River City Rascals Have a Chance for the Postseason
Kirk McConnell Could Be a Key Player
By Louis J. Launer
The River City Rascals still continue to struggle in the stretch run of the Frontier League. They remain 4 games behind West Division leaders Rockford Riverhawks and the Kalamazoo Kings. On Monday, the Rascals began a three-game series against the Windy City Thunderbolts of suburban Chicago at T.R Hughes Ballpark. The Thunderbolts from the beginning of the first game of the series dominated.
Windy City pitcher Mike Renery had a perfect game through 4 innings. In the bottom of the 5th, Rascal outfielder Michael Conner led off the inning by doubling to center field. Rascal infielder Nick Saunders batted next, right to the Windy City first baseman who bobbled the ball and could not throw it to Renery covering first. Catcher Jon Williams flied out, but
gave Connor the chance to tag up at third base and score, ending a perfect game and a shutout in the fifth inning.
Unfortunately Windy City’s bats were loud all game, including Justin Schuda’s solo home run over the center field fence, giving the Thunderbolts a convincing 12-2 victory.
Later this week, the Rascals played six games (three 7-inning doubleheaders) in Columbia against the Mid-Missouri Mavericks. Three of those games were make-up games from three rainouts suffered at T. R. Hughes Ballpark the weekend before.
One Rascal rookie known for his drawing in the dirt before his at-bat has made some fans notice. Kirk McConnell is a graduate of Southwest Missouri State University and has played for the Rascals all season soon after graduating from SMS. His .306 batting average, 11 home runs and 41 runs
batted in have become quite impressive numbers. At the beginning of the season in June, McConnell was 13 for 25. Four of those were home runs and he batted in 16. At the same time, the Rascals were in a three-way West Division race with Kalamazoo and Rockford. By the All-Star Break, the Rascals had a one game lead over the other two Western contenders.
“I have been struggling over the last week,” McConnell said. “But I’m working my way back to what I did back in June.”
The native of Magnolia, Arkansas enjoys playing in Missouri and enjoys being in the greater St. Louis area.
“I feel fine being here,” he said. “We’ve got a good group of guys this year. Coach Jack Clark and (Manager) Randy Martz have been really helpful. We’ve all been learning from each other and we’ve been a good team.”
McConnell’s honors at SMS included being named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings All-Midwest Region second team. He admitted that playing in the Valley Conference is a tough college conference.
“The best performance I remember was winning the last 11 games in a row in my senior year,” he said. “What was even better was beating the University of Missouri on their home field.”
McConnell finds T. R. Hughes Ballpark to be just as friendly of a field compared Columbia, where the Mid-Missouri Mavericks of the Frontier League play their home games at the University of Missouri’s baseball stadium.
“We would go into Columbia and just beat up on the Tigers,” McConnell said. “They didn’t have good teams the last few years.”
The Mid-Missouri Mavericks of the Frontier League occupy last place in the Western Division.
McConnell’s performances in his Rascal rookie season have been quite impressive. After the Frontier League All-Star Break, McConnell didn’t have a good road trip to play Eastern Division teams. The road trips to Ohio and Pennsylvania did take their toll as the Rascals started sliding from the top two in the Western Division and started to trail both Rockford and Kalamazoo by as many as seven games.
“Those road trips can be quite long,” McConnell said. “We’ve been struggling. Those Eastern Division teams are very good. We’ve had to play them really tough and we’ve been lucky we could salvage a few games and avoid sweeps.”
McConnell’s hometown of Magnolia is 50 miles from Texarkana, Texas, where lots of competitive baseball is played.
“In high school, we would play teams from northwest Louisiana and east Texas,” he said. “Baseball is taken very seriously in that part of the country.”
As a Rascal rookie, McConnell has been noticed in the statistics compared to two-year veteran and popular fan favorite Mike Madrid in both batting average and runs batted in. McConnell hopes to stay in greater St. Louis and play for the Rascals as long he as can. McConnell’s contribution to the Rascals this season has kept the team in a very tight race, despite a slump during late July.
The Rascals have a three game series at T. R. Hughes Ballpark against the Kalamazoo Kings beginning this Sunday. They travel to Rockford to play the Riverhawks beginning on Wednesday and running through Friday. Labor Day weekend will be the final home series for the Rascals this season as they play cross-metro rival Gateway Grizzlies. Should the Rascals finish in the top two of the Western Division, the playoffs would begin on Wednesday, September 7.
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