The Sea Kittens’ 14th season of play featured the franchise’s 3rd league championship, keeping the club on a 6-year championship cycle (Summer 2012, Summer 2018, Spring 2024). The title came despite a profound absence of the longball in 2024- as a whole the Cats hit only four home runs across 21 games- the team’s second-lowest total ever and fewest since hitting two across 15 games in 2014.
But Sea Kittens did mark 2024 as The Year of the Triple and raced for a team-record 29 three-baggers, paced by Stephen “Slash” Grutzik’s 11. Grutzik became the first Sea Kitten to hit 10 or more triples in a calendar year, topping Joe Hennessy’s nine in 2022 and Alex “Puma” Latzka’s eight in 2021, and finished with a career-best 0.729 batting average across the year’s three seasons. His Sea Kitten-record hitting streak stood at 80 games at season’s end, passing Hennessy (77) and Dan DynamOele (76) during the Fall campaign, but to date, no other Sea Kitten has adopted Grutzik’s pre-game heater ritual.
Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer helped pace the Spring Champions’ offense with a 0.700 batting average,
scoring 12 runs and becoming the first Sea Kitten woman to record 20 or more hits in a season (21), topping the record 19 Erin “Mama Cat” O’Brien rapped in Summer, 2021. Zen Master David Rowe’s 27 runs over the calendar year were the most he’s scored since his career-best 29 in 2016, and Man-Aaron Jossart’s 0.692 Summer batting average trailed only his 0.750 mark in Summer 2017. Josh “Rusty” Weber continued to knock off the rust in his return to the game, upping his extra-base hit total to 15 in 59 at-bats in 2024, up from 3 in 38 at-bats in 2023. Weber’s 11 doubles and moustache led the Cats, and his 15 extra-base hits trailed only Grutzik’s 19.
In the milestone department, Jossart and Katie “Sunshine” Curtis passed the 100- games played mark, Curtis collected her 100th career hit, Hauer her 200th, and Rowe his 400th. Latzka and O’Brien each scored their 200th career runs. Rowe finished the season at 199 games played, Grutzik at 196 career hits and DynamOele at 389.
MSSC Spring 2024
| Pos | Team | W | L | T | Pct | GB | RS | RA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Sea Kittens | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0.813 | 0 | 97 | 56 | 41 |
| 2 |  Avg@Best | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0.688 | 1 | 78 | 52 | 26 |
| 3 | Bat and Boujee | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0.643 | 1.5 | 90 | 51 | 39 |
| 4 |  Hot Pitches | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0.500 | 2.5 | 77 | 92 | -15 |
| 5 |  Da Hittas | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0.286 | 4 | 49 | 67 | -18 |
| 6 |  More Beer More Cheer | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0.000 | 6 | 15 | 88 | -73 |
League Champion: Sea Kittens d. Hot Pitches 15-9
In what would prove to be a Championship preview, Sea Kittens opened the 2024 Spring season with a convincing 17-6 win over Hot Pitches. Dan DynamOele homered and four Cats had 3 or more hits. in week two, Sea kittens played one of the more memorable and hard-fought games in team history, dueling to a 14-14 tie with Average@Best. The Cats had a chance to walk it off with bases loaded and two out in the 5th, but the Avg. pitcher made an A+ play to cover third base on a grounder deep down the LF line. After a May 9 rainout, the Cats’ early-season mettle was tested again in week 3 in a tough 8-7 win over da Hittas. The Cats threw out two runners at 3rd base in the course of the win. Sea Kittens breezed through the next two games- 17-4 and 16-1 wins over More Beer, More Cheer to move to 4-0-1. With a chance to secure the top playoff seed on the line, Bat & Boujee smothered the Cats 7-2 in the Spring regular season finale. Sea Kittens rallied past Average@Best 8-5 in the league semi-finals, while Hot Pitches upended da Hittas and Bat & Boujee on the other side of the bracket. After four years of near-misses, Sea Kittens finally won an MSSC title, scoring 8 late runs to pull away with a 15-9 win in the Championship.
MSSC Summer 2024
| Pos | Team | W | L | T | Pct | GB | RS | RA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Pitches | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0.750 | 0 | 91 | 69 | 22 |
| 2 | Sea Kittens | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0.667 | 1 | 70 | 70 | 0 |
| 3 | Da Hittas | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.600 | 1.5 | 57 | 31 | 26 |
| 4 | Bat and Boujee | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.571 | 1.5 | 90 | 64 | 26 |
| 5 | Base-ic Pitches | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0.167 | 4 | 44 | 79 | -35 |
| 6 | Foul Territory | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0.167 | 4 | 45 | 84 | -39 |
League Champion: Hot Pitches d. Bat & Boujee 11-9
Summer season opened July 11, and Sea Kittens picked up where they left off with a 14-7 win over Base-ic Pitches and a 9-5 victory over da Hittas in the first game of a July 25 double-header. But Bat & Boujee had the Cats number-again- in the nightcap, and hung a 10-spot in the 2nd inning en route to a 15-9 victory. The next two weeks found the Cats hanging on for dear life in a 9-7 win over Hot Pitches and an messy, epic 17-14 win over Hot Toddy’s Bad Chads. The wins gave Sea Kittens the #1 seed in the Summer league playoffs, but a third chance against Bat & Boujee proved *not* to be the charm, as B&B pulled away for a 22-12 semifinal win with an 8-run 6th to end what had been a tight back-and-forth game. Meanwhile, Hot Pitches stormed the bracket again, but this time finished business with 6-5 and 11-9 playoff wins over Da Hittas and Bat & Boujee. Hot Pitches’ title marked the fourth consecutive season a different team had finished atop the Thursday night upper division standings.
Fall 2024
| Pos | Team | W | L | T | Pct | GB | RS | RA | Diff |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Da Hittas | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 161 | 66 | 95 |
| 2 | Sea Kittens | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.571 | 3.5 | 84 | 65 | 19 |
| 3 |  Bat Intentions | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0.556 | 3.5 | 93 | 128 | -35 |
| 4 |  Busch Lattes | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0.375 | 5 | 79 | 118 | -39 |
| 5 | Bat and Boujee | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0.286 | 5.5 | 89 | 110 | -21 |
| 6 | Hot Pitches | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0.143 | 6.5 | 83 | 102 | -19 |
| 7 | Bat Intentions (3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
League Champion: Da Hittas d. Bat Intentions 25- 9
Fall season started similarly to Spring and Summer, with Sea Kittens cruising past Bat Intentions 22-9 and Hot Pitches 19-12. That fed into a spate of games where the Cats deployed numerous subs, but all filled in admirably. Sea Kittens topped Busch Lattes 12-1 September 19 and even topped* Bat & Boujee September 26. *technically a forfeit win, but the teams played anyway and Sea Kittens needed a late rally to win 10-7. That set up an October 3 showdown of undefeateds, but Da Hittas dominated, cruising to a 19-7 victory. The tired and deflated Cats tried to rally for the second game of their scheduled double-header that night, but fell behind Bat Intentions early and suffered a 9-5 upset. A week later, Bat Intentions made a case against that win being an “upset,” rallying from a 9-3 deficit with four-run 4th and 5th innings to beat the Cats 11-10 in the fall semifinal. Full fall recap is here.