Schultzy Oele has raked on Olbrich Field 1 the past three seasons, and since her debut as a rookie in 2014 has the highest batting average of all Sea Kitten women (0.460) in short-season play.
Harmony Sea Kittens open MSCR Fall League play Wednesday night in a rematch of its summer league finale with Run Like Mad, which quietly dismissed the Kits 7-4 in that affair. As in 2018, Sea Kittens have been assigned to the premier division of Wednesday night Madison east-side coed slowpitch softball, and will play all its games within the relatively spacious fences of Olbrich diamond #1, which features 275’ fences rather than the 248’ crackerjack box dimensions seen in summer play.
While Sea Kittens have an all-time win-loss mark of 24-26 in its first 50 fall league games, recent years have seen the Cats enjoy more than their fair share of success under the Autumn evening skies, going 14-4 since 2016 with a roster that closely resembles that assembled for 2019. Zoe “Z-Force” Slattery joins the Sea Kitten full-time for fall league, occupying the roster spot held by Brenna “Flash” Marsicek the past two seasons. In the only change from the summer roster, Laura “Red Shoes” Hewitt returns to adulting once the school year begins, as has been her custom since joining Sea Kittens in 2013.
As a team Sea Kittens have slashed (batting average/ on-base percentage/ slugging percentage) 0.561/0.590/0.840 overall in its past 18 fall league games, and a gaudy 0.595/0.626/0.897 on the Big Diamond. Individually, team manager Joe Hennessy has taken particular advantage of Olbrich #1 during the past three seasons, posting an 0.857 batting average and collecting 10 extra-base hits in 28 at-bats in eight games. After hitting five home runs this summer but seeing his batting average plummet to pre-Bogie numbers, Hennessy is trying to convince himself to re-adopt a more disciplined hitting approach for the fall slate. Alex “Puma” Latzka (0.700, two triples and three inside-the-park home runs in 20 at-bats) Katherine Sunshine Curtis (0.583 batting average), and Jessica Schultzy Oele (0.552) are other Cats who have found profound success on O1 in the last three fall seasons.
Hennessy looks to regain a consistent hitting stroke before the snow flies.
With the Sea Kittens’ tough five-game draw in the eight-team Castle Rock League, the team will have to re-find those sharp-hitting sticks after an uneven summer at the plate that led to six losses in the squad’s final seven games, including scoring seven runs total in its final two games combined while hitting 0.391 collectively. After the opening tussle with Run Like Mad, Los Gatitos square off in back-to-back weeks against 2018 Castle Rock juggernauts Wilson’s Coolers and Silver Eagle, the latter of which was the 9-1 MSCR Kenosha League summer champion. Sea Kittens will then have to adapt to nocturnal play for its final two games- 9:15 PM start times against I’d Hit That and Shenanigans.
Date
Time
Opponent
Previous match-ups
8/28
7:15 PM
Run Like Mad
Kittens split 2019 summer games with RLM, winning 8-6 & losing 7-4
9/4
8:15 PM
Silver Eagle
Kits split 2019 summer games, winning 13-12 & losing 18-3. In Fall 2018 as Chief’s, beat Cats 17-13
9/11
6:15 PM
Wilson’s Coolers
Defeated SK 21-16 in Fall 2018; Kittens went down 12-0 then rallied valiantly but fruitlessly
9/18
9:15 PM
I’d Hit That
Beat Sea Kittens 14-2 during The Scheid (5/29/2013), back when IHT featured a young Stephen Grutzik
