and only 7 RBIs over 84 at bats since coming over in the June 2nd trade with Yuma.

June Disappointments:

C Noriyuki Suzuki .133/.205/.240/.445 2 HR, 7 RBIs in 75 at bats.

SP Tatsui Kouno 1-1, 7.84 ERA, 20.7 IP, 1.79 WHIP

June Highlights:

CF Jerry Long .301/.398/.578/.976 5 HR, 15 RBIs in 83 at bats.

SP Jim 'Nitro' MacCowan 4-0, 2.19 ERA, 37 IP, .97 WHIP

Overall Crystal Lake's offense has continued to stay strong this season ranking number 3 in SL with 421 runs scored.

What has been disappointing is the starting pitching ERA of 3.99 ranking 8th in SL:
SP Miguel Cantú 6-9, 3.70 ERA, 116.2 IP, 1.20 WHIP
SP Jim 'Nitro' MacCowan 8-9, 3.96 ERA, 116.0 IP, 1.22 WHIP
SP Tony Cuellar 9-3, 3.24 ERA, 114 IP, 1.25 WHIP
SP Tatsui Kouno 8-5, 4.53 ERA, 111.1 IP, 1.19 WHIP
SP Dean McNeil 3-4, 4.59 ERA 104 IP, 1.20 WHIP

The bullpen has been no stranger to struggles this season with a 3.19 ERA that has slowly improved through July now ranking an improved 6th in the SL. Leading the way has been a strong middle relief core. However, the ever entertaining and over-paid CL Ramón 'Doberman' Contreras was finding his grove through late May, June into late July until he found his way to blowing his 3rd save of the season against Palm Springs on July 18th.

Moving into July, Crystal Lake has posted a 11-7 record so far with series wins over Bakersfield and Okinawa and a very important 3 game sweep of Duluth to narrow the gap down to 4 games in the Great Lakes Division. Of note the final win against Duluth took 13th innings followed by an 18 inning win to start the series against Palm Springs. A tired squad then dropped the next 2 games before taking the 4th game against the Codgers. July closes out with a tough 4 game match-up against Shin Seiki and 3 games against Yuma.

Go Gnats!
RJ Ermola
Vice President and General Manager of Baseball Operations
Crystal Lake Sandgnats

*2024 PEBA Champions*
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