CWL 2008
CWL News
SPRING TRAINING 2008

Although the conditions were less than ideal for playing, the CWL marched on over the weekend with two days of Spring Training madness.

The first game witnessed Rage, along with new addition Matt Roberson, against the N.L. squad of Str8 Rippin'. The two CWL powers split their spring series, with each team winning a game by a substantial margin. Every player in the game, with the exception of Patrick Lowery, had at least one home run in the series. Lowery did, however, pitch extremely well in his spring debut.

Rage rookies Danny Howard and Matt Roberson were both impressive in their CWL debuts, hitting and pitching. Str8 Rippin's Chris Kugler was unable to attend on Saturday but got some much-needed work in on Sunday.

Smoke and TNT made up the second series of the day on Saturday. But instead of two four-inning games as scheduled, the teams decided to play one six-inning game due to time restraints.

And although no one kept the books for this series, it's assumed that TNT won the game big. Cody Burgiss homered four times. Yes, four times, which is good sign for the light-hitting club of TNT. Barney Cofer and rookie Joey Rue also homered for TNT. Cofer and Rue were both effective from the mound as well in their spring outings.

For Smoke, rookie J.D. Cannon was impressive with his overall game, but Smoke as a whole was handicapped due to the fact that only two of their four players were able to attend on Saturday.

Goodfellas, originally scheduled to face Team Yahtzee, was forced to play a random squad of available players on Sunday. Rippin's Chris Kugler and Jake Catlett, Smoke's Daniel Griffith, and TNT's Cody Burgiss made up the team to face Goodfellas. Yahtzee couldn't attend due to work-related issues.

As far as score, it's irrerelevant, no one remembers, but the players, for the most part, played well all around. Jake Catlett homered twice on the day, one a mammoth bomb to center that nearly cleared the second fence. Bryan Stafford homered and pitched well, while Mike McDowell and Pat Key both performed well for the Goodfellas.

Kugler and Griffith, making up for not attending on Saturday, each had a few solid hits. Kugler played great defense, while Griffith, at times, pitched really well.

Next weekend, April 19th and 20th, marks the beginning of the 2008 CWL season. Check the schedule for game times and info.