The Milkmen Lose to a Rival
Former Milkmen Star Cordelle Prime returned to Franklin field, this time as a pitcher, and helped lead the Fargo Moorhead RedHawks to a 6-4 victory. The loss drops the Milkmen down to 5-7 on the season. Prime looked like an outfielder who could pitch. Milwaukee was able to put the bat on the ball; it just seemed that every batted ball went right to a Redhawk. Prime pitched five solid innings.
Milwaukee is now 4 ½ games out of first place, behind rival Chicago. Of course there is a TON of baseball left to play.
It was a wasted effort for Milwaukee as starter Ryan Zimmerman earned the crowd free Teriyaki Madness by having more than 8 strikeouts. Zimmerman was dealing early and had control over his pitches, finding himself often ahead in counts. But in the 4th Fargo-Moorehead was able to squeeze out two runs and the Milkmen played from behind the whole game.
The Milkmen offense only managed 4 hits against Redhawk pitching. DH Miguel Gomez managed a homerun in the loss. When Milwaukee was able to get runners on, they wreaked havoc on the base paths.
All photos are taken by the author
Prime for Ward
In the offseason the Milkmen brass made a trade, trading Cordelle Prime, a former Rockies prospect, for Drew Ward, a former National prospect. For both franchises it really did feel like a swap of superstars. And so far, the early returns are undecided. Once Prime was done pitching after five innings he switched to DH. Ward, in this particular game, went a pedestrian 0-3 with a walk. In watching Ward it is clear he is a bigtime hitter and has a professional plate presence. He just has yet to get it going, early in this season, hitting .229 so far.
Both players are listed as infielders. In reality they are more like “true” first baseman. Both Ward and Prime are just big dudes and both look ready to smash the ball out of the park. Both have a big league presence to their approach.
Hopefully for Milwaukee, Ward can heat up and start mashing the ball like he has in the past.
Other Highlights
Right now on the season the Milkmen have three players in the top ten in batting average. Their catcher, Roy Morales, is really racking away at the plate, hitting over .400. For the Milkmen Bryan Torres led all hitters with a .374 batting average last season, This year he is also in the top ten in the league in average, hitting .364. Also in the top ten in average is Reggie Pruitt Jr.
The Milkmen has a strong pitching staff and make few errors as a team.
Next Up
The Milkmen play for the American Association of Professional Baseball league, a group that consists of 12 teams from Gary Indiana to Cleburne Texas. New this year is a pitch clock, similar to the majors.
They have a TON of home games coming up.
Right now the team has already started to develop an identity as a fast squad that likes to run, steal bases, play defense and score. Last year was a good year for the Milkmen. And while they were not 2022 playoff champions last season, they certainly were competitive. Last year’s playoff champs were the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks. The Milkmen did have a strong season and expect to be competitive again. The club prides itself on a great game day experience.
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