2015 Redbirds Cap Amazing Season with St. Clair Shores Championship

St. Claire Shores (MI) MABL

GTJ Redbirds 4, Macomb Tigers 0

‘Redbirds Cap Three-peat in 2015’

Submitted by Joe Small, Redbirds manager

The GTJ Redbirds finished off a 34-2 season with their third straight championship and fourth in the last five years in the St. Clair Shores (MI) MABL. Aaron Wick had a no hitter going into the seventh inning of the final game and the Tigers brought in pinch hitter Dave Combest off the bench and he broke it up with one out.

The Redbirds won 15 straight to end the season and went a perfect 6-0 in the playoff run scoring 63 runs and giving up just 8. The season was not much different as they outscored their opponents 292-56 with a record shattering 236 run differential on the 30 game season. That was just one of 16 records that the redbirds, as a team, and individually broke. Aaron Wick and Ryan Ford dominated every time they took the mound, each throwing a no hitter and only giving up 10 earned runs in 90 innings of work, with an outstanding 177 strike outs. They had a microscopic whip of .69, walking just 17 and giving up 45 hits out of the 338 batters faced finishing with a perfect 15-0 regular season record and 4-0 in the playoffs giving up just 1 run in 25 innings pitched between them.

Jake Hathaway was named the MVP of the playoffs just edging out Mike Miller and Aaron Wick. It really could have went either way but Jake was a spark plug getting things started from the leadoff spot. Joe Small (SS) took home his third gold Glove over the past four years. Sean Dobson nearly broke the OBP (on base percentage) by 100 pointsgetting on base 68.3% of the time with 101 plate appearances which lead to him obliterating the runs scored record by 17 with 49 runs scored. Wick had an unbelievable season from both the mound and the plate batting .549 with 5HR, 2 triples, and 13 doubles knocking in an unbelievable 45 runs (RBI’s). Scott Misuraca had a career year with 40 hits in 28 games.

The Redbirds had 324 hits and 292 runs scored in the 30 game regular season also drawing 174 walks/HBP to give them a .481 On Base %.

Team records broken:

Record         Old record

Winning %                                  93.3%                79.9%
Runs scored                                 292                     226
Runs against                                  56                       65
Run differential                           236                     145
Wins                                              28 (30games)     28 (35 games)

Individual records broken:
Record           Old Record
Scott Misuraca   AB.                       96                      95
Sean Dobson      Avg                     .591                  .537
Aaron Wick        Slg%                  1.000                .738
Sean Dobson     OBP                    .683                  .596
Aaron Wick        RBI’s                    45                      29
Scott Misuraca  1b’s                        33                      31
Aaron Wick.       2b’s                      13                       11
Sean Dobson     runs                       49                       32
Aaron Wick       Total bases            71                      54
Aaron Wick.      Strike outs           106                      94
Aaron Wick.      Strike out rate     2.60                    1.87

On top of all these amazing stats The Redbird family welcomed four new little additions, Camden Small, Miles Ford, Everly McIntosh, and William MaCDonald. Congrats to all the proud fathers!